SANTA CLARA, Calif.— While 70% of leaders at FIs say artificial intelligence will have a “significant” effect and believe the technology will be a “game changer” that will have a profound meaning on the future of financial services, there is also a “significant divide: to be found among financial institutions, one that will sound quite familiar to credit unions, according to a new survey.
The research, released by SoundHound AI and conducted by Arizent, said that “significant divide” in adoption is based on institution size, with larger Fis, not surprisingly, leading the charge:
Among the findings:
- 64% of larger banks are testing or actively deploying agentic AI
- Smaller institutions were significantly less likely to be deploying or testing (38%).
- Institutions that said they were already deploying agentic AI were almost four times more likely than those in pilot to think of the technology as an industry “game-changer,” with a huge majority (94%) expressing satisfaction with their current agentic AI deployments.
- Just 2% of those surveyed said that agentic AI wasn’t at all valuable to their bank.
Key Use Cases
The survey found customer service was a higher priority for larger banks and senior executives, and 76% of all respondents said their bank had formed an AI committee to evaluate potential AI use cases.
According to banking professionals, the top use cases for agentic AI are:
- Customer Service / Call Center (59%)
- Employee Efficiency (39%)
- Fraud / Risk Management (37%)
Improved Service
“Overall, agentic AI’s core value is seen in its potential to enhance the overall human element of banking, with 73% of respondents believing it will improve the customer experience, and 79% stating it will improve the employee experience,” the company said in releasing the findings.
Adoption Barriers and Incentives
SoundHound said that despite a clear enthusiasm for agentic AI, banks are still “navigating a careful path towards adoption.”
Top concerns include:
- Security and compliance (51%)
- Concerns about autonomy (51%)
- Integration with legacy systems (46%)
- Costs (42%)
“Still, many banks are already looking to agentic AI as a part of the solution to the barriers listed above,” the analysis stated, noting that 42% believe agentic AI could be of benefit to fraud and risk automation, with nearly a third believing that AI agents could help with compliance.
When asked what would make their respective institutions more likely to adopt agentic AI, over half of banking professionals said stronger regulatory guidance (54%) and the ability to integrate seamlessly with existing tools (53%), the report added.
