Candescent expands Google Cloud AI tie-up for banks

Candescent has expanded its collaboration with Google Cloud to use Gemini Enterprise across its banking platform. The agreement covers services used by more than 1,300 banks and credit unions.

Its cloud-native Intelligent Banking platform already runs on Google Cloud. Under the expanded relationship, Google Cloud's AI tools, including Gemini models and the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, will be added across Candescent's products.

Candescent serves community and regional financial institutions. It said the arrangement is designed to help clients move beyond small-scale AI tests into operational use within banking systems. Many lenders, it added, have struggled to turn early AI work into deployed services because projects have been fragmented and disconnected from core platforms.

The collaboration focuses on three areas. The first is using Gemini models across the Candescent platform, including Votiv, a product the company recently introduced for what it calls intelligent banking. Planned uses include context-aware customer interactions, AI-assisted workflows for bank staff, and natural-language delivery of insights based on each institution's data.

The second is infrastructure. Candescent said its platform runs on Google Cloud to support real-time services across consumer banking, business banking, and assisted banking, while meeting industry security and compliance requirements.

The third is the use of the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform for banking-specific tasks. Candescent plans to build and manage AI agents for areas such as customer service, staff support, onboarding, business banking insights, and suggested next actions.

Industry push

The announcement reflects a broader push by financial technology suppliers to embed generative AI into core banking and digital banking products, particularly for smaller institutions that lack the in-house technology resources of large national banks. Vendors have increasingly focused on offering AI tools within existing systems rather than as separate products.

Candescent said the goal is to shift digital banking from basic access to more contextual interactions. In practice, that means presenting information, prompts, or recommendations at relevant moments across channels and products, rather than limiting digital services to standard account access and transaction functions.

Jason Edelboim, Chief Executive Officer of Candescent, said community and regional lenders see AI's potential but are still deciding where it can create value and how to introduce it safely.

"Community and regional financial institutions recognize the potential of AI, but many are still determining where it can create the greatest value and how to put it into practice responsibly. Our expanded collaboration with Google Cloud brings together the platform, infrastructure, and AI capabilities needed to move beyond pilots and into real, production use. It gives our clients a clear path to deliver more intelligent, more relevant experiences while maintaining the trust their customers and members expect," Edelboim said.

Embedded tools

Candescent framed the move as an effort to place AI inside day-to-day banking workflows rather than offer it as a separate add-on. That includes tools for front-line staff as well as customer-facing features, with the broader aim of using a common platform and governance model.

Satheesh Ravala, Chief Technology Officer at Candescent, said banks want AI embedded in the banking platform itself rather than in another standalone system.

"Our clients do not need another standalone AI tool. They need intelligence embedded into the banking platform itself, with the governance, oversight, and scalability their business demands. With Gemini Enterprise, we can bring advanced AI into real banking workflows, where it can help bankers work smarter, help customers and members take action, and help institutions compete on experience, growth, primacy, and trust," Ravala said.

The first set of Gemini-enabled features is expected to be made available to a select group of clients in the second half of 2026, with further additions planned through 2027.

Candescent said it serves more than 30 million registered users through its bank and credit union clients.