91 FINANCIAL SERVICES seamlessly across departments. The result is a banking organisation where bankers can focus on higher-value, advisory work. Customer-facing bankers are an essential touchpoint in delivering a high-quality customer experience, but their ability to provide personalised service may be compromised by the need to take care of other tasks, such as managing workload, completing documentation and handling compliance checks. Agentic AI can step in as an added layer of support – a “wingman”, according to Hamblin, that completes tasks behind the scenes. One use case is customer issue triaging within the branch. With an AI agent, customers can relay their needs, and the agent can automatically route them to the right banker, schedule appointments and ensure that specialists are available at the correct time. “It’s like a virtual concierge,” says Hamblin. “Agents gather customer information and nudge them towards the right people. Agentic AI can even help the branch organise and optimise their staffing schedule.” VeriPark’s VeriBranch solution is focused on harnessing the power of AI to reduce timeconsuming tasks, streamline branch operations and enable high-value interactions. Edward Jones, for instance, has rolled out its Practice Assistant to its 46,000 employees working across 20,000 branches in the USA. The platform provides access to an “omnipresent assistant”, according to the firm’s general partner and head of EJ Labs Adrian Crockett, that provides access to various subagents but means that employees can come to one place to get the answers about their practice. Agentic AI also shines with back-office tasks, like onboarding. Know-your-customer (KYC), identity verification, document collection and cross-departmental approvals are notoriously time-consuming. “KYC and onboarding are prime candidates for agentic AI to improve operational efficiency ,” says Hamblin. “They involve extensive documentation and multiple cycles of verification, validation and follow-up.” An AI agent can handle missing information, track document status, alert relevant departments and manage the entire workflow, reducing friction for both the banker and the customer. For wealth managers, private bankers and personal finance advisers, agentic AI can constantly scan the market, analyse changes and prepare tailored recommendations. This doesn’t replace human judgment; it simply expands a banker’s capacity. “It would be like an investment assistant,” says Hamblin. “The agent wouldn’t make arbitrary decisions but would surface insights so wealth managers can better support a larger set of customers.” Backbase’s AI-powered Financial Coach is a good example of this. The coach provides personalised insights, interactive simulators to explore ‘what-if’ scenarios and actionable, goalbased plans tailored to individual situations, ensuring customers are guided through every stage of their financial journey. Similarly, agents can provide continuous monitoring for life events – such as the arrival of a new child, buying a home or saving for college – and recommend relevant banking products. Microsoft partners are also playing a key role in enabling this level of personalisation. Personetics, for example, is using predictive analytics to analyse financial data in real time and anticipate customer needs, while Zafin’s platform streamlines product and pricing management, enabling tailored offers and quicker launches for new products like savings plans or rewards programmes. The opportunities are nearly endless. “For example, agentic AI can help with churn-risk identification,” says Hamblin. “It can constantly look for triggers indicating potential churn and instantly reach out to customers to triage the situation. “ The banker doesn’t disappear; they act as the maestro, orchestrating AI agents in the workflow” Photo: iStock/Lana2011
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=