The Next Frontline in Banking: How Agentic AI Could Revolutionize the Fight Against Financial Crime
In a world where financial criminals are becoming more sophisticated and regulatory pressure is tightening, banks are doubling down on fighting fraud, money laundering, and other illicit activity. Yet despite massive investments—often up to 10% annual increases in compliance budgets—banks detect only a tiny fraction of global financial crime flows. That’s where agentic AI enters the frame, promising not just smarter tools, but a fundamentally new way of combating crime and managing risk. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Why Traditional Methods Aren’t Cutting It
Banks dedicate significant manpower and money to Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. These processes, critical for preventing criminal use of financial systems, are often manual, fragmented, and painfully slow. Teams can spend 10–15% of their full-time workforce on these tasks, yet still miss the vast majority of threats. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Even analytical AI and generative AI tools—while helpful for speeding up tasks like document review or anomaly detection—mainly assist human workers rather than transform outcomes at scale. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Enter Agentic AI — The Game Changer
Unlike traditional AI systems that support humans with specific tasks, agentic AI comprises autonomous agents capable of performing complete task sequences with minimal human supervision. Think of a digital workforce executing complex compliance workflows end-to-end—from onboarding a customer to running sanctions checks and closing an investigation—all while humans intervene only for exceptions. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Here’s how it stands apart:
- Autonomy at Scale: Multiple AI agents can be orchestrated into squads or digital factories that cover entire compliance workflows.
- Productivity Boost: One human supervisor could oversee 20 or more AI agents, leading to productivity improvements of 200–2,000% compared with traditional methods. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
- Better Quality & Consistency: With structured handoffs and built-in quality assurance units, agentic systems deliver standardized outputs and full audit trails.
What This Looks Like in the Real World
A global bank creating an agentic AI “digital factory” divided KYC tasks into 10 agent squads. These squads pulled data from public registers, verified ownership structures, conducted sanctions and politically exposed person (PEP) screenings, and flagged risk patterns. The consolidated results were then passed to human analysts for review and final decisioning—a blend of automation and expert oversight. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Foundational Shifts You Can’t Ignore
Implementing agentic AI isn’t simply a tech upgrade—it’s an operational overhaul. Leaders need to:
- Redesign processes end-to-end rather than automate individual steps.
- Clearly define AI agent roles and ensure robust QA oversight.
- Build scalable data foundations and guardrails to manage risk.
- Align organizational talent, change management, and strategy to support hybrid human-AI teams. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Done right, agentic AI doesn’t just make compliance more efficient—it can reshape competitive advantage by reducing cost, tightening risk control, and improving customer experiences.
Glossary
Agentic AI — Autonomous AI systems designed to perform tasks or workflows without human intervention at every step, though humans remain in oversight roles. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
KYC (Know Your Customer) — Regulatory compliance processes that verify a client’s identity and risk profile before financial services are provided. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
AML (Anti-Money Laundering) — Policies and procedures to prevent criminals from disguising illegally obtained funds as legitimate. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
Digital Factory — A coordinated set of AI agents working together on end-to-end tasks such as onboarding or investigations. ([McKinsey & Company][1])
| [1]: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/is-agentic-ai-a-financial-crime-game-changer “How agentic AI in banking drives KYC/AML transformation | McKinsey” |
