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Agentic AI in Financial Services: The future of autonomous finance solutions
The financial services industry is leveraging AI to transform how financial institutions serve their customers. AI solutions can help proactively manage portfolios, automatically refinance mortgages when rates decrease, and negotiate insurance premiums for customers.
How agentic AI is transforming financial services
According to a Forrester study commissioned by AWS Marketplace, 88% of financial services leaders agree their organizations need to innovate faster to compete effectively in today’s environment. This transformation goes beyond improved applications or faster transactions—it represents a fundamental shift toward more autonomous financial systems.
The research, which surveyed 559 global technology and business strategy leaders, provides a window into an industry undergoing transformation. While agentic AI adoption in financial services is still in its early stages, it’s rapidly becoming a strategic priority.
Consider the perspective of a VP of digital and data services who participated in the study, “Without question, the macroeconomic volatility is front and center. This instability adds to a layer of complexity that is unparalleled. It makes it incredibly difficult to plan.” Against this backdrop of uncertainty, agentic AI emerges not just as a tool, but as a strategic necessity.
Beyond chatbots: Understanding agentic AI
When you think of AI in finance, you might picture chatbots answering basic questions or algorithms detecting fraud. Agentic AI operates differently. Unlike generative AI, which primarily creates content based on prompts, agentic AIs can process information, make decisions, and execute actions—all while learning and improving over time. Think of it as the difference between a calculator and a financial advisor. One responds to your input; the other anticipates your needs, analyzes conditions, and acts.
The momentum is growing. According to the Forrester study, one financial services VP revealed their organization already has 60 agentic agents in production today, with plans to deploy an additional 200 agents by 2026. These aren’t pilot programs, they’re production systems handling real customer interactions and business processes.
The three pillars of autonomous finance
The Forrester study identifies three areas where agentic AI is transforming financial services, creating what industry experts call autonomous finance or algorithm-driven services that can make financial decisions on customers’ behalf.
- Customer service with AI: A CTO described how their organization is exploring agentic AI designed to help perform banking services such as account management, loan application processing, and dispute resolution handling. These AI systems are designed to complement existing customer service capabilities. “The most exciting part [of agentic AI] is the ability to demystify and support access to all things financial-related, to all consumers—speeding up processes and making them more efficient,” explains a CTO interviewed for the study. With AI technology, banks can help customers resolve issues, process account updates, and provide proactive follow-up support.
- AI in financial operations: Behind the scenes, agentic AI is revolutionizing how financial institutions operate. These systems excel at process optimization and automating complex workflows that previously required human expertise. “I could see [agentic AI] helping to augment robotic process automation bots or even replacing some of them,” noted one SVP and head of agile transformation. However, this goes beyond simple automation. AI agents can analyze market conditions, adjust risk parameters in real-time, and optimize everything from trading strategies to compliance monitoring. They’re not just following rules—they’re making intelligent decisions based on constantly evolving data.
- Hyper-personalized financial guidance: The potential for democratizing financial expertise is important. According to the Forrester study, 70% of respondents anticipate using agentic AI to deliver tailored customer experiences and financial advice that was previously available only to high-net-worth individuals. One CTO envisions these systems may “…simplify and expedite lengthy mortgage processes for companies and consumers alike.” An AI agent may help monitor your financial situation, looking for opportunities to save money, optimize investments, or potential risks.
Reality check: AI implementation in financial services
Despite the promise, the path forward isn’t without obstacles. According to the Forrester study, 57% of financial services organizations are still developing internal capabilities needed to fully leverage agentic AI’s potential.
Agentic AI security designed for financial institutions
“If there’s a breach, it could have a significant impact on the company, the resources, and our overall reputation. The security, the risk piece, that’s been the biggest challenge to work through,” explained one SVP interviewed for the study.
This isn’t just about protecting data—it’s about ensuring that autonomous systems making financial decisions can be trusted with people’s life savings. Financial institutions are developing comprehensive security frameworks specifically designed for agentic AI systems. They cover everything from data protection and model security to operational safeguards and continuous monitoring.
Legacy system integration with agentic AI
A key challenge is integration. One VP of digital and data services noted, “Organizations are looking at their tech stack and saying, ‘Oh my God, why do we have 10 different providers of CRM across our various businesses? Agentic AI depends on modern, interconnected systems highlighting a gap for institutions relying on legacy technology.
The Cloud-native advantage
The research reveals a pattern: organizations that implement agentic AI with cloud-native infrastructure report improved performance and reliability. “We’d love to move everything to be cloud native. We definitely think the cloud-native ecosystems are mature enough to handle all of our software in a cost-effective way,” shared one CTO.
Cloud-native systems provide the flexibility, scalability, and integration capabilities that agentic AI demands. They enable rapid experimentation, faster deployment, and real-time data processing for autonomous financial systems. However, there’s a balance to strike. “It’s always a push and pull because engineers and developers want everything opened up. At the same time, there are new vulnerabilities and threats popping up day in and day out…,” explained an SVP. The key is to build security into the foundation.
The partnership imperative
According to the Forrester study, 84% of respondents state their business depends on integration with third-party services and solutions to enhance their financial services products.
“We lean toward the larger vendors that have more experience in the space. We have strong partnerships to help us through this journey, and leverage their expertise along the way,” noted one SVP, head of agile transformation. The most successful implementations combine internal innovation with external expertise, particularly from solutions that understand both the regulatory requirements of financial services and the cutting-edge capabilities of AI.
Approach to agentic AI success in financial services
For financial services leaders ready to embrace this transformation, the research suggests several key considerations for implementation:
- Start with internal applications: Successful agentic AI implementations often begin with employee-facing use cases. “We really don’t want to do anything client-facing right now. But as we start to see the value in these employee-facing use cases and we start to see the true ROI, we’re going to start opening it up more to clients,” explained one executive.
- Invest in change management: “The change management part is very, very critical. Part of change management is the education and training. This is new technology, and especially for people that aren’t that tech-savvy, they don’t understand what it is or all the capabilities that it could bring,” emphasized one SVP.
- Think partnership strategy: Evaluate potential third-party solutions based on their industry expertise and security capabilities. The right solution can help accelerate implementation while reducing risk.
- Build security by design: Implement strong security frameworks from the beginning, not as an afterthought. This includes robust data protection, model security, access controls, and monitoring capabilities designed to protect sensitive financial information.
Working with AWS for your agentic AI solutions
The transformation to autonomous finance requires more than just vision—it demands the right technological foundation and trusted partnerships. Amazon Web Services (AWS) can help with AI adoption in finance. According to the Forrester study, successful agentic AI implementation requires cloud-native infrastructure that seamlessly balances innovation with the stringent security requirements financial institutions demand. AWS provides this foundation through purpose-built services designed specifically for the financial sector’s regulatory compliance and security standards.
With financial institutions prioritizing AI and generative AI investments, AWS offers AI and machine learning (ML) services that integrate into existing applications:
- Amazon SageMaker can help you build, train, and deploy ML models at scale.
- Amazon Bedrock provides secure access to foundation models with enterprise-grade data residency controls.
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore can help you build, deploy, and manage autonomous AI agents that drive complex Financial Services workflows.
- AWS AI services deliver ready-to-use AI capabilities tailored for specific financial use cases.
In addition, financial institutions can leverage AWS Marketplace to help accelerate their agentic AI journey. AWS Marketplace is your trusted source to discover, buy, and deploy AI agent solutions from Partners. Start innovating faster with pre-built AI agents to automate processes and boost productivity. Build, deploy, and manage agents with development solutions or build anywhere using ready-to-integrate tools and agent infrastructure. Leverage specialized professional services to design and implement tailored AI solutions. Enhance your tech stack with software that has embedded AI agents that can perform tasks and adapt to user needs within the software environment.
AWS offers more than technology—it provides a pathway to transformation that preserves the trust and reliability customers and regulators expect while unlocking the transformative potential of autonomous finance. To gain more insights, read the full Forrester study. Or watch the on-demand Modernizing financial services: Cloud ecosystems and AI opportunities webinar with Forrester and our AWS Partner. You can also read the corresponding webinar recap blog.
Explore AI agents and tools in AWS Marketplace to learn more about the right third-party agentic AI solutions for financial services.
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