Banks are giving AI agents more work while keeping a close eye on how far they can go

A recent survey found that 52% of financial-services respondents are actively adopting agentic AI. However, the bigger question now is how much of the actual work these agents are now being trusted to do – moving beyond analysis and recommendations to execution.

This boundary is increasingly central to how these systems are evaluated through model-risk and vendor-review processes, whether banks add agents to banking workflows through vendors like nCino or build and deploy agents on their infrastructure through Google Cloud.

nCino customers see agents as an extension of their workforce

nCino is introducing agents into existing banking jobs rather than treating them as a separate AI layer. nCino’s Digital Partners, a suite of AI agents designed for specific banking functions, includes agents for analyst, processor, and service roles, and the company describes them as a “dual workforce” in which AI handles data-heavy work. At the same time, bankers retain time for judgment, relationships, and growth.

From the bank’s perspective, the important question is therefore which part of a banker’s workflow the institution is comfortable handing over to the agent. A commercial banker, for example, can have an agent collect and analyze information needed for a relationship review and prepare the work, rather than spending hours doing the underlying research manually. The banker then reviews that work and remains responsible for the consequential judgment.

For nCino’s latest customer, ConnectOne Bank, the interest in the vendor’s agentic technology is to free its bankers from administrative work so they can spend more time on higher-value work. 

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