The 2025 Global Banking Annual Review by McKinsey & Company has revealed that agentic AI will reshape global banking, adding that the next wave of disruption in banking may come not from within the industry, but from customers themselves.

As consumers increasingly adopt artificial intelligence (AI) agents to manage their finances, the report warns that banking value pools could be significantly reshaped, potentially more by customer behavior than by banks’ own innovations.

“Customers’ use of AI will affect banking value pools at least as much as what banks do, maybe even more,” the report states.

Historically, banks have relied on customer inertia; loyalty to existing providers despite better offers elsewhere, to sustain profitability, particularly in high-margin areas like deposits and credit card lending. In 2024, these segments accounted for roughly 10% of global banking profits.

However, neobanks and fintechs have already begun to erode this inertia by encouraging customers to compare and switch providers. The rise of agentic AI, autonomous systems capable of managing financial decisions, could accelerate this trend.

These agents can proactively suggest financial optimizations or even execute transactions on behalf of users.

If widely adopted, agentic AI could fundamentally alter how consumers interact with banks. McKinsey outlines four key impacts:

• Commoditization: AI agents will prioritize the best rates and fees, diminishing brand loyalty and intensifying competition.
• Disaggregation: Agents may select different providers for different services, breaking the traditional bundled banking model.
• Disintermediation: Customers could lose direct contact with banks, interacting solely through third-party AI platforms.
• Democratization: AI could deliver affordable financial advice and portfolio management to previously underserved segments, but at the cost of pricing compression.

The extent of disruption will depend on four interrelated factors: the sophistication of AI agents, their ability to act autonomously, the pace of consumer adoption, and how banks respond.

In McKinsey’s central scenario, regulations still require customers to approve transactions, but open banking policies and digital currencies could eventually grant agents full access to accounts.

Even modest adoption of basic AI agents could have outsized effects on banking economics.

While 2025 saw some skepticism over the pace of AI innovation, agentic AI continues to gain traction. Unlike traditional AI, which relies on rules and repetition, agentic systems can interpret unstructured data, personalize experiences at scale, and execute multistep processes autonomously.

Evident, a platform tracking AI in financial services, recorded over 160 use cases from 50 of the world’s largest banks this year. Examples include:

• A U.S. bank increased credit memo productivity by up to 60% using AI agents.
• An Indian digital bank now monitors 100% of collections calls, up from 4%.
• A European bank tripled marketing click-through rates with personalized AI campaigns.
• A U.S. investment bank improved deal execution using AI-powered knowledge management.

McKinsey envisions a future where banks operate with AI-first infrastructure. Key features may include:

• Agent-first customer care: Universal AI agents across all channels, with seamless handoffs to human teams.
• Zero-touch operations: AI agents independently manage onboarding, document verification, and loan processing.
• Autonomous fraud detection: Real-time monitoring and resolution of financial crimes.
• Next-gen corporate functions: AI streamlining HR, finance, and compliance tasks.
• AI-enabled risk management: Continuous credit risk testing and fraud monitoring.
• Agentic product factories: Faster product development through AI-human collaboration.

While agentic AI promises cost reductions of 30–50% in some workflows, McKinsey cautions that these efficiencies may not translate into long-term profit gains.

As customer expectations rise and competition intensifies, banks will likely pass savings on to consumers. The report concludes with a stark warning: “Agentic AI changes the rules: Pioneers capture outsize gains, while slow movers face decline.”

Source: Nairametrics