The Forrester Wave™: Digital Banking Engagement Platforms, Q2 2026

By Forrester's Peter Wannemacher, David Hoffman, Emily Doherty and Jen Barton.

In The AI Era, Banks Need Digital Platforms That Help Them Move Faster

Banks face a chaotic and uncertain future where AI is disrupting and threatening digital experiences and engagement models that have worked for the past quarter-century. Banks are seeking partners that help them meet customer needs while at the same time adjusting to emerging technologies, shifting behaviors, and rising expectations. Two foundational tech platforms sit at the center of digital banking: A bank’s core processing platform and its digital banking engagement platform (DBEP). As one bank executive put it: “The two biggest checks any bank writes are to their core provider and to their digital engagement vendor. These platforms are mission-critical for us.”

As AI changes the way customers bank and orgs operate, vendors must help strengthen a bank’s dynamism: the combination of the speed and degree of change it can achieve. But banks’ own digital and technology teams vary widely in their remit, capacity, talent, budget, and priorities (e.g., whether their profit margins afford them the luxury of focusing on top-line rather than bottom-line results). As banking leaders reconcile the call for bold change and the practical reality of their current situation, they should select a DBEP partner that fits their unique needs.

Evaluation Summary

The Forrester Wave™ evaluation highlights Leaders, Strong Performers, and Contenders (see Figures 1 and 2). We intend this evaluation to be a starting point only and encourage clients to view product evaluations and adapt the findings based on their priorities using Forrester’s interactive provider comparison experience.

Figure 1: Forrester Wave™: Digital Banking Engagement Platforms, Q2 2026

Figure 2: Forrester Wave™: Digital Banking Engagement Platforms Scorecard, Q2 2026

Leaders

Backbase

The Netherlands’ Backbase provides a “Banking OS” that unifies a bank’s frontline operations with a platform that the bank and third-party tech companies can build on top of. Its semantic layer is a competitive advantage, strengthening banks’ ability to adjust and innovate going forward.

• Strategy. Backbase’s superior vision is to augment its AI-first strategy by focusing on shared truth across banks’ systems and building connections, not components. It excels at innovation (e.g., its Agent Studio) with one of the highest R&D-to-revenue ratios. Backbase supports banks’ adoption efforts on multiple fronts (end users, employees, developers), and its transparent pricing model incorporates outcome-based pricing.
• Capabilities. Backbase’s main strength is its platform’s six specialized layers (interaction, orchestration, control, semantic, intelligence, integration) that work in concert to enable better integration and faster cycles. It provides excellent out-of-the-box (OOTB) solutions and CX design tools. Backbase offers superior agentic AI with agents for data retrieval and classification as well as tools to let engineers build agents on the platform. Its genAI offers conversational UIs for end users, TuringBots for developers, and generative tools for non-IT employees. The platform securely exposes banking functionality to external LLMs to let customers use preferred models if they choose.
• Customer feedback. Customers would enthusiastically select Backbase again, citing high trust and the platform’s flexibility and foundational layers that give banks the ability to try out and test new ideas. Backbase earns near-perfect marks on AI and API management. Backbase is a Customer Favorite in this evaluation.
• Forrester’s take. Backbase is a good fit for banks seeking a platform with state-of-the-art tech, useful off-the-shelf capabilities, CX tools, and a foundation for future initiatives, but not for those unprepared to use its open architecture and API-first approach.
  

Infosys Finacle

Finacle — part of Infosys — supports banks with its Digital Engagement Suite (DES), an API-led platform with vast OOTB capabilities to help providers across the customer lifecycle. Infosys Finacle serves more than 1 billion consumers in over 100 countries.

• Strategy. Finacle’s strategic strengths are in innovation and adoption methodologies that help banks make the most of emerging tech. Its R&D combines proven internal innovation (the company holds over 100 patents) with a newer ecosystem approach that uses sandboxes, hackathons, academic partnerships, and more to test new ideas. Finacle’s partnership strategy is strong, and its roadmap is focused and realistic. Its wider vision for the future is less clear: Its aim to be “better” in specific ways is admirable, and using a jobs-to-be-done framework will help it achieve outcome-focused innovation. But it lacks a differentiated plan to deal with fundamental shifts in banking.
• Capabilities. Finacle’s greatest strength is its lack of serious gaps, combining superior OOTB solutions like a native alerts engine with on-par capabilities like search functionality. Finacle’s AI offerings are nascent in some areas (e.g., agentic AI) but superior in others: Its small and large language models support a wide range of use cases and user types (e.g., engineers, call center users).
• Customer feedback. Customers give Finacle good marks on communication, recent R&D efforts, and OOTB solutions. But they are lukewarm on integration, saying that it’s not plug-and-play in some cases, and they are tentative on its AI tools.
• Forrester’s take. Finacle is a good fit for banks looking for a proven platform with no major gaps, especially banks with that can take on some customization.
  

Temenos

Global vendor Temenos offers a DBEP that is strong on OOTB solutions and multi- and cross-channel support. The Swiss vendor supports banks in every region and provides localized “microapps” that are specific to dozens of markets.

• Strategy. Temenos’ strategy envisions its future as a “cloud- and AI-native” partner for banks across geographies. The vendor’s partner ecosystem is strong (it was a pioneer of the marketplace model), and it offers greater transparency than others on its roadmap and pricing. However, a string of leadership changes have led to uncertainty about where it will go next — and how it will make strategic decisions that affect its customers. Still, Temenos’ near-term innovation pipeline is solid.
• Capabilities. Temenos offers robust OOTB solutions, including superior channel support with native apps, video and cobrowsing functionality, and APIs via its Quantum Fabric layer (which lets banks unify multiple apps on a single touchpoint). Temenos’ headless approach gives banks versatility, and its OOTB solutions give them optionality for faster time to value. Temenos also excels at security and localization and offers strong search experience tools. Its AI and data management capabilities are on par with other systems.
• Customer feedback. Customers praise Temenos’ wealth of prebuilt solutions, with one referring to it as “a huge platform with lots of capabilities.” However, they express anxiety about the frequency of change at Temenos and describe running into a lack of knowledge due to staff turnover.
• Forrester’s take. Temenos is a good fit for banks seeking a wide range of capabilities and a strong architecture foundation.
  

Strong Performers

Q2

US-based Q2 focuses its DBEP solution on engagement layers and developer-facing tools that enable flexibility and help banks build differentiated experiences by integrating with native solutions, third-party capabilities, and core platforms.

• Strategy. Q2’s vision has a superior strategic focus: It has the discipline to identify what it will and will not emphasize, including R&D. Innovation is a strength, highlighted by initiatives to improve Q2’s already-robust software development kit (SDK), to apply proprietary AI in use cases like fraud detection and resolution, and to strengthen its core-agnostic integration layer. Q2 also has a strong adoption strategy, using guided onboarding, contextual help and education, and in-app messaging and alerts to improve engagement.
• Capabilities. Q2’s strategic focus puts it well ahead of other DBEPs in areas like API management and ease of integration. Its emphasis on platform flexibility helps it stand out in extensibility and agility: Banks can build and test new experiences on top of Q2’s platform. Q2 provides a superior capabilities marketplace with its Innovation Studio and My Toolkit for developers at banks and their third-party partners. The vendor has room to improve in localization, open banking, and embedded finance offerings.
• Customer feedback. Q2’s customer feedback is well above average in multiple areas, including communicating with clients, fulfilling promises, and providing best-in-class offerings in APIs and API management. Customers praise its SDK, its update and release cadence, and its API-first architecture approach.
• Forrester’s take. Q2 is a good fit for banks with no appetite to change their core and a desire for an expansive-yet-curated stable of fintech and third-party capabilities to build new experiences on top of an open, API-first platform.
  

SBS

French vendor SBS offers SBS Digital Banking Suite (DBS) along with a core processing platform for a global set of banks. SBS is part of 74Software alongside API management platform Axway, and DBS can be deployed in cloud, SaaS, and on-premises environments for banks.

• Strategy. SBS’s strategy emphasizes helping banks “navigate waves of change,” such as the shifts to open banking, embedded finance, and, more recently, AI. Its roadmap is a strength, as it’s more agile, iterative, and transparent than other vendors. SBS’s value proposition combines OOTB journeys with app extensibility, and its innovation and adoption strategies focus on time to value for banks. Partnerships with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other major tech firms help increase speed for SBS and its clients. But it’s not clear how SBS will adapt its current offerings to new AI technologies (e.g., agents, probabilistic models).
• Capabilities. SBS’s DBEP is superior to others on security, open banking, and embedded finance: Customers can rely on its platform for compliant open banking functionality and can white-label and embed individual products or the bank’s whole product suite as a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) proposition. SBS’s existing low-code tools are another strength: Bank employees can quickly and easily redesign experience components, as well as build and test new workflows, on the platform. SBS is weaker on functionality such as customer-facing data management, with features that are sufficient for basic marketing and consent but lack deeper data control tools.
• Customer feedback. Customers describe SBS as a reliable and secure DBEP vendor, and they praise its open banking and embedded finance strategy and offerings: SBS earns near-perfect marks in these areas. However, customers are unsure about SBS’s current AI offerings and future plans.
• Forrester’s take. SBS is a good fit for banks in a wide range of geographies prioritizing security or open banking and embedded finance initiatives.
  

Intellect Design Arena

Intellect Design Arena recently strengthened its DBEP by launching its eMACH.ai (open banking) and Purple Fabric (enterprise AI) solutions. The vendor provides core banking and native digital front-end capabilities to over 500 customers in more than 60 countries.

• Strategy. Intellect focuses on event-driven architecture and building a composable layer that enable banks to use AI in different geographies, segments, and business lines to craft end-user experiences. However, Intellect’s roadmap lacks definition, detail, and the level of transparency available from other leading DBEP vendors. Intellect must bridge the gap between its promise of a cloud-native, headless, AI- and API-first ecosystem and the current reality of banks’ legacy tech and integration issues.
• Capabilities. Intellect’s strengths include event-based alerts, real-time and asynchronous messaging, and open banking capabilities for a range of geographies. For now, Intellect has a lead in agentic AI via Purple Fabric, an enterprise-grade AI platform that provides foundational blocks (e.g., rules workflows, APIs, models) that banks can use to manage agents.
• Customer feedback. Customers praise Intellect’s forays into AI agents for specific use cases, powered by Purple Fabric, and some of the platform’s OOTB tools (like its alerts engine). They note that Intellect needs to deliver planned enhancements on time and in ways that seamlessly integrate with new and existing systems.
• Forrester’s take. Intellect is a good fit for banks seeking a DBEP focused on microservices and real-time capabilities, especially if the bank has internal tech talent to ensure integration and implementation.
  

Oracle

India-based Oracle Financial Services Software (an Oracle subsidiary) offers a core platform and a DBEP with solutions for retail, corporate, and Islamic banking. Oracle serves banks across five continents and places a heavy emphasis on AI tools to increase operational scale.

• Strategy. Oracle’s “Banking 4.0 Paradigm” strategy envisions conversational interfaces and user-tailored experiences. Innovation focuses on cloud-native capabilities and “intelligent banking” tools for customer- and banker-facing applications. But pricing opacity is an issue, and Oracle’s partnership efforts are weaker than other DBEP vendors, having neither a highly-curated stable of partners nor a hands-off, easy-to-integrate, API-led integration platform.
• Capabilities. Oracle provides superior CX capabilities and valuable functionality in key areas like card management and credit decisioning. Data aggregation also stands out: Oracle supports the widest range of data types and real-time capabilities among evaluated vendors. Oracle’s DBEP falls short of others when it comes to certain OOTB capabilities such as search and notifications. And integration issues (with third-party systems, for example) can limit banks’ agility and flexibility in their digital efforts.
• Customer feedback. Customers praise Oracle’s breadth of features (including analytics and transactional tools) and integrations with other Oracle solutions. But they cite issues with some OOTB capabilities and third-party integrations that require custom configuration. And despite the vendor’s AI-focused strategy, customers see Oracle’s AI capabilities as unproven.
• Forrester’s take. Oracle is a good fit for banks already using or planning to use other Oracle solutions, as well as for banks operating in multiple regions that have the talent to make the most of Oracle’s offerings.
  

Contenders

Alkami Technology

Alkami provides a cloud-based DBEP for US banks and credit unions. Its 2025 acquisition of MANTL enabled it to offer omni- and cross-channel account opening, adding to its existing support for native functionality and API integrations.

• Strategy. Alkami strategic strengths include a vision of “anticipatory banking” that focuses on predictive and proactive capabilities, emphasizing the impact of emerging tech on end-user experiences and business results. Alkami’s partnership strategy is also superior, taking a highly-curated approach to the tech and product ecosystem. However, its adoption and innovation efforts lack consistent frameworks, and while R&D spending is over 25% of revenue, other vendors are ahead on cutting-edge ideas like semantic layers, digital currencies (e.g., stablecoin capabilities), and purpose-built small language models.
• Capabilities. Alkami Digital Sales & Service Platform (DSSP) stands out in onboarding new customers across channels — leveraging data to cross-sell at scale — and it is at market parity in key areas like card management and OOTB apps. Its exclusive focus on the US market keeps it behind global DBEPs on localization, open banking, low-code tools (which are otherwise solid), and emerging capabilities like agentic AI (though Alkami has a predictive AI product and banks can use third-party AI agents via partners). Alkami’s genAI supports end-user interfaces but lacks native capabilities for developers or bank employees.
• Customer feedback. Customers praise Alkami’s customer communications and support, as well as key aspects of its technology such as its SDK. However, they don’t have strong sense of Alkami’s AI strategy or offerings, and the platform’s API management gets a good-but-not-leading score from customers.
• Forrester’s take. Alkami is a good fit for US banks looking for strong customer support and a DBEP that supports many OOTB use cases, including acquisition and onboarding.
  

FIS

US-based FIS supports banking providers’ digital and multichannel engagement efforts via its Digital One platform, strengthened by its 2020 Zenmonics acquisition. FIS’s DBEP is now an established presence in North America, offering a core-agnostic, modular architecture. The acquisition of origination and decisioning fintech Amount in 2025 lets FIS further support banks’ digital efforts.

• Strategy. FIS has stepped up its partnership efforts, including integrations with Glia, SavvyMoney, and Personetics. Its roadmap is straightforward, with practical improvements to payments and open banking capabilities (areas where US banks and others need to improve). FIS’s vision is reasonable (emphasizing simplicity, tech integration, and “always-on” offerings) but lacks differentiation in a market rife with bold strategies and specific bets on AI. Its innovation is weaker than other leading vendors that have stronger R&D efforts.
• Capabilities. FIS offers solid channel support for end users and outstanding support for employees managing journeys. The superior monthly, cloud-based deployments of updates and new features help banks maintain digital experiences. FIS’s legacy Amount capabilities give banks strong origination tools and card management and decisioning capabilities. The vendor is behind on AI, having only a few capabilities and lacking a robust foundational orchestration layer. In a few specific areas, such as search functionality, FIS lacks what many other DBEPs support OOTB.
• Customer feedback. Customers share positive notes about the ease of integrating Digital One with other FIS products. But they express frustration with customer service and ticketing, concerns about the vendor’s mobile app offering, and trepidation about its AI strategy.
• Forrester’s take. FIS is a good fit for banks, especially in North America, looking to use other FIS products in coordination with a DBEP that supports the most important digital touchpoints today.
  

Candescent

Candescent, formerly NCR’s digital banking division, is now private and serves more than 1,300 banks and credit unions across North America. With its cloud-based, multitenant platform, the vendor focuses on “intelligent banking” based on real-time insights.

• Strategy. The most urgent strategic question Candescent faces is how to reconcile its two seemingly competing platforms (D3 and the legacy DI). In addition, Candescent offers the Terafina account opening solution (acquired in 2021). While these platforms may offer distinct value propositions to banks, Candescent has work to do to ensure a unified (or at least highly integrated) offering. Candescent presents its roadmap, which includes key enhancements to AI capabilities, to customers on a quarterly basis, but it lacks further transparency and a consistent framework. Its curated marketplace supports a solid partnership strategy. Its pricing model is flexible and more transparent than some DBEPs, though it lacks any outcome-based pricing.
• Capabilities. DI offers superior search capabilities, strong onboarding experiences, and decent analytics tools. It also provides solid support for the most important digital touchpoints and for cross-channel journeys, and its marketplace supports a range of fintech integrations via APIs. However, its OOTB chat, messaging, alerts, and notifications capabilities are not as advanced as other DBEPs and depend on third-party integrations. Candescent currently offers few bank-employee-facing low-code and AI tools.
• Customer feedback. Candescent earns positive feedback and gets high praise for its customer service, along with nods to its API offerings. However, customers give mixed reviews on its back-end data management and AI.
• Forrester’s take. Candescent is a good fit for US banks looking for strong search, onboarding, and everyday banking experiences across digital channels.
  

Fiserv

US-based core banking and DBEP provider Fiserv serves a wide swath of the US market: Roughly a third of US banking providers use Fiserv’s core, and a sizable share of those use its digital solutions.

• Strategy. Fiserv’s Experience Digital (XD) platform primarily supports consumer banking, with a strategy to further strengthen its small business banking suite. Its current roadmap is roughly on par with the DBEP market and includes improvements to genAI capabilities. But while Fiserv’s plans focus on APIs and a headless UX strategy, it lacks a clear, differentiated vision for its platform’s role in banks’ ecosystems and long-term business success. Its innovation efforts and pricing models are also murky, with little guidance to customers relative to other DBEP vendors.
• Capabilities. XD offers some solid capabilities, especially in search and card management experiences. But other functionality — such as messaging, chat, and customer-facing data management — lack capabilities that are common among leading DBEPs. For example, data sharing and management tools fail to offer a single-hub experience for end users. Other areas offer sufficient but below-par tools for banks: Current genAI offerings are limited to assistance in knowledge retrieval and developer-facing tools. Likewise, low-code tooling is present for some tasks (campaign management, analytics, secure messaging) but limited compared to market leaders.
• Customer feedback. Fiserv customers share positive views of the Fiserv’s OOTB solutions, but they are underwhelmed by its architecture, API integration, and its (still very early) AI efforts.
• Forrester’s take. Fiserv is a good fit for banks with a deep existing relationship with Fiserv and US banks looking to pair a reliable core with support for digital experiences.
  

Vendor Offerings

Forrester evaluated the offerings listed below:

• Alkami Technology. Alkami’s Digital Sales & Service Platform
• Backbase. AI-native Banking OS
• Candescent. Digital Banking
• FIS. Digital One Flex
• Fiserv. Digital Banking
• Infosys Finacle. Finacle Digital Engagement Suite
• Intellect Design Arena. eMACH.ai Digital Engagement Platform
• Oracle. Oracle Banking Digital Experience, Oracle Financial Services
• Q2. Q2 Digital Banking Platform
• SBS. SBP Digital Banking Suite
• Temenos. Temenos Digital

Evaluation Overview

We evaluated vendors against three categories:

• Current offering. Each vendor’s position on the vertical axis of the Forrester Wave graphic indicates the strength of its current offering.
• Strategy. Placement on the horizontal axis indicates the strength of the vendors’ strategies, including elements such as vision and innovation.
• Customer feedback. A halo on a vendor’s marker indicates above-average customer feedback relative to the other evaluated vendors. A double halo indicates outstanding customer feedback: We consider the vendor to be a Customer Favorite. As part of this evaluation, we speak with up to three customers of each vendor. We also consider customer input from our previous research.

Vendor Inclusion Criteria

Each of the vendors we included in this assessment has:

• Broad, enterprise-level support. The vendor natively provides all core functions for this space and has a demonstrated track record for supporting large enterprises.
• A solution specifically built and positioned for digital banking engagement. The platform is marketed for the express purpose of engaging customers across multiple digital channels. It is not solely available as a free feature within a larger portfolio.
• Substantial revenue in the market. The vendor has at least $50 million in annual revenue from its digital banking engagement platform product in the last four quarters.
• Mindshare among Forrester’s enterprise clients. Forrester clients frequently mention the product as one they are considering prior to a purchase. We have heard about the product from our clients in the form of inquiries, advisories, consulting engagements, and other interactions over the past year. Other vendors mention this vendor as a competitor.

Other Notable Vendors

The Forrester Wave evaluation is an assessment of the top vendors in the market; it doesn’t represent the entire vendor landscape. You’ll find more information about this market and additional vendors that Forrester considers to be notable for enterprise clients in our corresponding report: The Digital Banking Engagement Platforms Landscape, Q4 2025.

Supplemental Material

The Forrester Wave Methodology

A Forrester Wave is a guide for buyers considering their purchasing options in a technology marketplace. To offer an equitable process for all participants, Forrester follows The Forrester Wave™ Methodology to evaluate participating vendors.

In our review, we conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors to consider for the evaluation. From that initial pool of vendors, we narrow our final list based on the inclusion criteria. We then gather details of product and strategy through a detailed questionnaire, demos and briefings, and interviews with customers (vendors may provide up to three reference customers; we also consider feedback from other customers we’ve spoken with). We use those inputs, along with the analyst’s experience and expertise in the marketplace, to score vendors, using a relative rating system that compares each vendor against the others in the evaluation.

We include the publishing date (quarter and year) clearly in the title of each Forrester Wave report. We evaluated the vendors participating in this Forrester Wave using materials they provided to us by January 27, 2026 and did not allow additional information after that point. We encourage readers to evaluate how the market and vendor offerings change over time.

In accordance with our vendor review policy, Forrester asks vendors to review our findings prior to publishing to check for accuracy. We score vendors that met our defined inclusion criteria but declined to participate in or contributed only partially to the evaluation in accordance with our vendor participation policy and publish their positioning along with those of the participating vendors.

Integrity Policy

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