Joy Agwunobi 

The global banking industry may be on the brink of one of its most profound transformations yet and this time, the disruption may come not from within financial institutions, but from the customers they serve. 

This is according to the 2025 Global Banking Annual Review released by McKinsey & Company, which predicts that agentic AI,  autonomous artificial intelligence systems capable of making decisions and executing financial tasks  will fundamentally reshape the structure, economics, and competitive dynamics of global banking.

The report highlights a reversal in the direction of technological disruption. Rather than banks driving innovation through new digital tools, it suggests that empowered consumers using AI agents to manage their finances could shift the balance of power. “Customers’ use of AI will affect banking value pools at least as much as what banks do, maybe even more,” McKinsey stated.

For decades, banks have thrived on customer inertia,  the tendency of clients to remain loyal to their primary financial institutions despite better offers elsewhere. This behavioural pattern, McKinsey notes, has been critical to sustaining profitability in high-margin segments such as deposits and credit card lending, which accounted for about 10 percent of global banking profits in 2024.

However, that inertia is eroding. Neobanks and fintech platforms have already made it easier for customers to compare, switch, or diversify their financial relationships. Agentic AI is expected to accelerate this evolution dramatically, introducing a new layer of automation and intelligence to consumer decision-making. These AI agents can analyse financial data in real time, identify the best savings rates or credit offers, and even execute transactions without the user’s direct intervention.

The extent of disruption, McKinsey notes, will depend on several interrelated factors: the sophistication and autonomy of AI agents, the pace of consumer adoption, regulatory conditions, and how quickly banks adapt.

In the firm’s baseline scenario, customers would still need to authorise major transactions manually. Yet, open banking frameworks and digital currencies could soon enable AI systems to act independently, with direct access to user accounts. Even limited adoption of such technologies could produce disproportionate effects on banking profitability and customer engagement models.

While skepticism about AI’s speed of maturity persists, McKinsey argues that agentic AI has already moved beyond theoretical promise. Unlike traditional AI systems that depend on rigid rules, agentic models can interpret unstructured data, learn from user behaviour, and execute multi-step processes autonomously, a shift with immense operational implications.

Evidence of this evolution is already visible across global banking operations. Data from Evident, a platform that tracks AI adoption in financial services, reveals more than 160 active AI use cases across 50 major banks worldwide in 2025. These include: A U.S. bank that improved credit memo processing productivity by up to 60 percent through AI agents, an Indian digital bank that now monitors 100 percent of collections calls, compared with just 4 percent previously, An European lender that tripled marketing click-through rates by deploying AI-personalised campaigns, and a  leading U.S. investment bank that enhanced deal execution efficiency through AI-powered knowledge management systems.

These use cases, McKinsey argues, represent the early stages of what could become a full-scale transformation toward AI-first banking infrastructure.

McKinsey envisions a future where banks operate with AI-first infrastructure, transforming core processes across the industry. This model features agent-first customer care, where universal AI agents manage interactions across all communication channels and seamlessly transfer complex cases to human teams.

It also includes zero-touch operations, in which AI agents independently handle tasks such as onboarding, document verification, and loan processing without human intervention. Autonomous fraud detection forms another key component, enabling real-time monitoring and resolution of financial crimes through self-learning algorithms.

The framework extends to next-generation corporate functions, where AI streamlines HR, finance, and compliance activities, improving efficiency across internal operations. In risk management, AI systems conduct continuous credit risk testing and fraud monitoring to strengthen decision-making and ensure regulatory compliance.

Additionally, McKinsey highlights the rise of agentic product factories—AI-human collaboration systems designed to accelerate product development and deployment within banks, making innovation faster, smarter, and more data-driven.

While such systems promise operational cost reductions of 30–50 percent in some workflows, McKinsey cautions that efficiency gains alone may not translate into sustainable profit growth. Rising consumer expectations and competitive pricing could compel banks to pass much of these savings back to customers.

“The challenge,” McKinsey concludes, “is not just in cutting costs but in redefining how value is created in a market where digital agents, not people, may soon control the flow of capital.”

A new consumer decision journey

The report also highlights a broader behavioural transformation in how consumers engage with financial services. Today’s customers, especially younger generations, are “more digital, less loyal, and more deliberate” in choosing financial providers.

McKinsey describes this process through the Consumer Decision Journey (CDJ) framework. It begins with the Initial Consideration Set (ICS),  the first few banks that come to mind when a consumer seeks a financial product. From there, users enter active evaluation, during which they explore and compare other options. Historically, many customers entered a loyalty loop by purchasing additional products from their existing bank without reconsidering alternatives. However, the firm notes that this loop is rapidly weakening in an age of intelligent automation.

“Winning with consumers is crucial,” McKinsey emphasises. “AI is shaking up how customers and banks interact, raising expectations for seamless, hyper-personalised experiences. The banks that thrive will be those that design their strategies around empowered digital customers  not just the technologies that serve them.”

The 2025 Global Banking Annual Review portrays a financial world on the verge of consumer-driven automation,one where intelligent agents act as financial gatekeepers and where traditional advantages like brand loyalty and scale are no longer guarantees of dominance.

As McKinsey warns, the age of agentic AI will redraw competitive boundaries: “Pioneers capture outsize gains, while slow movers face decline.”