The agentic AI era: balancing trust and technology in banking
admin May 31, 2025 0
In a world of technological innovation, customer personalisation is no longer a nice-to-have; it is critical to success. You only need to look at the growth of Amazon and Netflix to understand how deeply rooted personalisation has become in the customer experience.
Against this backdrop, the financial services industry can no longer afford to operate as it has in the past. Traditionally slow to adopt technology, banks are finding themselves under increasing pressure to mirror the hyper-personalised, seamless experiences customers have come to expect across other sectors. Growing competition from fintechs and challenger banks has only increased this urgency.
A report by Salesforce revealed extremely low satisfaction levels among banking customers, with just 21% reporting being fully satisfied with their institution’s personalisation efforts.
Rahul Kumar, vice president of financial services at AI-powered CX platform Talkdesk, says: “Banks have always taken a cautious approach to technology, preferring to test and then test again, before adopting solutions. They’ve often worked with 3-5 year transformation plans, typically avoiding technology they viewed as ‘untested’ or ‘unproven.’
“But customer frustration with disjointed, time-consuming experiences means banks no longer have the luxury of time if they want to retain their customers. They will need to work at a much faster pace, embracing solutions that enable hyper-personalised experiences.”
A perceived unwillingness to understand what customers truly want and an effort to use their data in a beneficial manner has also led to a worrying lack of trust in the financial services sector. According to the 2025 Digital Trust Index, just 51% of Brits ranked banking among their most trusted sectors for personal data handling.
What is clear is that banks cannot rely on a one-size-fits-all model if they want to restore customer trust and satisfaction. They must adopt technology that understands customers’ unique needs, anticipates their next move and provides tailored solutions and recommendations in real-time.
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ToggleThe shift from reactive to proactive
The growth of AI in recent years has been nothing short of phenomenal. However, it has had one major limitation; the reliance on human prompts. To date, AI-powered personalisation efforts have typically focused on a single touchpoint, rather than support the entire customer journey.
A new frontier in AI, agentic AI, is set to change the status quo. Unlike AI chatbots, which rely on rigid call trees and scripts, AI agents are capable of assisting customers and executing complex tasks all with minimal human intervention.
Kumar explains: “AI agents for financial services are purpose built, specifically trained on financial services data, use cases and customer journeys. The capabilities are vast, encompassing areas from back-office functions through to customer acquisition and customer experience.”
It is the latter that could prove a boon for banks. In addition to improving customer engagement, AI agents can proactively analyse customer behaviour, track patterns and anticipate needs to deliver tailored recommendations. It also paves the way for increased cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
By focusing on delivering useful, tangible value through the entire customer lifecycle, banks will help to build lasting trust and deeper customer engagement, moving the banking relationship from merely transactional to trusted partner.
AI agents have the potential to revolutionise the way every customer is treated
Kumar says: “Imagine having a single virtual brain that holds every transaction in one place, putting an end to the frustrating process of being transferred multiple times across a call centre.
“Not only can AI agents answer customer’s questions, but they can anticipate their needs, determining which actions to take and what to recommend according to their individual circumstances, worries and aspirations.”
Agentic AI also uses multilingual voice support, breaking down language barriers and ensuring customers can receive support in the language they are most comfortable using. Agents can navigate the complexities of human interaction, effortlessly dealing with typos, varied speed and unexpected changes in topic, all of which would have previously forced escalations to human agents. This has, says Kumar, the potential to revolutionise the way every customer is treated by their bank, turning routine interactions into opportunities for meaningful connection.
Talkdesk’s research found that AI agents increase first contact resolution by 80% compared to pre-scripted chatbots and reduce the time and effort to deliver the type of experiences that customers want by a staggering 90%.
While still in its infancy, these figures clearly highlight the ability of AI agents, such as those powered by Talkdesk’s Ascend AI and Copilot, to help banks reclaim their position as trusted financial advisors.
From potential to practice
But with great innovation comes great responsibility and agentic AI raises both cultural and regulatory challenges for the banking sector.
Kumar explains: “Embracing agentic AI is just as much an organisational challenge as it is a technological one. The breadth of AI’s usage across the entire value chain means banks must foster an environment of cross-collaboration and for many, this will require a change in mindset.”
Banks seeking to adopt agentic AI also need to have a good handle on data and taking a holistic approach, assessing the organisation’s data architecture, scalability and data skills, will help to reduce risks. However, legacy systems used by banks often don’t have the agility and scalability to deploy new technologies at the speed at which they’re developing. The good news is that this can be achieved by working with an AI powered platform partner.
However, this will require legacy banks to shift from a ‘build’ to ‘buy’ mindset, investing in the right partners who can talk to the needs of banking customers, says Kumar.
“There’s a lot of noise in the marketplace right now and organisations are facing option overload. That’s why it’s so important that banks do their research and work with a tech partner that can help them focus on what they actually need by drilling down to high-value, low-risk use cases,” he says.
“We advocate leveraging platforms that have already done all the work to understand what customers need and can integrate seamlessly with core banking systems and risk management platforms without the hassle of complex migrations.”
Customer communication also has a key role to play in ensuring a smooth integration. It’s essential that banks foster an environment of trust and transparency around agentic AI, communicating with customers about their AI processes, the robust testing and the controls that it has in place.
And of course, the importance of strong governance and safety guardrails cannot be underestimated. Understandably, the financial services industry operates under significant regulatory requirements and scrutiny. To this end, human oversight of agentic AI is paramount.
For Kumar, human oversight is not simply a matter of compliance, which is undeniably important, but about creating a future where technology works to increase decision-making and customer trust without compromising ethical standards.
We are just at the beginning of what is undoubtedly set to be an exciting era of transformation for financial services. For banks, it’s no longer a question of if, but rather when. Those who embrace agentic AI, unafraid to venture into new territory, will be rewarded with greater efficiency, customer satisfaction and ultimately, growth. Those who hesitate risk falling behind.
Q&A with Rahul Kumar
Here, we highlight Kumar’s key takeaways on the future of agentic AI in financial services. These insights explore how banks can rebuild trust, deliver personalisation at scale and unlock new opportunities for growth.
How will agentic AI transform financial services?
Historically, financial services have often relied upon outdated, manual approaches that have led to significant inefficiency and customer apathy. The introduction of agentic AI will prove truly transformational, taking over the more complex tasks that have traditionally been carried out by a human, to provide personalised financial advice in real-time. Not only will this enhance client experience, but the ability for agentic AI to cross-sell and upsell will have a significant impact on organisational revenue too. In short, it will revolutionise the financial services landscape.
How can banks restore customer trust?
Customer experience, while a great source of opportunity for financial services, has often proved challenging. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a frustrating experience for customers, with banking customers often forced to speak to multiple agents in a call centre to get clarity. It’s not surprising then that just a fifth of banking customers say they are happy with their institution’s personalisation efforts and trust levels are amongst the lowest in Europe.
Being able to respond to customers with faster and more intuitive approaches will help to build that relationship and evolve it from transactional to trusted advisor, understanding customer’s unique needs to help their financial wellbeing.
What are the foundations for a successful agentic AI adoption?
Many banks are still shackled by legacy tech and this can make the notion of adopting new technology seem daunting. However, working with a partner with proven AI expertise will make this transition much easier. Banks should look for partners that have created solutions able to handle the various scenarios that financial services customers need.
Lastly, banks need to have robust safety guardrails in place, ensuring complete security and compliance. This can help to keep them safe from the perceived risks of AI and ensure that they are meeting the strict regulatory requirements of the financial services industry. By achieving those, the sky really is the limit for banks.
For more information please visit talkdesk.com
In a world of technological innovation, customer personalisation is no longer a nice-to-have; it is critical to success. You only need to look at the growth of Amazon and Netflix to understand how deeply rooted personalisation has become in the customer experience.
Against this backdrop, the financial services industry can no longer afford to operate as it has in the past. Traditionally slow to adopt technology, banks are finding themselves under increasing pressure to mirror the hyper-personalised, seamless experiences customers have come to expect across other sectors. Growing competition from fintechs and challenger banks has only increased this urgency.
A report by Salesforce revealed extremely low satisfaction levels among banking customers, with just 21% reporting being fully satisfied with their institution’s personalisation efforts.
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