ConnectOne uses nCino AI to cut lending admin tasks

ConnectOne Bank is deploying nCino's artificial intelligence tools across its commercial lending operations, including live use of nCino's Banking Advisor and custom agents built on the vendor's Agentic Operating System.

The project is intended to reduce manual work for frontline commercial bankers and reshape parts of the lending process that rely on document searches, relationship updates, and other administrative tasks. ConnectOne has put the Banking Advisor's Knowledge Base feature into production and built two custom agents within the same system.

Early figures released by the companies indicate significant time savings in routine work. A document search that had taken bankers about 20 minutes can now take as little as 30 seconds, while active users of the tool have risen by 41% over 10 weeks.

One custom agent uses document intelligence to update individual and business relationships, reducing task time by 60%, according to the company.

Commercial lending has become a focus for banks testing artificial intelligence because the business still depends heavily on policy documents, internal guidance, customer records, and repeated manual checks. Vendors argue that these processes offer a clear path to productivity gains if banks can automate narrow tasks while maintaining audit trails and internal controls.

ConnectOne's deployment combines nCino's built-in adviser tools with agents designed around the bank's workflows, data, and internal knowledge. The software provider said those actions remain governed within the same trust and control framework used across its wider platform, with AI-assisted activity designed to be auditable and explainable.

Efficiency push

ConnectOne has tied the rollout to a broader efficiency drive. The bank said it already ranks in the top 1% nationally for efficiency and is seeking to use the new tools to lift productivity further across its frontline commercial teams.

"When we adopted nCino, we needed a tool that could strengthen our efficient operating model as we scaled, while supporting our speed to market," said Frank Sorrentino III, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ConnectOne Bank.

"In this next chapter, we are working with nCino to reimagine how our teams work. By leveraging nCino's investments in AI, we can remove friction and administrative burden from our workflows, and double down on ConnectOne's competitive advantage - our ability to serve our clients at the pace of their business," Sorrentino said.

In comments released by nCino, Sorrentino said ConnectOne believes the work under way could make each frontline employee 50% more efficient.

"We are one of the most efficient banks in the country. I believe with the things we're working on today together with nCino, we are going to be able to make every single one of our frontline people 50 percent more efficient. Fifty percent means our bankers will work a thousand hours less on things that don't matter and a thousand hours more on the things that do," Sorrentino said.

Banking AI

The move highlights how banks are shifting from trial projects toward more tightly defined operational uses of artificial intelligence. Rather than applying AI as a broad consumer-facing tool, many institutions are first targeting internal work in lending, compliance, and servicing, where tasks are repetitive and closely documented.

For software providers serving the banking sector, that trend has created a market for systems that integrate into existing lending platforms and use bank-specific data and rules. The challenge for suppliers is to show that these tools can reduce work without weakening governance in a regulated environment.

nCino said its forward-deployed engineering team worked directly with ConnectOne staff inside the bank's own environment to design and refine the agent suite. That approach shortened a process that might once have taken years into a deployment measured in weeks.

ConnectOne is starting with two agents covering 16 distinct skills, with further functions due to be added. The initial focus has been on tasks the companies described as high-friction and time-consuming in commercial lending.

ConnectOne is part of ConnectOne Bancorp and operates alongside fintech subsidiary BoeFly, which connects borrowers in the franchise market with funding through partner banks. The bank focuses on small- to mid-market businesses, a segment where the speed of underwriting and relationship management can affect both client retention and staff workload.

Sean Desmond, Chief Executive Officer of nCino, said the bank's approach stood out because it was centred on measurable operating results.

"Frank had the same questions about AI every banking leader has right now; the same board conversations, the same concerns," Desmond said.

"The difference is he made a choice to focus on outcomes over checking a box. And the results speak to what that looks like when you build the right foundation and actually commit to it. Frank and his team have turned AI into a measurable operational advantage across the entire lending lifecycle, and the work they're doing on the AOS puts them ahead of where most of the industry is even trying to get to," he said.