51 ways banks and financial services firms are already using Generative AI
It's no secret that banks are clamoring for generative AI. Some might be more bullish than others, but all are looking to use the technology in some way shape and form. The most frequently touted way AI is being used is as a part of 'agentic' AI systems, and a new report by Citi suggests there are already at least 51 ways in which banks are using them.
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Citi's global insights team released 'AGENTIC AI: Finance & The 'Do It For Me' Economy' last week. In it, the bank said it expects agentic AI's presence "to go parabolic in 2025," and says it could have a larger impact on the economy "than the internet era." Agentic AI, for the uninformed, is a specialised program or bot powered by LLMs to perform specific tasks like coding or financial document analysis. Generalist bots like ChatGPT are prone to hallucinations when asked to perform complex specialist tasks; agentic AI systems are much more robust and reliable for their specialities.
Citi's report shows a table of agentic AI use cases, not just for banking but for wealth management, institutional investing and insurance. There are 51 use cases that Citi highlights:
The categories with the most active use cases are both customer-focused: personalized offers and customer engagement. For corporate banking, agentic use cases include financial planning agents and dynamic pricing. Back-office functions like fraud and risk are also open to AI agents.
Implementing AI effectively means investing heavily in AI and data infrastructure. Peter Drury, Citi's global head of technology and communications in banking, says "the amount of funding that will need to take place over the next 5-10 years" in data infrastructure "is transformational."
Agentic AI may also provide a threat to job security. The unnamed head of AI for a large US tech firm told Citi he envisions that firms will focus on building smaller teams using AI agents, calling the potential new team structure "exciting" yet "terrifying." We may see even more complex applications of agentic AI in the near future; OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is thought to be talking with US government officials this month to unveil AI 'super-agents' with PhD level functionality.
These aren't the only applications of AI in finance. In its most recent earnings report, Citi said 30k of its software developers write code assisted by generative AI, and 140k use its proprietary virtual assistant.
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