Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly but steadily reshaping technology use, influencing market dynamics, and destabilising the growth of major tech giants.
Now AI looks set to transform our banking industry too.
As the AFR reports, ANZ Group Holdings (ASX: ANZ) group executive of technology, Gerard Florian, says his teams are creating artificial intelligence-powered "agents".
These AI agents will initially be used to work alongside bankers. They will help with everyday tasks and help to prepare for client meetings. The idea is that the extra help will boost workforce productivity.
Florian describes the planned rollout as "the single-biggest change program" the bank will undertake over the next few years.
Florian said that ANZ's AI agents will be able to help bankers compile reports on companies and sectors to improve engagement during meetings. In time, agents may be used to triage loan applications.
Two of ANZ's new platforms – Plus and Transactive for large corporate customers – have been designed to run "agentic" AI.
Image source: Getty Images
Agentic Artificial Intelligence – What is it, and how does it work?
Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence designed to autonomously perform tasks, make decisions, and adapt to changing conditions. It has minimal human intervention.
These systems operate as independent "agents". They are able to essentially perceive their environment, reason through problems, and execute actions in order to achieve specific goals.
It's a type of technology expected to dominate over the next year as businesses look to automate basic tasks.
"For example, every Monday it'll action it to summarise my diary, clear any meetings with no agenda, send me the expense report exceptions and remind me of my overdue tasks", Tim Hogarth, chief technology officer at ANZ, says.
"As we write more and more code with AI, we'll have agentic AI run over our code base looking for errors, duplications and bugs and curate software before anyone reviews it".
As a result, Hogarth explains, fraud control systems will get better and faster at spotting criminal behaviour. This improvement will help to keep customers safe.
There are safety protocols in place, too.
"As with every single IT system in the bank – traditional, autonomous and agentic – everything gets checked, tested, proven, watched and monitored", Hogarth said.
"Agentic AI at ANZ will still operate within tightly controlled ANZ-defined boundaries: everything we do is always anchored to our mission to shape a world where people and communities thrive. If it's not safe, it doesn't get used".
Who else is developing AI agents?
In February this year, Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX: WBC) announced it is working with Accenture to enhance its digital banking services by using AI agents.
In March, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) also announced plans for investment into artificial intelligence (AI) safety and research company, Anthropic. The bank plans to use Anthropic's capabilities to transform customer experiences.
