Letter from the Editor: Financial services have always relied on one thing. AI is taking it away.
- As AI agents assume more responsibility for commerce, the transaction remains visible, but the decision-making behind it becomes increasingly opaque.
- Financial services are reconstructing the decision trail AI has hidden. That's why the industry's conversation increasingly revolves around intent, context, governance, permissions, explainability, and accountability.
The ‘Letter from the Editor’ series features exclusive insight and opinion-driven analysis from Tearsheet editor Sara Khairi. The focus is on linking ideas, questioning assumptions, and tracking shifts across both mature and emerging trends in financial services.
This is now PRO-only content. Subscribe to PRO so you never miss a Letter from the Editor exclusive.
[Writer’s Note: We’re back with a fresh weekly edition after taking last week off for the Independence Day weekend.]
Issue # 8
Over the past few months, I’ve been speaking with financial leaders preparing for agentic commerce. Lenders are rethinking how they evaluate risk. Merchants are wondering what happens when shoppers are no longer people clicking through websites, but software acting on their behalf. Meanwhile, BNPL providers are increasingly considering approaches similar to KYC for AI agents as autonomous software takes on a larger role in initiating transactions.
These conversations couldn’t have been more different. They involve different products, different business models, and different parts of the financial ecosystem. Yet I kept hearing variations of the same concern: how do you know that a transaction truly reflects what the customer intended?
Financial services have rarely had to ask that question. The industry has largely taken comfort in the assumption that somewhere in every financial interaction, there was a visible human decision. Someone clicked Buy, signed the loan agreement, reviewed the repayment terms, or tapped Confirm before the money moved.
That moment became evidence that the customer had understood the decision, accepted its consequences, and intended for it to happen. Modern financial infrastructure grew around that assumption. Fraud systems learned to distinguish normal human behaviour from suspicious activity. Lenders inferred confidence and commitment from the choices customers made during the application process. Banks built dispute processes around the idea that, somewhere along the journey, there had been a clear expression of consent.
Now that proof is becoming harder to find.
As AI agents begin researching products, comparing prices, selecting merchants, arranging financing, and eventually completing purchases, what changes is the industry’s ability to observe the decision that led to it.
In many ways, it explains why so many companies across financial services suddenly seem to be working on similar problems, even if they’re using very different language to describe them.
…
