The Next Frontier of Finance: Unlocking Agentic AI

Executive summary

Agentic AI is not a future concept but a transformation that is already underway across the economy, including in financial services. According to the World Economic Forum, the global AI agents market, valued at $5.4 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $236 billion by 2034, is rapidly expanding into core enterprise functions, reshaping how organisations operate, make decisions and interact with customers.

AI agents capable of acting on behalf of users are beginning to improve financial management, enable new digital services and streamline payments, making financial services more efficient, personalised and readily available to consumers and businesses.

At the same time, the impact of agentic AI extends well beyond retail use cases. Organisations are increasingly deploying agentic systems to augment decision-making, automate complex workflows, coordinate activities across functions and operate with a degree of autonomy in operational, risk, compliance and customer-facing processes. As adoption accelerates, agentic AI has the potential to reshape how work is performed, decisions are made and organisations govern technology. This creates significant opportunities whilst introducing new challenges related to accountability, oversight, transparency and risk management.

To support the development of agentic AI in financial services, DIGITALEUROPE calls on EU policymakers to consider the following recommendations:

• Ensure that the development of agentic AI in financial services is based on clear governance, consumer protection, liability, standards and interoperability, evaluation and testing, transparency and human accountability. Existing regulatory frameworks, including those governing financial services, should be fully implemented and their interaction with Agentic AI clarified before any new rules are considered.
• Anchor agentic finance in the principle that the user remains in control: AI agents should act only within the boundaries authorised by the user. Delegated authority and transactions carried out under it should be independently identifiable and verifiable, with authentication proportionate to the risk and consistent with existing framework.
• Maintain a risk-based, proportionate and technology neutral regulatory approach that focuses on specific use cases and outcomes rather than regulating agentic AI as a standalone technology category.
• Ensure SME participation, reduce barriers for smaller operators and avoid prescriptive requirements that only larger firms have the resources to meet.
• Promote international regulatory cooperation, the development of common standard and convergence to support interoperable governance frameworks that foster innovation whilst maintaining trust, security and consumer protection.