The Huntington National Bank announced The 1866 Studio on October 19, 2026, a new AI-powered operating system for aspiring and existing small business owners built with Gemini platform, Google Cloud's AI platform.
Named for the year Huntington was founded, the platform brings business guidance, financial intelligence, digital tools, and human expertise into a single, connected experience.
The 1866 Studio provides agentic AI workflows across the financial, operational, and management needs of business owners, according to the company.
By retaining relevant business context across tasks, it is designed to let owners orchestrate decisions across disparate tools while maintaining control as their needs evolve.
Brant Standridge, president of Huntington Bank, said helping businesses thrive has been central to Huntington's purpose for more than 160 years.
He described the platform as "bringing together Huntington's expertise and Gemini platform to help owners make more informed decisions and spend more time building the businesses they imagined."
The initial capabilities include three agentic workflows. Business launch support uses built-in AI agents to guide owners through entity selection and registration, licensing, and operational setup, and generates a customized action plan to move from idea to launch.
Marketing and campaign creation uses multimodal Gemini models to generate tailored marketing collateral, digital ad copy, and social media campaigns.
Loan readiness assistance uses AI-powered agents to evaluate financing readiness by identifying potential gaps, explaining lender expectations, and recommending actions to strengthen eligibility for future financing.
"Small business owners shouldn't have to become experts in every function or in AI to build a successful business," said Vijay Konduru, head of innovation and AI products at Huntington.
He said the platform is intended to increasingly support "the full range of those jobs across the business lifecycle, from turning an idea into a business to running and growing it, and ultimately preparing for succession, sale or exit."
Konduru said the agentic workflows sit alongside personalized expert content and an AI assistant that helps owners monitor business operations and finances and manage daily work, "while they remain in control."
The platform is built on Google Cloud's platform to build, scale, govern, and optimize agents, combined with Google's multimodal Gemini models. It extends Huntington's multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud to modernize technology, advance governed AI capabilities, and accelerate innovation.
"By using Gemini platform and Gemini frontier models to build The 1866 Studio, Huntington is creating an innovative experience that helps small business owners move from information to action," said Rohit Bhat, general manager and managing director, Financial Services, Google Cloud.
Huntington Bancshares is a $284 billion asset regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, operating more than 1,400 branches across 21 states.