For community banks, the challenge of going digital is no longer simply putting banking services on a mobile app. The harder problem is preserving the relationship-driven experience that traditionally happened in branches while making digital interactions just as relevant. Alkami Technology is taking aim at that gap with a unified digital banking platform now live at Tri City National Bank, combining account opening, digital banking, customer data and marketing capabilities in a single technology stack.

Community banking has historically relied on proximity and personal knowledge: a banker recognizes a customer, understands their circumstances and can suggest the next financial product or service without waiting for a formal marketing campaign.

Digital banking changes that equation. A customer may now interact with a bank almost entirely through a mobile application or website, leaving financial institutions with the task of recreating those contextual conversations through software.

That is the backdrop to Tri City National Bank’s deployment of the Alkami Digital Sales & Service Platform, announced September 2. The Southeastern Wisconsin community bank, which has operated for more than 60 years, is now using three components of Alkami’s platform: its Onboarding & Account Opening Solution, Digital Banking Solution, and Data & Marketing Solution.

The significance is less about another bank launching a new digital app than about where the digital banking stack is heading. Alkami is attempting to connect acquisition, onboarding, everyday banking and customer engagement rather than treating them as separate technology projects.

In practical terms, that means the same platform is intended to support a customer’s initial account-opening journey, ongoing digital banking activity and subsequent engagement with the institution. For the bank, the objective is to turn customer and behavioral data into more timely interactions.

That approach reflects a broader shift in financial technology. Banks have accumulated large volumes of customer and transaction data, but connecting that information to actionable engagement has remained difficult, particularly when digital banking, marketing automation and core systems operate across different vendors.

McKinsey’s banking research illustrates why the issue is becoming more pressing. Its 2025 Global Banking Annual Review says consumers are becoming more digital and less loyal, while AI and mobile technologies are raising expectations for seamless, highly personalized banking experiences. In the U.S., only 4% of new credit-card applicants in McKinsey’s 2025 survey chose their existing bank without first considering alternatives, compared with 10% in 2018.

For community institutions such as Tri City, that creates a particularly important technology question: how can a smaller bank compete digitally without abandoning the local-service model that differentiates it?

Alkami’s answer is to make the digital channel part of the relationship-management infrastructure rather than simply a transaction interface.

Tri City’s Nick Bandoch, senior vice president and chief brand officer, said the bank wanted to recognize customer needs in digital interactions and respond with relevant solutions. The company says its platform is designed to help bankers identify opportunities earlier and coordinate engagement across digital channels.

There is a practical distinction here between personalization as a marketing feature and personalization as banking infrastructure. A bank can display a personalized banner or product recommendation without fundamentally changing its customer journey. A more integrated model uses onboarding information, digital activity and customer data to determine what interaction should happen next.

McKinsey has previously found that customers receiving personalized bank offers across multiple channels were more than three times as likely to accept them as customers receiving offers through a single channel. Its research also argues that banks need advanced analytics, customer data and cross-channel personalization to move from disconnected digital touchpoints toward true omnichannel banking.

That puts Alkami in a competitive market.

The company’s proposition overlaps with broader digital banking platforms from Q2, Jack Henry and Fiserv, all of which are pursuing variations of unified digital experiences, integrations and personalization. Q2, for example, combines digital banking with data-driven marketing, AI capabilities and an integration ecosystem spanning fintech providers and core systems. Jack Henry similarly positions its digital banking platform around unified experiences, marketing capabilities and open integrations for community and regional financial institutions. Fiserv takes a broader banking-technology approach, connecting digital journeys with account opening, payments, customer relationship management and core banking infrastructure.

The competitive battleground, therefore, is moving beyond mobile-app functionality. Financial institutions increasingly have to evaluate how well a platform connects data, digital channels, marketing, onboarding and the underlying banking environment.

For enterprise technology teams, Tri City’s deployment also highlights a trade-off. A unified platform can reduce the fragmentation created by stitching together separate digital banking, customer data and marketing technologies. But institutions still need to examine integration with their core banking systems, data governance, security, compliance, implementation requirements and the degree of customization available.

Those considerations matter because digital banking is becoming the primary interface through which many customers interact with their financial institutions. McKinsey’s research notes that mobile has become banking’s most widely used channel and argues that leading institutions increasingly need to combine mobile-first experiences with human support.

Tri City’s rollout suggests the next phase of community-bank digitization will not simply be about replacing branch interactions with apps. It will be about making digital channels capable of carrying some of the context, timing and relevance that made relationship banking valuable in the first place.

That could prove more important than any individual feature. As large banks, fintech companies and technology platforms raise the baseline for digital experiences, community institutions will need technology that lets them compete on convenience without losing the local identity that brought customers to them in the first place.

Market Landscape

The digital banking market is shifting from standalone mobile and online banking applications toward connected financial experience platforms.

Three competitive dynamics stand out:

• Platform consolidation: Banks increasingly want onboarding, digital banking, analytics and engagement capabilities that work together rather than as isolated systems.
• Personalization at scale: Customer data is becoming a strategic asset as banks attempt to replicate the relevance of relationship managers through digital channels.
• Open ecosystems: Q2 and Jack Henry, among others, emphasize integrations and extensibility, while Fiserv combines digital banking with broader banking infrastructure.

The pressure is being amplified by changing customer behavior. McKinsey says annual banking customer touchpoints reached roughly 150 per customer, a 72% increase, while its research finds roughly three in four consumers report frustration when frequently used brand websites lack personalization.

For community and regional banks, the strategic issue is therefore not whether digital banking is necessary. It is whether their technology architecture can turn digital interactions into relationship-building moments while maintaining the trust and human service associated with traditional banking.

Top Insights

• Tri City National Bank is deploying Alkami’s unified digital banking platform to connect account opening, everyday banking and data-driven customer engagement.
• The rollout reflects a wider fintech shift toward integrated digital banking infrastructure rather than disconnected apps, marketing systems and customer-data platforms.
• Community banks face growing pressure to deliver personalized digital experiences while preserving relationship-driven service that differentiates them from larger competitors.
• Alkami competes in an increasingly crowded market alongside Q2, Jack Henry and Fiserv, where integration, personalization and platform extensibility are becoming key buying criteria.
• Enterprise banking teams evaluating digital platforms will need to weigh customer experience against core integration, data governance, security, compliance and customization requirements.

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