--- title: "The Future of IT in Banking: What Community Banks Should Prioritize In 2027" description: Plan your community bank’s IT priorities for 2027 with a practical look at AI, vendor oversight, fraud prevention, business continuity, and IT support. image: https://blog.integrityts.com/hubfs/jonas-leupe-0IVop5v4MMU-unsplash-1.jpg --- [![Integrity Technology Solutions](https://blog.integrityts.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IntegrityTechnologySolutions_February2026/images/integrity_color_logo.png?width=284&height=53&name=integrity_color_logo.png "Integrity Technology Solutions")](https://www.integrityts.com/) - [Who We Are](https://www.integrityts.com/who-we-are/) - [Our Team](https://www.integrityts.com/who-we-are/our-team/) - [Partners & Certifications](https://www.integrityts.com/who-we-are/partners-certifications/) - [NIST Cybersecurity Framework](https://www.integrityts.com/who-we-are/nist-cybersecurity-framework/) - [Careers](https://www.integrityts.com/careers/) - [Industries](https://www.integrityts.com/industries/) - 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For 2027, the priority should be improving customer service and employee efficiency while keeping sensitive information protected and essential services available. That takes a plan grounded in how your bank operates, what your team can support, and where an investment will make a meaningful difference. At Integrity Technology Solutions, our work with community banks starts with understanding those needs. A new platform may be the right answer. So might improving an existing system, tightening access, or giving an internal IT team additional support. Here is where we recommend focusing your 2027 planning.   ## What do customers need from your bank’s technology? Customers may value knowing their banker personally, but they also need convenient ways to check balances, move money, and get help when something goes wrong. The FDIC’s 2023 household survey found that **48.3% of banked U.S. households used mobile banking as their primary method of accessing their accounts**. That figure describes behavior in 2023; it is not a forecast for 2027. Even so, it provides useful context for why digital access belongs in a community bank’s planning. [Source: FDIC](https://www.fdic.gov/news/press-releases/2024/fdic-survey-finds-96-percent-us-households-were-banked-2023) For your bank, the useful question is where customers and employees encounter friction today. - Can branch staff resolve an online banking problem without passing the customer between departments? - Does a loan application require the same information to be entered into several systems? - Can employees help customers securely when they are working from another location? Those are concrete problems you can evaluate before buying anything. Start with a process that creates repeated delays or complaints. Identify the cause, involve the employees who handle it, and decide how you will measure improvement. A better customer experience may come from connecting existing systems or clarifying support responsibilities.   ## Where can AI help without creating unnecessary risk? AI deserves a place in your technology planning, but each use should have a defined purpose and an accountable owner. A sensible starting point could be helping employees draft routine internal communications, summarize approved meeting notes, or find information in an authorized procedure library. These examples still require review, but they give the bank a manageable way to test usefulness before considering more consequential applications. Before a pilot, establish which tools employees may use, which information they may enter, and who checks the output. Customer information should not be entered into an unapproved AI service. Also review the access permissions behind the tool. Microsoft explains that Microsoft 365 Copilot works within a user’s existing permissions. If information is already shared too broadly, Copilot can make that problem more visible by surfacing content the user has permission to access. Microsoft recommends addressing oversharing as part of deployment preparation. [Source: Microsoft](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/configure-secure-governed-data-foundation-microsoft-365-copilot) For a bank, that makes permission cleanup part of [AI readiness](https://www.integrityts.com/services/it-professional-services-consulting/ai-capabilities/). An AI tool that drafts an internal message also needs a different level of evaluation from a system that influences lending or communicates directly with customers. Involve the appropriate operations, compliance, legal, and risk leaders before expanding into those uses. Our recommendation is to start with a limited pilot and measure the result. Include the time employees spend checking and correcting the work. That will give you a more useful picture of value than a vendor demonstration alone.   ## Do you understand the vendors behind your banking services? A bank’s technology plan needs to account for its core provider, digital banking platform, cloud services, IT partners, and the connections among them. When something fails, your employees need to know who owns the issue and how to escalate it. When you evaluate a new service, your team needs to understand where information will go and what responsibilities remain with the bank. Before signing a technology agreement, ask: - What information will the provider receive, and who can access it? - Which other providers does the service depend on? - How will the bank learn about an outage or security incident? - What support and recovery commitments are documented? - How can the bank retrieve its information and end the relationship? Consider an online account-opening platform. A smoother application process may be valuable, but your review should also cover its connection to the core, employee access, support arrangements, and what happens if the service is unavailable. We explored this issue in [What Bank Cybersecurity Auditors Are Really Looking For](https://blog.integrityts.com/what-bank-cybersecurity-auditors-are-really-looking-for). The article explains why understanding technology relationships and evaluating risk before a purchase matter to a productive audit process. Bring your IT team and appropriate risk partners into the conversation while you can still influence the decision. ## How should fraud prevention shape your IT priorities? Security investments should connect to the situations your employees and customers may actually face. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded **$20.877 billion in reported internet crime losses**, including approximately **$3.05 billion attributed to business email compromise**. These are losses reported to IC3 across complainants, not losses attributed specifically to community banks. [Source: FBI, 2025 Internet Crime Report](https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/2025_ic3report.pdf) For bank leaders, those figures reinforce the value of reviewing both technical controls and payment procedures. For example, if an employee receives an urgent request to change payment instructions, the process should provide a clear way to verify it through a trusted channel. Employees should know when to pause a transaction, whom to contact, and how to report a concern without delaying escalation. On the technology side, review access to email, remote connections, and administrative accounts. Multifactor authentication should be part of that discussion, including whether stronger authentication methods are supported by your systems. Integrity’s [guide to multifactor authentication](https://blog.integrityts.com/multifactor-authentication) explains the basics. Training should reflect bank workflows. Practice handling an unusual payment request or a suspicious account-access call, then review whether the procedure was clear enough to follow under pressure.   ## Can your bank keep serving customers during an outage? A technology plan should explain how the bank will operate when a critical system becomes unavailable. A successful backup does not, by itself, demonstrate that employees can resume work within an acceptable time. Recovery depends on the applications involved, their connections, available infrastructure, and the people responsible for restoring service. For each essential service, identify the acceptable interruption, the information needed to resume work, and the recovery sequence. Include outside providers in the discussion where their systems are involved. Then test a realistic scenario. If a branch loses connectivity, what can employees still do? If a service provider has an outage, who contacts the provider and who updates customers? If your usual IT contact is unavailable, can someone else find the instructions and make decisions? Use the exercise to identify gaps and assign follow-up work. A procedure that depends on one employee’s memory needs attention before that employee is unavailable during an incident.   ## Should more of your bank’s technology move to the cloud? Evaluate [cloud services](https://www.integrityts.com/services/it-support/managed-cloud-security/) according to the workload and the bank’s operating needs. Moving an application changes how it is delivered and supported; it does not remove the need for access controls, recovery planning, or vendor oversight. Compare the full cost, including [migration](https://www.integrityts.com/services/it-professional-services-consulting/cloud-migrations/), connectivity, licensing, ongoing administration, and eventual exit. Consider how the application connects to the core and other systems, and what employees will experience if internet access is interrupted. A cloud service may solve a specific support or availability problem. Another application may be better left in place until a dependency changes. Your roadmap should explain the reason for each decision and the conditions that would prompt a review. That approach helps avoid replacing systems simply because a newer delivery model is available. This [1-page flowchart](https://content.integrityts.com/server-workload-flowchart) can help you navigate what to do when evaluating your options.    ## Does your internal IT team have the support the plan requires? Before approving projects, compare the proposed work with the team’s capacity to implement and maintain it. The employee handling daily support may also be responsible for vendor coordination, access reviews, documentation, and recovery testing. Adding a project without adjusting that workload can leave necessary work unfinished. [Co-managed IT](https://www.integrityts.com/services/co-managed-it-support/) can provide additional capacity or specialized support alongside your internal team. The agreement should clearly assign responsibilities, including maintenance, monitoring, escalation, and project work. Our [guide to how co-managed IT services work for community banks](https://blog.integrityts.com/how-co-managed-it-services-work-guide-banks) explains how that relationship can support existing employees. The right arrangement depends on your bank’s needs. Define the gaps first, then evaluate the support required to address them.   ## What should your bank do first for 2027? Start with a review of your current environment and planned business changes. Bring together leadership, operations, IT, and the appropriate risk and compliance stakeholders. Use that review to agree on: - **What needs attention now:** Unsupported systems, unresolved findings, access weaknesses, or recovery gaps that warrant action. - **What will improve operations:** Specific changes that reduce delays, support employees, or improve customer service. - **What needs further evaluation:** Pilots or future projects whose value, dependencies, or support requirements are still unclear. Give each priority an owner, a budget, and a realistic schedule. Include training, testing, and ongoing support in the estimate. At Integrity, we believe a technology recommendation should be explainable in business terms. You should understand why the work matters, what it will cost, and what can reasonably wait. If you are developing your 2027 roadmap, [talk with Integrity about your bank’s technology priorities](https://www.integrityts.com/#contact). We can help review your environment and identify practical next steps based on your operations, risk, and internal resources. [Security](https://blog.integrityts.com/topic/security), [Artificial Intelligence](https://blog.integrityts.com/topic/artificial-intelligence), [Banking](https://blog.integrityts.com/topic/banking), [Co-Managed IT Services](https://blog.integrityts.com/topic/co-managed-it-services) ### Leave a Reply ## Read On ### [How To Roll Out IT Changes In A Manufacturing Plant Without Disrupting Production](https://blog.integrityts.com/manufacturing-it-implementation-without-downtime) Roll out IT changes in a manufacturing plant by identifying what production depends on, scheduling... ### [How To Evaluate IT And Cybersecurity Vendors For A Manufacturing Environment](https://blog.integrityts.com/evaluate-it-vendors-manufacturing) Choosing an IT or cybersecurity provider for a manufacturing company is not simply a matter of... ### [Do You Need An Internal IT Hire Or A Manufacturing-Focused IT Partner?](https://blog.integrityts.com/internal-it-vs-it-partner-manufacturing) When a manufacturing company reaches the point where informal IT support is no longer enough, the... ## CONTACT US ### PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS. 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