Capgemini on Agentic AI: How are Fintechs Responding?

A new report from Capgemini suggests the financial services industry is rapidly moving beyond generative AI into the era of autonomous agents.

The World Cloud Report 2026, based on a survey of 1,100 financial services executives, highlights a significant opportunity for market leaders.

It found that whilst 87% of firms use traditional AI and 32% use GenAI, only 10% are currently using AI agents at scale.

This gap represents the next frontier for automation and intelligent operations.

The new agentic era

Unlike previous models, these are autonomous systems that can reason, learn and act independently to achieve predefined goals.

AI agents are already being deployed to independently handle complex tasks like underwriting, fraud detection and customer service.

Kartik Ramakrishnan, CEO of Capgemini's Financial Services Strategic Business Unit, says.

"The opportunity is clear: leverage cloud-powered Al agents as catalysts for sustainable growth, to build customer trust and foster lasting innovation in an evolving digital economy".

Kartik noted that leading banks and insurers are already using agents to modernise core systems and unify enterprise knowledge.

A booming market

The market is moving quickly to capitalise on this potential. Capgemini itself recently completed its acquisition of WNS in October 2025.

The move aims to create a global leader in agentic AI-powered intelligent operations, signalling a strong corporate bet on the technology.

This push reflects a broader trend seen across the fintech landscape, such as the roll out of AI agents from Intuit for its UK customers. 

Cloud as the orchestrator

This evolution is only possible due to the changing role of cloud platforms. Cloud is no longer just support infrastructure or a provider of flexible storage.

It has evolved into an AI innovation enabler that orchestrates these complex multi-agent systems.

The report details how cloud platforms now provide the pipelines, machine learning platforms and governance capabilities essential for scaling AI.

Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies are delivering the required scale resilience and compliance for a highly regulated environment.

This deep integration, however, demands new financial discipline.

Vidya Vidyasagar, Global Head of Cloud & Production Engineering at Standard Chartered Bank, notes: "Finops should be integrated into the architectural design, not as an afterthought, but as an ongoing discipline.

"As Al agents expand across cloud environments, financial governance becomes as important as technical scalability.”

Value beyond automation

For fintechs and payment providers, the value lies in optimising core processes and creating new revenue streams.

The report identifies quick wins in banking as CRM-integrated sales credit underwriting and KYC automation.

For insurers, this includes policy underwriting and quotations.

This technology unlocks new capabilities in risk management, a core function of open payments.

Romeo Alvarez, SVP of Cloud Platform Technology at Synchrony, highlights: "Agentic Al is expected to transform fraud detection and credit decisioning.

"By analysing behavioural patterns and contextual data, agents can help expand approval rates while maintaining a strong risk profile unlocking underserved customer segments".

This also meets a rising customer demand that firms can no longer ignore.

A full 88% of executives stated that customers now expect and demand hyper-personalisation and relevance.

Navigating the roadblocks

Despite the optimism, significant barriers remain.

The report found that an overwhelming 96% of leaders see regulatory and compliance challenges as a key roadblock to adoption.

Firms must navigate a complex web of global data privacy laws, from GDPR in Europe to Singapore's PDPA.

Another 92% of executives identified a critical lack of AI-related skills among business leaders and employees.

To combat this, 48% of firms are already introducing new roles such as agent supervisors and coordinators.

This complexity means human oversight remains essential for the foreseeable future.

Lloyd Scholz, Chief Technology Officer at Markel, comments: "Maintaining a human-in-the-loop remains crucial, especially in regulated settings."

He continues: "Trust, explainability, and governance are vital components in deploying Al agents, ensuring that automation supports rather than replaces human judgment".

The new strategic imperative

Financial institutions are clearly moving from experimentation to implementation.

The journey begins with automating high-impact processes like KYC and claims.

It ends with a fundamental redesign of operating models, including the rise of cloud shoring to replace traditional offshore hubs.

This shift to cloud-powered agents is no longer a technical upgrade but a strategic imperative for survival and growth in the digital economy.