In 2025, the fintech market was estimated to be approximately, USD 320.8 billion1. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.3 percent between 2025 – 2030 to reach USD 652.8 billion. Even VC funding is on an upswing with a 22 percent2. increase quarter‑on‑quarter and year‑on‑year to reach about USD 11 billion in Q2 2025. This growth is encouraging; and it is also worth noting that the sector has moved from just offering digitally modernized payments and online banking services to completely transforming how financial services are designed, delivered, and experienced. What’s next for fintechs in 2026? Several powerful forces are converging to redefine the role they play in the global financial system. These forces include artificial intelligence, embedded ecosystems, decentralized finance, and real-time infrastructures. Here are some of the key trends that will shape this crucial sector in the coming year.
AI Agents and Autonomous Finance: From Assistance to Action
Agentic AI marks the next stage of AI evolution and is one of the standout trends transforming finance. The agentic AI market in financial services will grow from around USD 2.1 billion today to roughly USD 80.9 billion by 2034.3. Unlike traditional dashboards that require user input, AI agents can work autonomously to make decisions, execute actions, and manage complex processes without direct human intervention. For example, intelligent agents can triage KYC flows, reconcile transactions, surface risk flags, or even approve certain loan requests, activities that historically relied on manual review and human judgment.
In financial services, agentic AI is moving from pilots to early production. Adoption is expected increase from 2026 onward as banks and insurers industrialize AI agents for governed, explainable decision‑making in risk and compliance.
This shift toward agentic finance is supported by advances in AI architecture, real-time databases, and explainability tooling. Financial leaders must ensure that their technology stacks can support traceability and safeguard auditability. They must establish human-in-the-loop governance and oversight frameworks, especially in risk-sensitive environments.
Embedded Finance Becomes Embedded Ecosystems
The global embedded finance market4 is estimated to have reached USD 148.4 billion in 2025 and is expected to increase to USD 197.1 billion in 2026, and reaching roughly USD 1.73 trillion by 2034 at a 31.5% CAGR from 2025.
But embedded finance is no longer about integrating payment options into third-party apps. Over the next year, it is likely to evolve into complete financial ecosystems embedded within non-financial platforms. Lending, insurance, savings tools, payroll services, and even wealth management capabilities will be woven into broader digital experiences, extending financial services far beyond traditional banking interfaces. API integration is just one part of the process. Fintech platforms need composable, resilient, regulated infrastructure that handle compliance, observability, and fault tolerance at scale. This maturity marks a transition from embedding individual features to embedding strategic financial value into everyday digital journeys.
The Emergence of Agentic Commerce
The fintech sector will also be reshaped by the emergence of agentic commerce. This sits at the intersection of agentic AI, embedded finance, and digital commerce and can act on behalf of consumers or businesses to discover, negotiate, and execute transactions with minimal human input.
Early applications are already emerging in subscription management, procurement, and financial product selection, and are expected to scale rapidly as agentic AI and embedded finance mature through 2026 and beyond. This trend underscores a broader shift in the way financial services work where they proactively participate in user experience rather than passive utilities. Firms that enable seamless machine-to-machine financial interaction will redefine convenience and unlock new monetization paths.
Open Finance and Data-Driven Personalization
Open finance will continue to evolve and grow through 2026. Open finance extends open banking beyond payments and accounts to a wider set of products like loans, investments, insurance, pensions, and more. 2025 data show it moving from pilot to scale in several markets. A global open‑finance adoption report5. notes that over 132 million users are already benefiting from open‑finance services worldwide in 2025, in addition to 470 million open‑banking users.
This richer, consent-based data ecosystem allows providers to design far more personalized and context-aware financial products ranging from tailored savings plans to dynamic credit offers that respond to real-time life events. The result is a customer experience marked by continuous personalization and hyper-relevant services.
Decentralized Finance, Super-Apps, and Inclusion
Decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain-based models will continue to attract interest as potential complements to traditional systems. These models offer transparency and programmable contracts for a range of use cases from lending to asset tokenization.
Meanwhile, super-apps or platforms that integrate financial services with messaging, commerce, and lifestyle features, are expected to evolve into comprehensive financial operating systems, blurring the lines between banking and everyday digital life.
At the same time, innovations like multilingual conversational AI models, behavioral biometrics, and mobile-first design are enabling fintech platforms to reach underserved populations. This will help to improve financial inclusion in markets previously constrained by language, infrastructure, or access barriers.
In 2026, the fintech sector will be shaped by a relentless push toward intelligence, integration, personalization, and real-time responsiveness. Leaders in this space must balance the promise of automation and AI with the realities of regulation, security, and trust. They must architect ecosystems and design experiences that anticipate users’ needs before they arise. For incumbents and challengers alike, the ability to navigate these trends will determine who thrives in the next chapter of financial innovation.