DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
For the past two years, conversation surrounding AI in financial services has largely been confined to the user interface( UI). We have viewed generative AI through the lens of copilots, intelligent UI overlays designed to nudge human decision-making in the right direction. But a deeper architectural shift is under way.
The industry is moving past simple prompt-and-response interfaces toward agentic AI, which is capable of autonomously orchestrating multi-step settlements or compliance audits.
According to Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft, we are witnessing a fundamental relocation of intelligence.
“ For the last two years, copilots have been about augmenting human decision-making, sitting at the UI layer and helping professionals move faster,” he explains.
“ What’ s changing with agentic AI is that intelligence moves deeper into the system of record and system of action. Now you’ re orchestrating end-to-end workflows – settlements, trade finance, compliance reviews – where agents can reason, access data and execute across multiple systems, not just recommend the next step.”
This evolution transforms AI from a novel digital assistant into something far more structural.
“ At a higher level, we’ re seeing AI become a new factor of production – working alongside human expertise,” Bill says. technologymagazine. com 111