Walk into a bank 30 years from now and the teller line may be gone. Artificial intelligence could handle work once requiring hours of human attention, while new ways of moving and managing money could become routine.

So what will still require a banker?

Horicon Bank President Fred C. Schwertfeger has a unique vantage point to consider the question. Horicon Bank is celebrating 130 years, and Schwertfeger represents the third generation of his family to own the Wisconsin institution.

As Horicon considers its next 30 years, Schwertfeger expects plenty to change without abandoning the qualities responsible for its longevity.

“Technology can do a tremendous amount,” he says. “But you still need a human to understand the full picture of a customer’s finances.”

The branch may have fewer transactions and bigger conversations

Online and mobile banking have already removed plenty of reasons to walk into a branch. Schwertfeger does not expect physical locations to become irrelevant. He sees their purpose evolving.

Customers may no longer need a teller for every deposit or routine transaction, but questions involving a business loan, mortgage, or complicated financial decision can require a different interaction.

“The branch is still crucial to relationship building,” Schwertfeger says. “Transactions may happen somewhere else, but people still want a place where they can sit down with someone when they have questions about their finances.”

As technology handles more routine tasks, branches could increasingly become destinations for conversations involving decisions without obvious answers. A virtual meeting can accomplish plenty, but Schwertfeger believes detailed lending conversations can still benefit from sitting across the table from another person.

AI may make the best bankers more human

Artificial intelligence presents an interesting contradiction. If technology handles more underwriting, analysis, and administrative work, future bankers may need to excel at skills machines have a harder time reproducing.

“Bankers will need to be exceptional with people and genuinely care about the individuals they serve,” Schwertfeger says. “As AI eliminates more mundane work, human skills become even more important.”

Business banking illustrates why. Technology can process financial statements and analyze numbers, but understanding a company can require considerably more context.

“A business has so many complexities,” Schwertfeger says. “Technology can process the underwriting, but it can’t fully understand a business leader’s goals, succession plan, competition and everything happening around the company.”

Other familiar services may evolve, too. Schwertfeger hopes mortgage lending becomes easier as technology and regulation change, simplifying the process of buying a home or obtaining credit. Stablecoins and cryptocurrency are already prompting banks to consider possibilities he did not expect regulators to address so quickly.

A third generation president deciding what stays

Schwertfeger brings an unconventional perspective to those decisions. Before entering banking, he studied art history and visual culture at universities in the United Kingdom, where he observed how communities preserved history while continuing to evolve.

“I got to see how legacies are made, how history is preserved, and how communities continue to be dynamic and thriving,” he says. “It helped me think more intentionally about my influence here.”

His father and grandfather provided another lesson. Schwertfeger watched them lead Horicon during an era of significant banking consolidation, giving him an appreciation for continuity without assuming longevity requires resisting change.

Processes should remain open to reconsideration, he says. The bank’s culture occupies a different category.

Horicon describes its vision as “Together, Doing Good,” connecting its work with colleagues, customers, businesses, and Wisconsin communities. Schwertfeger recently saw an encouraging measure of customer response when Horicon earned the No. 1 position among Wisconsin banks in Forbes’ Best In State Banks ranking.

“Being named number one in Wisconsin based on customer feedback was incredibly gratifying,” he says. “To me, it validates what we’ve been trying to do.”

The next 30 years could reveal an interesting contradiction

By Horicon Bank’s 160th anniversary, branches may serve new purposes, AI could handle more financial work, and familiar services could operate very differently.

Schwertfeger believes those advances could make something surprisingly traditional more valuable. As technology becomes better at completing transactions and analyzing numbers, customers may place a greater premium on someone who understands the person or business behind them.

After 130 years, Horicon Bank is preparing for plenty to change. The more interesting question for the next 30 years may be: What aspects of the customer experience should never be left entirely to technology?

For more information about Horicon Bank and its services, visit horiconbank.com.