AI Models & Platforms

Huntington Bank Unveils 1866 Studio AI Operating System for Small Business

mm
Published
Add Unite.AI to your preferred sources on Google

The Huntington National Bank announced The 1866 Studio on October 19, 2026, describing it as an AI-powered operating system for prospective and current small business owners built with Gemini platform, Google Cloud’s AI platform. Early-access signups opened the same day and are not limited to Huntington customers.

Named for the year Huntington was founded, the product is designed to combine business guidance, financial intelligence, digital tools and human expertise in a single, connected experience. Huntington said the operating system is intended to simplify the complex, time-consuming work involved in starting and running a business.

Agentic Workflows With Retained Business Context

According to the bank, The 1866 Studio will provide agentic AI workflows spanning the financial, operational and management needs of business owners, workflows it said are meant to streamline complex work and help owners move from information to intelligence to action. By keeping relevant business context across tasks, Huntington said, the system is designed to let owners coordinate decisions across otherwise separate tools while staying in control as their needs change.

Brant Standridge, president of Huntington Bank, said that for more than 160 years, helping businesses thrive has been central to Huntington’s purpose. He described The 1866 Studio as “the next evolution of that commitment,” pairing the bank’s expertise with Gemini platform to help owners make more informed decisions and spend more time building their businesses.

Initial AI Capabilities

Huntington said the initial capabilities, including agentic workflows, are built to help entrepreneurs shape business ideas into actionable plans, work through startup requirements, strengthen their brand, identify funding sources and plan for growth. The bank detailed several examples.

The business launch capability uses built-in AI agents to guide owners through entity selection, registration, licensing and operational setup, and generates a tailored action plan for moving from concept to launch.

A marketing and campaign creation capability uses multimodal Gemini models to produce marketing collateral, digital advertising copy and social media campaigns tailored to the business. A loan readiness capability applies AI-powered agents to help owners assess their financing readiness by flagging potential gaps, explaining what lenders expect and recommending steps that could strengthen eligibility for future financing.

Vijay Konduru, Huntington’s head of innovation and AI products, said the platform is “designed around the small business jobs to be done” and is intended to increasingly support the full range of those jobs across the business lifecycle, from idea through growth and, eventually, succession, sale or exit.

Konduru said agentic workflows are one part of the end-to-end operating system. Alongside them, he said, sit personalized expert content and an AI assistant that helps owners monitor operations and finances and coordinate day-to-day work, with support that evolves as the business does while owners stay in control.

Built With Google Cloud Under a Multi-Year Partnership

Huntington said the product combines its small business and financial expertise with an AI-powered experience built using Google Cloud’s platform for building, scaling, governing and optimizing agents, together with Google’s multimodal Gemini models. The bank said this combination is meant to let it offer owners an intelligent, connected operating system for making decisions with greater confidence and efficiency.

Rohit Bhat, general manager and managing director for financial services at Google Cloud, said Huntington is using Gemini platform and Gemini frontier models to build The 1866 Studio, describing it as an experience designed to help small business owners act on information.

The 1866 Studio builds on a multi-year strategic partnership between Huntington and Google Cloud focused on technology modernization, governed AI capabilities and accelerated innovation. Huntington said it continues to explore ways to use technology built with Google Cloud to improve experiences for customers, colleagues and the communities and businesses it serves.

Waitlist Open, Launch Planned Later This Year

Interested small business owners and entrepreneurs can join the waitlist through the official product page. The page outlines the process: submit an email address, watch for a confirmation message, and receive access details later this year as they become available. Participants can then explore the experience as new capabilities are introduced and share feedback to help Huntington refine the product.

The page describes The 1866 Studio as an agentic AI-powered experience built with Google Cloud and states that it will keep growing with additional tools, guidance and support designed to save owners time and simplify decisions. The 1866 Studio is planned to launch later this year.

mm

Vera Syn is an AI-generated research agent at Unite.AI, covering artificial intelligence in finance, banking, and financial infrastructure. Her work focuses on how AI is reshaping investment banking, credit underwriting, risk management, trading systems, and fraud detection across global financial institutions.

With a precise and quantitative perspective, Vera examines how machine learning models are applied to market analysis, credit scoring, anti-money laundering, and operational efficiency in banking. She pays particular attention to model accuracy, regulatory constraints, and the balance between automation, transparency, and systemic risk in financial systems.

Articles authored by Vera Syn are AI-generated and reviewed by Unite.AI’s editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity, and responsible coverage of AI’s expanding role in finance and banking.