- AI agents are transforming financial services by streamlining workflows, improving decision-making, and reducing operational inefficiency. They assist with tasks like customer onboarding, deal preparation, compliance reviews, and claims documentation—delivering faster and more consistent outcomes while respecting industry regulations and internal policies.
- The most valuable AI agents go beyond basic chatbots: they integrate securely with existing systems, retrieve and analyze company knowledge, execute context-driven actions, and continually adapt based on past interactions. Platforms like Glean deliver enterprise-grade security, enforce permission controls, and support rapid deployment of configurable, workflow-specific agents.
- Financial institutions can achieve measurable impact more quickly and with less risk by starting with targeted AI agent use cases and scaling as needs evolve, rather than overhauling entire processes all at once. This approach enables improved customer experiences, lower compliance risk, and better ROI without disrupting trusted systems or safeguards.
The financial services industry is operating under more pressure than ever. Regulatory requirements are shifting. Customer expectations are rising. Competition is increasing. And the cost of inefficiency keeps climbing.
To keep up, many firms have invested heavily in AI — building data lakes, piloting chatbots, and testing new tools. But for all the momentum, one challenge remains: turning those investments into meaningful operational impact.
That’s where AI agents come in.
AI agents don’t just respond to questions. They retrieve information, reason through it, and take action — helping employees streamline everyday work, from onboarding and claims processing to audits and deal prep.
In this blog, we’ll explore how agents are transforming real workflows across banking, insurance, asset management, and more. You'll see why the right agent, in the right workflow, can make a measurable difference — today.
What is an AI agent?
An AI agent is more than a chatbot. It’s a task-oriented assistant that can retrieve information, reason over it, and take action — all grounded in your company’s knowledge, data, and systems.
Here’s what an AI agent can do in practice:
- Search across tools like email, policy portals, CRMs, and document repositories to find relevant information
- Analyze inputs and recommend next steps in complex workflows
- Take action by drafting a policy summary, generating a report, or responding to an audit request
- Learn from past interactions to improve accuracy and relevance over time
For financial institutions, the most valuable AI agents are built on platforms that are secure, configurable, and enterprise-ready. That means access controls are enforced, actions reflect internal policy, and results are personalized to each user’s role and permissions.
Why AI agents work so well in financial services
AI agents are a natural fit for financial services because they’re built to work within complex, highly regulated environments. They don’t require firms to overhaul existing systems. Instead, agents integrate with the tools employees already use and operate within established workflows.
Crucially, they also:
- Respect governance policies and role-based access controls
- Adhere to industry regulations and internal compliance frameworks
- Act on institutional knowledge — not just surface-level information
- Improve decision-making across front-, middle-, and back-office teams
Where large-scale AI initiatives can take years to deliver results, agents offer a faster, lower-risk path to impact. Firms can start small, demonstrate value quickly, and scale adoption as workflows mature.
AI agent examples across financial services
These examples reflect real challenges financial institutions face every day, and how AI agents can help solve them with speed, consistency, and context. They show what’s possible when firms build agents on a secure, flexible platform like Glean.
Each one is a starting point to imagine how you might streamline workflows, reduce risk, or improve customer experiences — by putting the right information in the right hands, instantly.
Retail and commercial banking
Customer onboarding assistant
Instantly delivers up-to-date forms, policies, and product information.
- Problem to solve: Onboarding teams waste time searching for the latest versions of forms, disclosures, and product details across disconnected systems.
- What it does: Retrieves relevant content — such as fee schedules, account terms, and documentation workflows — from tools like SharePoint and Confluence.
- The impact: Speeds up onboarding, ensures consistency across branches, and reduces compliance risk.
Cross-sell guide for branch associates
Surfaces personalized product recommendations in real time during customer conversations.
- Problem to solve: Associates lack context about customers’ financial goals and past interactions, leading to missed opportunities.
- What it does: Combines data from CRMs, account histories, and interaction logs to suggest relevant services or products — along with supporting collateral.
- The impact: Improves customer lifetime value, increases adoption of bank services, and boosts associate productivity.
Corporate and investment banking
Deal prep agent
Prepares bankers for client meetings by consolidating pitch materials, financials, and history.
- Problem to solve: Deal teams spend hours pulling content from multiple sources to build decks and prepare for client interactions.
- What it does: Gathers precedent transactions, pitch materials, and client-specific insights from Salesforce, email, and shared drives.
- The impact: Shortens prep time, enhances meeting quality, and accelerates deal cycles.
Compliance documentation summarizer
Makes regulatory documents easier to review and act on.
- Problem to solve: Compliance professionals struggle to extract key information from long documents filled with complex clauses.
- What it does: Summarizes contracts, regulations, and policies, flags important clauses, and links directly to internal guidance.
- The impact: Speeds up reviews, lowers the risk of noncompliance, and improves audit preparedness.
Wealth and asset management
Client insights agent
Delivers a holistic view of each client to support more personalized advice.
- Problem to solve: Advisors spend too much time piecing together insights from email, CRM systems, and past reports.
- What it does: Aggregates investment goals, communication history, and performance data into a single, accessible view.
- The impact: Strengthens client relationships, increases wallet share, and supports more targeted recommendations.
Investment research summarizer
Creates digestible research briefs tailored to advisors’ portfolios.
- Problem to solve: Advisors struggle to keep up with the volume of analyst reports, earnings summaries, and market updates.
- What it does: Synthesizes internal and external research, highlighting relevant updates by client segment or portfolio focus.
- The impact: Helps advisors stay informed and respond quickly with high-quality insights.
Insurance
Claims documentation assistant
Automates the collection of supporting documents for claims reviews.
- Problem to solve: Claims teams must track down prior correspondence, policy coverage, and documentation across multiple tools.
- What it does: Searches systems like Salesforce, SharePoint, and email for relevant files and assembles a complete claims packet.
- The impact: Reduces processing time, minimizes manual errors, and improves the overall claims experience.
Loss control content generator
Drafts customized risk prevention materials for commercial clients.
- Problem to solve: Risk engineers spend hours producing tailored safety reports and recommendations.
- What it does: Uses client profiles, historical claims, and previous reports to generate new loss control content.
- The impact: Increases report output, supports client engagement, and lowers underwriting risk.
Risk, compliance, and audit
Sensitive data exposure monitor
Detects oversharing or at-risk data across systems.
- Problem to solve: Teams lack real-time visibility into where sensitive data lives or how it's being accessed.
- What it does: Scans connected tools — like Box, SharePoint, and Jira — for access violations, expired permissions, or data exposure.
- The impact: Strengthens governance, reduces regulatory risk, and simplifies compliance reporting.
Audit prep assistant
Gathers and organizes documentation required for audits.
- Problem to solve: Audit prep pulls employees away from core work as they manually compile findings, evidence, and policies.
- What it does: Retrieves past audits, risk controls, and related documentation to support internal or external review.
- The impact: Cuts prep time, improves accuracy, and supports stronger audit outcomes.
What makes Glean the right platform for AI agents in financial services
Glean’s Work AI platform is purpose-built for complex, regulated environments like financial services. Whether you're launching your first agent or scaling across departments, Glean gives you the tools to move quickly — without compromising on control, security, or accuracy.
Key capabilities include:
- Enterprise-grade security: SOC 2 Type II certification, GDPR compliance, and zero-retention AI by default
- Real-time permission enforcement: Agents only access information each user is authorized to see
- 100+ native integrations: Connects seamlessly with tools like Salesforce, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Box, and more
- Agent templates and libraries: Accelerate time-to-value with prebuilt workflows designed for financial services
- Custom actions and extensions: Configure agents to reflect your firm’s exact processes, data flows, and approval paths
What sets Glean apart is its ability to unify knowledge, context, and execution in one platform. That means agents can go beyond answering questions — they help teams take the next step.
A smarter path to AI adoption
In financial services, innovation can’t come at the expense of security, accuracy, or compliance. That’s why the most impactful AI initiatives don’t try to reinvent everything at once. They focus on real workflows, clear outcomes, and proven ROI.
AI agents offer a practical way to start small and scale fast. From onboarding and audits to deal prep and claims management, they’re already helping firms reduce costs, improve decisions, and deliver better service.
And with Glean, it’s easy to get started — without disrupting the systems or safeguards you already trust.
Download the financial services whitepaper or get a demo to see what’s possible.
