The widely used Business Model Canvas identifies nine building blocks of a business model. These nine building blocks did indeed capture the key priorities of a business model for many years. However, with the increasing role of AI and the increasing volume of data it consumes, some additions to these nine building blocks are necessary to bring them up to date.
One more building block is added to capture the increased role of AI and data. The new building block captures the trust-building methods applied, and the methods utilized to reduce privacy concerns. Trust-building is added because of how central trust with all the stakeholders is to utilizing AI. Privacy concerns are important for legal and ethical reasons, but also because if users have these concerns, they will not share their data as willingly. These can be seen as two separate issues, but they are often intertwined. Both trust and privacy concern require a deep understanding of the user’s perspective. Insufficiently addressing trust and privacy can lead to pushback from customers, but also from governments in the form of stricter regulation, thereby negating the benefits of increased use of AI.
Table 1: The updated AI-focused Business Model Canvas with 10 blocks
This research tested the new building block against each of the six proven AI-focused business models. The first three models involve organizations that are already active in the financial sector. The last three models are organizations that are new to offering financial services.
With the new building block added to the original Business Model Canvas, the resulting ten building blocks are: (1) value propositions, (2) customer relationships, (3) customer segments, (4) channels, (5) cost structure, (6) revenue streams, (7) key partnerships, (8) key activities, (9) key resources, and (10) how to build trust and reduce privacy concerns. These ten building blocks ensure that the stakeholders in an organization are focused on the most important issues when planning and implementing a new business model (Zarifis & Cheng 2026).
Reference
Zarifis A. & Cheng X. (2026) ‘For an AI-focused Fintech the approach to trust and privacy must be decided at the business model level’, Journal of Enterprise Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-03-2026-0461 (open access)