Banks and insurers turn to AI agents to tackle fraud

Banks and insurers are ushering in a new era of automation, with artificial intelligence agents taking over key customer-facing processes. According to Capgemini Research Institute’s World Cloud Report in Financial Services 2026, institutions are increasingly turning to AI agents for efficiency and speed, reshaping how customers interact with financial organizations.

Among banks, customer service (75%), fraud detection (64%), and loan processing (61%) are the top functions being automated. Insurers mirror this trend, using AI agents for underwriting (68%), claims processing (65%), and onboarding (59%). Collectively, these changes are redefining the traditional customer journey in finance.

In-house innovation and new AI roles

The report shows that33% of banks are developing their own AI agents in-house, though only one in ten firms has reached large-scale deployment. Nearly half of financial institutions are creating new supervisory roles to monitor and guide AI agents, a clear sign that humans remain central to the AI equation.

The combination of AI and cloud computing is key to this transformation. Sixty-one percent of executives now see cloud-based orchestration as critical to their AI strategies, turning the cloud into an “innovation engine” rather than just a storage or infrastructure solution.

Ravi Khokhar, Global Head of Cloud for Financial Services at Capgemini, said, “Our data reveals widespread industry optimism that the agentic era will open doors to new markets. To realize this potential, institutions must take a long-term view as humans work alongside agents, separating substance from hype.”

Economic potential worth billions

Capgemini estimates that AI agents could unlock up to USD 450 billion in economic value by 2028. With nearly 80% of firms currently in the ideation or pilot stages, the coming years could bring rapid expansion.

Executives report strong confidence in the benefits:

• 96% expect better real-time decision-making.

• 91% anticipate improved accuracy.

• 89% foresee faster turnaround times.

Beyond efficiency, 92% of leaders believe AI agents will help expand into new geographies with minimal upfront investment, while 79% expect cloud-native AI agents to enable dynamic pricing and targeted offers.

Spending big on agentic AI

Financial firms are backing their optimism with funding. Almosttwo in three executives say up to 40% of their generative AI budget is already devoted to agentic technologies, with a quarter planning to increase spending by up to 60% by 2028.

However, challenges remain. Skills shortages (92%), regulatory hurdles (96%), and high implementation costs are major obstacles to scaling AI across the enterprise. To manage costs, some firms are adopting a service-as-a-software model, paying for outcomes, such as transactions processed or fraud cases resolved, rather than traditional licenses.

The human–AI collaboration era begins

The Capgemini study underscores that financial services are at a pivotal moment. As automation scales, new human roles are emerging to ensure transparency, ethics, and accuracy in AI operations.

With regulatory frameworks evolving and cloud platforms maturing, the next few years will determine how successfully banks and insurers can blend human intelligence with machine autonomy, and whether AI agents can truly deliver on their trillion-dollar promise.