Document & Records Management Archives | Page 2 of 33

What’s Next for Financial Services in 2026: Driving Growth with AI, Cloud and Intelligent Automation

Over the past year, financial services organizations of all types, including insurers, wealth management firms, credit unions, and banks, have faced technological disruptions, rapidly evolving consumer expectations, and intensifying competitive pressure.

As the industry looks ahead, AI and cloud modernization are no longer emerging concepts, but foundational forces reshaping data management, regulatory compliance, and customer engagement. Organizations in financial services are shifting their focus from experimentation to execution. AI-driven automation, more proactive information governance, and hyper-personalized experiences are now essential to building trust, improving efficiency, and driving sustainable growth. Below are five key predictions for the year ahead.

1. AI will move to the core of financial services and insurance

Financial institutions and insurance companies are moving from pilots to enterprise-level deployment of AI, signaling a clear shift from experimentation to execution. AI and agentic AI are already reshaping core functions, from claims processing and underwriting to fraud detection, data management and customer service. Leading insurers are going a step further by embedding multi-agent AI systems that can solve complex workflows and enable real-time decision making.

In 2026, top priorities will be AI-enabled risk modeling, predictive compliance, and advanced fraud detection. These capabilities will not only drive greater operational efficiency but also help firms build resilience amid increasing uncertainty and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

At the same time, oversight expectations will continue to rise. Regulators, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), expect firms to evaluate AI models, governance frameworks, and outputs with the same rigor applied to any system that informs decision-making or client communications. The use of third-party or embedded AI solutions does not shift compliance responsibility. Strong oversight, transparency, and disciplined model governance remain essential to meeting regulatory expectations.

2. Cloud modernization will become the engine of data-driven transformation

Cloud will continue to be the foundation for transformation to modern legacy systems with cloud-native architectures to improve scalability, security and agility. In 2026, cloud modernization will move beyond infrastructure optimization: It is now a primary driver of data-driven transformation across financial services. Cloud platforms enable the use of AI, faster processing of vast data sets, unlocking deeper insights for risk analysis, forecasting, and hyper-personalized customer experiences.

By consolidating technology stacks and migrating from legacy environments to the cloud, firms benefit from faster product launches, less burden on IT teams, and the ability to scale efficiently. Together, AI and cloud form a powerful foundation for cost efficiency, computing capacity, and secure deployment.

3. Data governance will emerge as the new trust currency

As digital initiatives increase, strong data foundations are more critical than ever. This year, firms will increasingly view data governance not just meeting regulatory requirements, but as a strategic differentiator, which is essential for compliance, AI reliability, and customer trust. Investments in clear accountability and high-quality data will support AI models through trustworthy inputs, enabling more accurate decisions and customer analytics.

To meet these demands, organizations should map out AI use cases, and document where AI or machine learning influences decisions, and maintain independent validation. Additionally, AI governance committees, access controls, encryption and privacy-by-design principles are just as important.

Firms must also prepare for emerging high-risk system obligations under the EU AI Act and U.S. state AI laws by conducting regulatory readiness drills; simulating examiner questions about fairness, transparency, and accountability; and establishing roadmaps for gap assessments, policy updates and AI system inventories.

4. Intelligent automation will unlock the next wave of productivity

Automation remains a central driver of efficiency and value creation. Firms will move beyond using automation for process efficiency to intelligent process orchestration, combining workflows, data, AI, and analytics to deliver real-time insights and smarter decision-making.

By streamlining routine activities such as new client onboarding, claims processing, and reconciliations, organizations can redirect talent toward strategic priorities like customer engagement and regulatory collaboration. Scaling intelligent automation and AI will not only boost productivity but also unlock new capabilities, empowering teams to pursue growth opportunities and long-term strategic initiatives in 2026.

5. Customer experience will be redefined to be hyper-personalized, transparent and always-on in 2026

Hyper-personalization has become the standard, with customers expecting experiences tailored to their behaviors, goals and life stages. Leveraging AI, real-time data and predictive analytics will anticipate needs and deliver relevant recommendations across every channel. Frictionless, consistent interactions, whether mobile, web, or in-person, will be table stakes, with instant onboarding, real-time payments and seamless account access expected by default.

Overall, trust will hinge on transparency. Strong authentication, proactive fraud detection and clear communication around AI-driven decisions will be critical. In the insurance industry, continuous engagement and actionable insights will define the leaders. Firms that leverage connected data and AI to personalize protection and prevention services will emerge as winners.

Modernizing Financial Services for the Next Era of Growth

As we look ahead, firms that prioritize investment in digital transformation powered AI, cloud modernization, and agentic workflows will move beyond operational efficiency to shape data-driven decision-making, strengthen compliance, and deliver hyper-personalized experiences. The next chapter of financial services modernization will be defined by how effectively organizations turn technology and data into trust, growth, and strategic advantage.

Laserfiche provides intelligent orchestration and documentation tools designed to help financial services organizations modernize and stay ahead of the demands of 2026 and beyond.

Explore how Laserfiche can accelerate your digital transformation goals this year — click here to learn more

Navigating the Agentic Era: Laserfiche 2026 Leadership Predictions

John Merrill speaking during the general session at the 2025 Empower conference.

As we move through 2026, the conversation around artificial intelligence has shifted from “what if” to “how fast.” For business leaders, this means the challenge is no longer just adopting AI, but orchestrating a landscape where AI agents, human expertise and rigorous data governance intersect.

Below are strategic considerations for navigating the technological and operational shifts that are defining 2026.

1. From tools to agents: The new standard of content management

By 2026, AI features — document summarization, automated metadata extraction and conversational search — are no longer differentiators; they are table stakes for a document management platform. The real frontier is the AI agent. Organizations are moving past experimental chatbots toward autonomous agents capable of executing workflows.

Meanwhile, automation isn’t replacing knowledge workers; it’s liberating them. As AI handles repetitive administrative tasks, the workforce is refocusing on high-impact, creative strategy. Leaders should encourage low-stakes AI experimentation now. Familiarizing teams with AI agents in a safe environment will help prepare the organization for when these tools move into mission-critical operations.

2. The rise of the agentic workforce and technical bottlenecks

This year will also mark a significant shift in how software and solutions are built. While AI can now write the majority of application code, this creates new challenges for IT strategy. While entry-level coding is being automated, the demand for experienced developers remains high. Their role has evolved into “agent orchestrators” — experts who know how to direct sophisticated AI to achieve enterprise-grade results.

The single most important skill for 2026 is adaptability: The ability to learn and unlearn skills rapidly is now more valuable than any specific legacy programming language.

3. Security in the age of perfect impersonation

The cybersecurity landscape in 2026 is defined by “AI vs. AI.” This new era includes supercharged social engineering; AI can now almost perfectly impersonate individuals, making traditional phishing defenses obsolete. Organizations must move toward robust, hardware-based authentication like Fast Identity Online two-factor authentication (FIDO 2FA). Forward-thinking CIOs are now requiring vendors to adopt additional security controls, certifications and compliance frameworks.

4. Infrastructure reality check: Budgets and supply chains

Despite the software-centric nature of AI, the physical reality of hardware is a major constraint. Anticipated AI demand has created significant supply chain volatility. With technology budgets capped at roughly 9-10% growth and vendor subscription costs rising, leaders must find “AI offsets.” Funding for AI innovation in 2026 is largely coming from efficiency gains and spending decreases in other areas of the IT budget rather than massive new capital injections. This is evidenced by Gartner’s 2026 forecast, which shows that while total IT spending is growing by only 10.8%, investment in AI is surging by 80.8%

2026: The year of responsible acceleration

The organizations winning in 2026 are those that treat AI not as a bolt-on product, but as a fundamental shift in how human talent is deployed. Trust — in your data, your vendors and your governance — remains the only currency that allows for rapid adoption.

See how you compare to peers in your AI adoption now by reading more in The State of Document Management & AI.

From Records to Intelligence: What the 2026 InfoGov Summit Made Clear About AI in Government

Dr Moya Hill smiling while speaking at a podium — Dr. Moya Hill on stage speaking at the 2026 Public Sector InfoGov Summit

At the Public Sector InfoGov Summit 2026, focused on “Advancing Information Governance Across the Public Sector,” one message came through consistently: AI in government is not just a technology question but actually an information governance conversation. From the White House Office of Records Management and the National Archives to the Department of the Interior and Veterans Affairs, the focus was not on hype but instead on readiness, responsibility and results.

Government runs on records. And before AI can deliver value, those records must be structured, managed and trusted. Philip Droege, director of the White House Office of Records, gave a keynote on managing White House records that was a powerful reminder that governance at the highest levels of government is built on discipline, documentation and defensibility. Whether under the Presidential Records Act or federal records mandates, accountability depends on clarity: what a record is, where it lives, who owns it and how it transitions.

That same principle applies to AI.

John Montel, associate CIO from the Department of the Interior, reinforced this directly: Before introducing AI, agencies must prepare their information environment. Physical records, electronic content and data must be organized.

Ownership must be clear. Retention must be consistent. Metadata must be reliable.

Records Management Lays AI Groundwork in Government

Without that groundwork, AI amplifies inconsistency rather than value. This is where AI-powered content management becomes meaningful. AI can automatically classify documents, extract metadata, identify sensitive information and summarize complex files. But those capabilities only create impact when they operate inside a governance framework with retention schedules, access controls, audit trails and human oversight built in.

The National Archives provided a compelling example. Acting Chief Innovation Officer Jill Reilly described how NARA is leveraging AI to enhance metadata, improve semantic search and expand access to historic collections including the 1950 Census and Revolutionary War Pension files. But the key to success was not the algorithm. It was the “ground truth” datasets and strong metadata foundation beneath it. AI was layered on top of trusted records, not substituted for them.

That is the model government leaders should follow.

Dr. Moya Hill, chief FOIA/privacy/records officer with the Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction, led a discussion on FOIA at the Department of Veterans Affairs which further underscored the point. Transparency is not optional. AI can assist in identifying responsive records, standardizing redactions and accelerating response times. But defensibility remains paramount with explainable outputs and auditable decisions. Governance programs must align FOIA, privacy and records management rather than treating them as separate disciplines. The conversation also turned toward agentic AI, systems capable of coordinating actions within defined rules.

AMTRAK Senior Director of Data, AI and Automation John Chiofee’s closing keynote on the “governance fabric” tied information, data and AI together. Governance cannot sit in a silo. It must travel with the information across systems, departments and workflows. AI will increasingly monitor compliance thresholds, surface anomalies and recommend actions—but within guardrails defined by policy.

That evolution mirrors what we see in AI-empowered content management today.

Phase one is intelligent extraction structuring information automatically as it enters the system.
Phase two is human-plus-AI collaboration accelerating review, classification and routing while preserving oversight.
Phase three moves toward intelligent orchestration where AI agents help coordinate workflows, identify risk and support decisions under defined governance policies.

This evolution is built into Laserfiche, a platform grounded in decades of public sector experience. Records management capabilities support full lifecycle tracking, granular security, automated retention and audit readiness aligned with standards like DoD 5015.2. AI capabilities such as Smart Fields, intelligent classification and workflow automation operate within that governance framework.

The takeaway from the summit was clear: AI is not replacing records management. It is elevating it.

Government leaders should not ask, “How do we deploy AI?” The better question is, “Is our information environment ready?” Agencies that invest now in structured metadata, lifecycle governance and cross-functional collaboration between IT, records and business leaders will be positioned to move from managing records to activating intelligence.

Shaping Tomorrow’s Enterprise: The Power of Intelligent Workflow Automation

Laserfiche Virtual Training – New Laserfiche Administrator Bootcamp

Designed for new users to get caught up on Laserfiche administration basics, this lab-style instructor-led training will provide the foundations necessary to successfully manage, administer, and troubleshoot your Laserfiche system.

Topics covered include repository design, metadata administration, repository security and records management, along with repository and task automation.

Advanced Workflow Design – Document Processing

Missed it at Empower? Enhance your workflows for document processing and import!

In this hands-on lab, we’ll explore complex workflow solutions for bulk document import and re-processing repository documents. Focusing on efficiency and performance, you’ll see how to configure Workflow to streamline working with documents, whether you’re processing new incoming documents or existing documents in the repository. In this course, you’ll learn how to:

Leverage Invoke Workflow activities to modularize workflows

Elegantly handle document exceptions within a process using built-in features

Improve workflow efficiency and performance while considering requirements for speed of processing and accuracy

Intermediate Workflow Design

Missed it at Empower? Unlock your automation potential with workflow!

Refine your workflow knowledge with this hands-on lab, highlighting workflow design patterns to tackle common business needs like data processing and document routing. Go beyond the basics of Workflow by learning useful techniques for working with logic, manipulating tokens to fit your needs, and streamlining your processes to get the most out of your automation. This course will teach you how to:

Find and work with multiple repository entries within a workflow

Manipulate data using token functions including working with multi-value tokens

Troubleshoot workflows to get them back on track

Automating Laserfiche Records Management

Simplify your records management!

Laserfiche’s records management functionality can support your compliance goals and help you better manage your records by simplifying the retention and disposition of records. But automation can help streamline records management processes even further and reduce tedious day-to-day actions in the repository! See how to leverage workflow and forms-based processes to enhance and automate records management. In this course you’ll learn how to:

Configure records management properties in Laserfiche to meet an organization’s needs, including planning an appropriate folder structure to support automation

Automate records management actions such as filing records, setting record properties, and performing cutoff to simplify actions

Explore form-based processes to handle records management tasks and approvals

Introduction to Laserfiche Records Management

Missed it at Empower? Ready to try out Laserfiche records management?

Learn how Laserfiche’s records management functionality can support your compliance goals and help you properly manage your records. This hands-on session will take you through the configurations and interfaces necessary to manage your records retention rules, perform records management actions within the repository, and create your records management file plan. This course will teach you how to:

Set up your records management folder structure to simplify day-to-day records management tasks

Perform records management actions such as cutoff and disposition

Define and configure records management schedules and instructions

Kansas State University Modernizes Student Services with Cloud Automation

Every semester brings a surge of activity at Kansas State University (K-State). Students submit requests that shape their academic paths, from changing majors to updating personal records. Behind the scenes, staff work quickly to keep those processes moving. But for years, the tools supporting that work struggled to keep pace with the university’s scale and complexity.

K-State serves nearly 24,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world. It depends on administrative processes that are accurate, resilient and easy to manage. Instead, many workflows relied on paper forms, emailed PDFs and disconnected systems that slowed work and increased errors.

Over time, uneven access to the university’s enterprise document management system compounded the problem. “Not every department could afford to buy into our old system,” said Maleah Lundeen, assistant director of financial and digital solutions. “That led to a lot of shadow IT across the university.”

This patchwork of decentralized systems slowed work and increased errors. It also introduced security concerns, compliance gaps and duplicate data. Manual processes placed an additional burden on staff during peak academic periods, such as term starts and add/drop periods.

No area felt that pressure more than the Office of the Registrar. The department’s processes touch nearly every student at some point in their academic journey. Staff used paper forms, shared inboxes and conducted manual follow-ups via email. Incomplete submissions and illegible handwriting further slowed progress and extended student wait times.

A Cloud-Based Shift in Strategy

University leaders recognized that incremental fixes were no longer enough. They began looking for an enterprise platform that could scale across campus. Equally important was how that platform would be deployed. K-State wanted to reduce infrastructure risk, operational overhead and long-term technical debt.

Managing servers, upgrades and security internally was increasingly unsustainable, especially following previous disruptions. A vendor-hosted deployment model delivered stronger resilience while reducing the operational burden on IT teams.

“We wanted everything under one umbrella,” Lundeen said, referring to forms, workflows and document management working together in a single platform. Laserfiche supported that vision while aligning with the university’s cloud-first direction, delivering integrated capabilities without heavy customization or complex development.

“Laserfiche supports our cloud-first strategy by providing a scalable, agile platform that reduces silos and enables faster innovation,” said Bud Tillman, assistant vice president/deputy CIO for enterprise systems. “It has strengthened operational excellence by streamlining processes, improving cross-unit collaboration, and helping teams deliver on our mission more efficiently.”

Lundeen and her team could see the difference immediately during hands-on testing. “In about a day with Laserfiche, we built what took more than a week in another system,” she said. “Some competing workflows never worked successfully at all, which proved that Laserfiche really was as intuitive as promised.”

Modernizing Registrar Workflows

The Office of the Registrar became the first department to implement Laserfiche. The focus was on modernizing high-volume, long-standing processes that had changed little over time. The team identified 32 registrar workflows for automation.

Today, many of those processes are live, each using electronic forms, automated workflows and centralized document storage. They include:

Academic program change, enabling faster approvals for major, minor and certificate updates
Student data information change, supporting secure updates to names, gender, birthdates and Social Security numbers
Armed forces residency benefit, streamlining a formerly 10-plus-page paper form for military-affiliated students
Automated student notifications, confirming submissions and completion without manual follow-up
College and athletics notifications, ensuring stakeholders receive timely alerts when changes impact eligibility

Because the platform is hosted by Laserfiche, the registrar’s office also avoids downtime risks during critical periods. Staff can rely on continuous availability during peak enrollment cycles, without worrying about infrastructure failures or deferred upgrades.

Together, these workflows reduce manual effort, improve data accuracy and deliver faster, more predictable service for students and staff.

Measurable Impact in Months, Not Years

One of the earliest and most impactful workflows was the academic program change process. Previously, staff processed paper or PDF forms manually, routing approvals through email and shared inboxes. Processing typically took three to seven days, with delays common during busy times of the year.

After Laserfiche, the average processing time dropped from an average of five days to just 11 hours, representing a 91% efficiency gain. Within the first three months, staff processed 453 requests digitally, saving approximately 109 hours per form.

In total, that translates to more than 49,000 staff hours — nearly eight years of reclaimed work capacity — enabling K-State to respond to student needs faster and deliver more timely, reliable services.

Accuracy, Resilience and Governance Built In

Laserfiche integrates directly with the student information system, allowing staff to retrieve verified student data automatically rather than entering details by hand. Previously, manual data entry for each new request led to frequent errors and rework. “Now the data comes straight from our system, improving accuracy and reducing follow-up work,” Lundeen said.

Centralized document storage also eliminated duplication across departments. This makes records easier to find, manage and govern. Search is faster, metadata is consistent and documents remain securely accessible throughout their lifecycle.

Momentum That Scales

Success in the registrar’s office quickly built momentum across campus, with additional departments expressing interest in adopting the platform. “We’ve seen a strong response from teams eager to modernize their own processes,” said Lundeen.

Financial operations are next on the roadmap, alongside efforts to retire legacy content systems. Laserfiche will support this large-scale data migration and information governance. The cloud deployment will simplify transitions and reduce long-term risk.

“With Laserfiche, we empower departments to manage their own processes without relying on IT for every change,” said Lundeen. “That’s helping us reclaim time, reduce risk and prepare the university for the future.”