Agentic AI is emerging as one of the most closely watched technologies in financial crime and compliance, with senior leaders increasingly confident that it will fundamentally change how work is carried out across the function.
New research conducted between Hawk and Chartis highlights a clear shift in sentiment, with more than three quarters of compliance and risk leaders expecting agentic AI to deliver a positive impact on financial crime and compliance effectiveness over the next two to three years.
Notably, a third believe it will drive a major transformation in how compliance work is performed, rather than simply optimising existing processes.
These findings are drawn from the report AI in Financial Crime and Compliance: Charting the Path from Pilot to Maturity, which examines how banks, payments firms and FinTechs are moving from experimentation with AI to more mature, embedded deployments.
When asked directly about the impact of agentic AI on financial crime and compliance operations, respondents expressed a strong sense of optimism balanced with a degree of realism. Almost half expect agentic AI to enhance existing compliance processes. A smaller proportion remain sceptical, viewing the technology as overhyped and unlikely to deliver meaningful change.
This confidence is increasingly reflected in budget decisions. Investment in agentic AI is set to grow steadily over the coming years, with the majority of compliance and risk leaders anticipating funding increases of up to 25%. A further cohort expects even more significant rises and only a very small minority foresee any reduction in investment.
The anticipated impact on the financial crime workforce is more nuanced. Rather than wholesale job losses, leaders largely expect a reshaping of roles and responsibilities. Many predict moderate reductions in headcount as repetitive, manual tasks are automated, while core expertise remains essential. Others expect staffing levels to stay broadly the same, with AI changing how work is done rather than how many people are employed. A smaller group anticipates growth in specialist roles focused on oversight, governance and strategic deployment of AI.
Use-case prioritisation offers further insight into how organisations plan to deploy agentic AI. Case investigations are seen as the area with the greatest potential impact, followed closely by narrative generation and suspicious activity report drafting. Background research and contextual analysis also rank highly.
For more insights into the growth of AI, download the reports here. There are two editions to the report: Banking and Payment & FinTech.
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