How Agentic Commerce Will Redefine Customer Experience by 2026

Finance is entering a new phase of intelligence. After the chatbot and workflow-automation era, agentic systems are emerging: autonomous AI entities capable of reasoning, collaborating, and acting on behalf of institutions. These agents are not simply assistants; they are evolving into decision-makers that learn, predict, and optimise financial interactions in real time.

According to PwC, 79% of senior executives report that AI agents are already being adopted within their organisations, and 66% say these systems are driving measurable productivity gains. By 2026, agentic intelligence will underpin the next generation of payments, risk management, and customer experience, shifting finance from reactive operations to self-driven, predictive ecosystems.

By 2026, AI agents will shift from experiments to core parts of financial infrastructure. Here are four trends driving that change.

1. Agentic Payments Move into Live Deployment

2026 will mark the first real-world rollout of agent-initiated payments, where verified AI agents can execute transactions securely on behalf of users. Visa’s newly launched Trusted Agent Protocol allows merchants to verify agent identity and authenticate autonomous checkouts. According to Visa, AI-driven shopping interactions on retail sites have grown by 4,700% year-on-year, and 85% of consumers using AI-assisted purchasing report an improved experience. This confirms a behavioural readiness for frictionless, delegated financial interactions, where payments are executed by agents, not users.

2. Predictive Liquidity and Smart Rebalancing

The next evolution of personal and corporate finance will see autonomous liquidity agents forecast cash flow, anticipate upcoming expenses, and reallocate funds in real time. The global AI agents in the financial services market, valued at USD 490 million in 2024, are projected to reach USD 4.4 billion by 2030, growing at more than 45% annually. Research published in arXiv (2025) shows AI orchestration systems can reduce financial workflow errors by up to 94% while cutting processing time nearly in half. These capabilities transform banking from reactive account management to continuous, self-optimising balance control.

3. Multi-Agent “Crews” for Risk and Modelling

Financial institutions are shifting from single AI models to collaborative agentic teams, or “crews,” that manage complex risk and compliance tasks in parallel. Each agent within a crew performs a specialised role, validation, modelling, or documentation, while a coordinator agent maintains traceability and ensures adherence to policy. Academic frameworks like FinRobot demonstrate that modular agent teams outperform monolithic systems in both accuracy and governance reliability. For banks under regulatory pressure to explain every algorithmic decision, crew architectures offer transparent, auditable automation rather than opaque black boxes.

4. Compliance Automation as the Trust Layer

Autonomy in finance will only scale if the compliance layer keeps pace. Solution providers such as Vivox AI are already using pre-trained agents to automate up to 90% of manual AML, sanctions, and KYC review work, boosting compliance efficiency by 80%. A 2025 White & Case survey found that 36% of global organisations are deploying AI in compliance and investigations, while another 26% use it exclusively for risk monitoring. As financial transactions become increasingly agent-driven, compliance automation is emerging as the invisible safeguard ensuring trust, traceability, and accountability.

The Road Ahead: From Automation to Autonomy

By 2026, finance will no longer be defined by the tools customers use, but by the intelligence that works on their behalf. Explore these innovations first-hand at the 22nd NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum, on 6 November 2025 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Limassol, Cyprus. The Forum brings together global leaders shaping the future of payments, regulation, and financial technology, where the next phase of agentic finance will be discussed live.

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By: Zinah Abdaki, Head of Marketing at QUBE Events