The majority of global financial institutions are actively implementing agentic AI to improve their compliance operations, according to new research.
Conducted in collaboration with Chartis Research, Fenergo, the digital solutions provider for know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and client lifecycle management (CLM), began a study surveying 90 risk, compliance and technology professionals across asset managers and corporate, investment, and commercial banks in 2025 across the US and the UK, revealing that 93 per cent of financial institutions plan to implement agentic AI within the next two years, while six per cent are already using agentic AI.
It appears that adoption is largely driven by a need to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiency of compliance operations.
The research also highlights that firms are deploying agentic AI to focus on high-value, high-risk use cases and deliver immediate impact, with 36 per cent of firms listing fraud detection as their top reason for adoption. This is closely followed by KYC maintenance (19 per cent) and transaction monitoring (16 per cent). These findings come at a time when 67 per cent of global financial institutions are losing clients due to manual KYC processes and inefficient client onboarding.
Fenergo’s analysis also reveals that beyond operational efficiency gains, firms are anticipating large cost savings by implementing agentic AI, with 26 per cent of respondents anticipating annual savings of more than $4million. Savings can be made from reduced manual workload, faster decision-making cycles and fewer compliance breaches.
Embracing agentic AI
Data privacy (44 per cent) and regulations (36 per cent) topped the list of concerns US financial institutions have when considering agentic AI implementation. In addition, the report uncovers that 71 per cent of firms list scalability as the most important factor when evaluating new technologies, suggesting a desire for agentic AI to be deployed more widely across the business.
“Rising financial crime risks and outdated onboarding processes are forcing firms to rethink compliance from the ground up,” explained Keith Redmond, chief product officer at Fenergo. “As operational inefficiency continues to drive up costs, financial institutions are turning to agentic AI as an intelligible, efficient and value-driven compliance assistant – and rightly so. Those that embrace agentic AI now will no doubt be the ones defining the future of financial crime prevention, realising its profound implications for productivity, competitive differentiation, and client service well ahead of the curve.
“Yet concerns around data privacy and regulations have the potential to stall adoption. By selecting software solutions with built-in governance and control frameworks, financial institutions can reap the benefits of agentic-AI while meeting global regulatory obligations.”
