Payment trends update: how agentic AI is disrupting payments

It could be argued that agentic AI has the potential to deliver much of the promise of AI. Instead of the back-and-forth interactions between user and AI that are needed to refine requests and break down tasks, agentic AI is all about autonomy for the agent. AI agents are designed to act independently, understand context, make real-time decisions, and learn dynamically as they go—giving agentic AI the power to disrupt payments and banking as well as many other industries.

Agentic AI will revolutionize operations and more
 

With agentic AI on the rise, interest around its benefits for organizations is also increasing. 451 Research¹ finds that 58% of enterprises are very interested and actively seeking opportunities to implement AI agents or assistants into their organizations and say that agentic AI will have profound implications for enterprises in general. They anticipate that agentic AI, along with agentic process automation, will revolutionize business and IT operations by enabling autonomous decision-making and task execution. Among the examples cited are:

• AI agents in customer support handling complex inquiries 24/7
• Autonomous financial systems optimizing cash flow management, fraud detection, and credit risk assessments
• Agentic AI–powered supply chain automation helping ensure real-time inventory adjustments and delivery optimization
   

Apart from the complexity of integration into legacy systems, however, 451 Research warns that agentic AI's dependence on high-quality data introduces vulnerabilities, especially around privacy and security.

A Survey Spotlight by IDC² agrees that organizations are primarily integrating AI to improve operational efficiency (26.9%). Focusing on the financial services industry, the report goes on to say that maximizing the impact of AI depends on balancing efficiency gains with customer engagement strategies to ensure AI delivers benefits to both back-end processes and front-end experiences. In finance, for example, AI can enhance risk management, fraud detection, financial modeling, and compliance; in customer service, it can drive new opportunities and enhance customer engagement.

Consumers rate personalization over privacy for the first time
 

Gathering the customer data required to power agentic AI applications may prove to be less of an issue going forward than it might have been in the past, given consumers' changing attitudes toward the balance between personalization and data privacy.

A 451 Research report³ indicates that, for the first time, consumers' preference for personalization outweighs their desire for data privacy. Respondents to the company's Trust & Privacy survey consistently said privacy was more important than personalization until last year, when they rated them equally. This year, personalization overtook privacy by seven percentage points, with 46% preferring personalization to 39% preferring privacy (and 16% undecided).

The value of building lifetime banking relationships
 

Creating personalized lifetime customer relationships is the theme of a Javelin Strategy & Research report on the banking industry.⁴ It discusses the use of ongoing onboarding strategies to develop deep digital engagement and create relationships built on valued services, advice, and trust.

The report points out that it's no longer enough for a financial institution (FI) simply to get a customer to sign up for digital or mobile banking. Now, the strategy must be to win the share of mind that leads to winning share of wallet by continually encouraging customers to:

• Trust and rely on digital features
• Use the FI's payment cards as a matter of course
• View the FI as the first place to turn when they think about their money or want advice about new financial products
   

After a relationship driven by the FI’s expertise and advice has been developed, FIs will have a lot of customer data they can use to inform proactive and personalized recommendations. They’ll be able to act as an informed and trusted partner that can provide relevant guidance and products throughout the customer's financial life.

How agentic AI can support life-centric banking
 

Banks, credit unions, insurers, and others that want to use agentic AI to help them build these long-term customer relationships are turning to specialist providers like FintechOS, the subject of a 451 Research report.⁵

FintechOS offers a platform that enables rapid configuration and launch of digital products and includes composable back-office tools for underwriting, loan servicing, case processing, and fraud prevention—areas where AI can lead to meaningful gains. For example, AI could enhance accuracy in insurance underwriting by 15% and cut settlement time for claims by 30%, according to FintechOS.

Echoing the Javelin report cited above, the CEO of FintechOS discusses the concept of 'life centric' replacing 'customer centric' when it comes to customer relationships. He sees life-centric products responding to a customer's broader life context and aspirations, rather than just their immediate needs, such as getting a mortgage. To be life centric, FIs need more insights into customers' motivations and context. With a focus on AI-powered hyper-personalization, FintechOS aims to help its clients to get closer to their customers and unlock differentiated growth.