Jason Cao, CEO of Huawei’s Digital Finance Business Unit, is pushing to expand the Chinese technology giant’s global footprint in financial services as banks shift towards artificial intelligence (AI)-driven operations.
The move builds on Huawei Digital Finance’s 16-year track record of helping financial institutions modernise their ICT infrastructure, data platforms and mobile payment ecosystems.
Speaking on the sidelines of Huawei South Africa Connect 2026 (watch the interview above), Cao outlined the technological evolution of the global financial services industry.
He focused on the transition from basic digital modernisation — such as expanding banking services beyond branches to online channels — to advanced AI integration.
Summing up the current fintech landscape, he said: “A banker told me there will be only two types of banks: AI banks and others. If you belong to the ‘others’, your life will probably not be easy.”
Banking in the AI era
Cao predicts a structural shift in banking as AI enables operations to increasingly move at “machine speed”.
He argues that “because everything can be done very, very quickly”, AI will fundamentally change how financial institutions process information, analyse data, make decisions and take action.
Cao also believes financial institutions will need to prepare for agentic banking, where AI assistants increasingly act as intermediaries between consumers and banks.
“In the AI era … everyone has his/her AI assistant or AI steward on their phone. This super assistant may make the decision or make the recommendation for the people.
“For the bank, you should think about it: you are not only dealing with the people today, you also have to deal with [their] personal AI assistant,” he said.
As an example of how quickly technological change can reshape financial services, Cao points to China’s rapid adoption of digital payments, transitioning to a cashless society in just a few years. He believes the experience offers a blueprint for global markets.
“I see different countries and banks are at different stages of implementation,” Cao said, noting that while many banks say they are embracing AI, “what I see is just a kind of a pilot”.
“If you really as a company use AI more, you will find today … the cost will be huge. If you use it as a pilot innovation, small thing, no problem. But if everyone wants to get it at scale ... the issue is there: how to manage the cost, how to manage the security of your data, compliance, and so on.”
He points to China’s strategy of using open-source AI models to reduce costs while maintaining performance, security and sovereignty at scale.
“They use open-source models. It’s much cheaper but with almost similar performance as the closed-source models. But it’s much cheaper … could be more than 10 times cheaper,” he said.
Powering transformation through partnerships
Cao said Huawei Digital Finance specialised in providing technology rather than financial products.
Just as the business unit has helped telecom providers around the world build their network infrastructure, it is now helping banks build the systems that underpin digital payments.
A major focus is the upgrade of its Ronghai programme, which connects over 180 global and niche solution partners with banks, with the aim of accelerating the digital and intelligent transformation of financial institutions.
Key to the programme is Huawei Digital Finance’s new Four-Win Collaboration Model. This is designed to deliver value by providing its financial institution customers with new solutions, independent software vendor partners with new markets, system integrator partners with new offerings, and Huawei itself with new capabilities.
“During this transformation journey, we think no one person can do this job alone. The banks cannot do it, and we as the ICT providers, we also cannot do it alone.
“We have to work with a lot of very good partners, working together to build the whole ecosystem to provide the solution for our customers.”
Applying global lessons locally
Reflecting on serving the South African market, Cao noted the evolving relationship between local banks and Huawei.
He said South African banks were increasingly looking towards international examples, such as China and Singapore, to overhaul their infrastructure and meet the digital demands of a younger consumer base.
In his view, consumer payment behaviour and banking trends are similar around the world, just unfolding at different paces.
“I always think the trends are the same in the world. All of us, we are all human beings, we are going ... the same way. The only difference is the stage,” he said.
“Our main idea is to share these experiences with each other and make our customers — the banks, for example — have an easy journey, have an easy life. Because we are all serving the same mass of people, and the customer behaviour is the same.”
This article was sponsored by Huawei.
