Giorgi Vakhtangishvili, chief digital officer at Bank of Georgia, discusses how an ecosystem mindset, in-house innovation, and contextual finance drive human-centric digital experiences.
Global Finance: Bank of Georgia was named the World’s Best Digital Bank for the second year in a row. What have been the most critical factors to achieving and maintaining this status?
Giorgi Vakhtangishvili: Our success stems from a core belief: Technology and innovation must serve human progress. This principle guides our mobile-first digital strategy and in-house development, enabling us to maintain full control and rapid innovation. Our ecosystem mindset truly differentiates us, connecting retail customers, businesses, and partners to create shared value. We focus on weaving together meaningful experiences that simplify financial lives, rather than just adding features. This ingrained mindset ensures innovation is a daily operational practice, not just a department.
GF: Can you elaborate on how this ecosystem mindset benefits both businesses and customers?
Vakhtangishvili: Our vision is to connect retail customers and businesses on one open platform. On one hand, we empower companies, fintechs, and developers with access to our infrastructure and data so they can build, innovate, and reach new audiences. On the other hand, we enrich the customer experience with new value-added services that appear directly in their everyday digital journeys.
Strategically, it’s about turning the bank into a platform—an ecosystem that empowers both customers and partners. It allows partners to build new products on top of our infrastructure and enhance their products or user journeys from instant payments and loyalty solutions to analytics and lending tools.
It also supports our journey toward becoming a financial super app—where users can access not just banking, but their entire financial and lifestyle universe through one seamless interface—transforming the bank from a service provider into a platform that helps businesses grow and customers live better.
GF: With 1.7 million monthly active digital users and over 99% of transactions being remote, how do you ensure the digital experience remains personal and human-centric, even as you scale?
Vakhtangishvili: Our goal is to make each customer feel recognized and understood. For us, technology is not a substitute for human connection—it’s how we listen better. Every interaction, every journey, tells us something about what people value most.
We combine data, AI, and human-centric design to make digital experiences feel intuitive and alive. When the app helps you make a smart decision or simplifies your day, that’s when technology feels human.
We track a lot of metrics, but the most important ones are still customer satisfaction, net promoter score, and feature adoption—but those are just numbers. What we really measure is trust, how our users feel understood, supported, and connected to the brand.
GF: The digital banking experience is seamless and integrated. What is the next customer “friction point” that banks and fintechs are racing to solve in the next 12-24 months?
Vakhtangishvili: The next frontier is contextual finance—removing friction not just in transactions, but in decisions. Customers no longer want to switch between apps to plan, pay, or invest. They expect banking to be invisible, integrated into the flow of their lives—whether that’s making a purchase, booking a trip, or planning their future. In the era of AI, the real shift isn’t in what customers can do, but in how intuitively they can do it.
Imagine asking your app, “Can I afford a new car if I increase my mortgage payment?” or “How do I grow my business margin next quarter?” and getting a clear, contextual, and actionable response in seconds.
That’s the kind of empowerment AI brings: simplifying choices, offering smart financial guidance, and ensuring every interaction feels intuitive and meaningful. The challenge for banks and fintechs will be balancing intelligence and customer experience. The winners will be those who combine AI, open data, and design thinking to make finance so intuitive that people stop thinking about it as banking and start thinking of it as living better.
