New research from Fenergo has revealed that a growing number of financial institutions are turning to agentic AI to transform their compliance operations, with many forecasting significant cost savings.
The study, conducted in collaboration with Chartis Research, found that 93% of global financial institutions plan to implement agentic AI within the next two years, while 6% are already using it.
The research surveyed 90 compliance, risk and technology professionals across the US and UK, spanning asset managers and corporate, commercial, and investment banks. It found that operational inefficiencies, rising financial crime, and the need to cut costs are driving the shift towards intelligent automation. A key finding showed that 26% of firms anticipate saving over $4m annually in compliance operations through the adoption of agentic AI.
Fenergo’s report, Agentic AI in Compliance: From Concept to Operational Reality, identifies fraud detection as the primary use case for agentic AI, cited by 36% of respondents. KYC maintenance (19%) and transaction monitoring (16%) followed closely behind. These priorities come amid growing frustration with traditional compliance processes, particularly manual KYC procedures, which are contributing to client attrition for 67% of institutions.
Cost-saving expectations are rooted in reduced manual workload, improved decision-making speed, and fewer regulatory breaches. However, data privacy and regulatory uncertainty remain top concerns. In the US, 44% of firms flagged data privacy as the leading barrier to adoption, with 36% concerned about navigating compliance rules. Despite this, scalability remains a key factor in technology selection, with 71% of respondents noting it as critical to implementation decisions.
Fenergo chief product officer Keith Redmond said, “Rising financial crime risks and outdated onboarding processes are forcing firms to rethink compliance from the ground up. As operational inefficiency continues to drive up costs, financial institutions are turning to agentic AI as an intelligible, efficient and value-driven compliance assistant – and rightly so. Those that embrace agentic AI now will no doubt be the ones defining the future of financial crime prevention, realising its profound implications for productivity, competitive differentiation, and client service well ahead of the curve.
“Yet concerns around data privacy and regulations have the potential to stall adoption. By selecting software solutions with built-in governance and control frameworks, financial institutions can reap the benefits of agentic-AI while meeting global regulatory obligations.”
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