Financial institutions are actively moving key customer-facing processes to AI agents, marking a rapid transformation in how customers interact with banks and insurers, according to the Capgemini Research Institute’s ‘World Cloud Report in Financial Services 2026’.
The report found that the top processes banks are deploying cloud-native AI agents for include customer service (75 per cent), fraud detection (64 per cent), loan processing (61 per cent), and customer onboarding (59 per cent). Insurers showed a similar pattern, prioritising customer service (70 per cent), underwriting (68 per cent), claims processing (65 per cent), and onboarding (59 per cent).
AI agents seen as key to growth and efficiency
Financial services executives are optimistic that AI agents can address long-standing inefficient business functions. They cited real-time decision-making (96 per cent), improved accuracy (91 per cent), and faster turnaround times (89 per cent) as key benefits.
Beyond operational efficiency, leaders view AI agents as a tool for driving tangible business outcomes. A striking 92 per cent of financial firms believe AI agents will help them expand into new geographies without the need for heavy upfront infrastructure investment. Furthermore, 79 per cent believe cloud-native agents can unlock dynamic pricing and tailored offers, while 75 per cent see multilingual agents as critical to serving diverse and underserved populations.
This potential has led to significant investment, with nearly two-in-three leaders indicating that up to 40 per cent of their generative AI budget is already allocated to agent technologies. By 2028, one-in-four firms expect to increase their spending on AI agent solutions by up to 60 per cent.
“The combination of AI and cloud allows banks and insurers to tap the power of AI agents to better serve their customers with greater precision, speed and impact,” said Ravi Khokhar, global head of cloud for financial services at Capgemini. “Our data reveals widespread industry optimism that the agentic era will open doors to new markets, signaling a new phase of transformation is upon us.”
Adoption gap and new job roles
While AI agent adoption is poised for rapid growth—with 80 per cent of firms in the ideation or pilot stage—only 10 per cent have implemented them at scale. To capitalise on the opportunity, which Capgemini estimates could deliver up to $450billion in economic value by 2028, 33 per cent of banks are developing their own proprietary AI agents in-house.
This shift is also creating a new dynamic between human and machine workflows. The report found that nearly half (48 per cent) of banks and insurers are creating new job roles specifically to supervise these AI systems.
Cloud as the engine of innovation
With AI agents capable of autonomously managing complex workflows, the role of the cloud is shifting from simple storage to an engine for innovation. Nearly two-in-three executives (61 per cent) now identify cloud-based orchestration as critical to their AI strategy.
Khokhar added: “To realize this potential, financial institutions must take a long-term view as humans work alongside agents. This means separating substance from hype. Leaders will need to consider how they can scale their agentic AI operation overtime, with a vision of what they want their businesses to look like at the end of this process.”
Despite the optimism, significant roadblocks remain. Nearly all executives unanimously pointed to a regulatory and compliance burden (96 per cent) and a looming skills gap (92 per cent) as critical challenges to adoption. High implementation costs also remain a barrier, leading 25 per cent of firms to lean towards a “service-as-a-software” model, where they pay for outcomes, such as fraud cases resolved, rather than for licenses and infrastructure.
