AI agents offer rewards for financial services, but must align with human values

A new white paper authored by the UK’s Neira Jones, a respected advisor on payments, fintech, information security and more, aims to help businesses navigate the opportunities and pitfalls of agentic AI.

“I wrote this paper because I’ve seen first-hand how innovation, left unchecked, can outpace our ability to govern, explain, and trust the systems we rely on,” says Jones in a post on LinkedIn. As someone who has spent a career at the intersection of risk, regulation, and technology, I know that the best outcomes come from asking tough questions and embracing change with eyes wide open.”

Refreshingly, Jones says she has “tried to make it practical, thought-provoking, and maybe even a bit fun (because who says compliance can’t have a sense of humour?).”

To be honest, the paper isn’t especially funny. But it is a thorough, detailed roadmap to the near-term future of agentic AI.

Jones frames it with what she calls the 1.2 billion question: “are we ready for agentic AI in financial services?” Not, she says, before reading this paper. “AI agents now approve transactions, combat fraud, and manage portfolios at machine speed, unlocking efficiency gains once deemed impossible,” she writes. Yet the same autonomy that brings such promise also comes with the capability to destabilize markets, erode trust and the potential to amp up fraud.

The gist of the paper is that agentic AI is happening, and businesses can either be taken on a ride or be in control of the itinerary. Detailed sections cover “the regulatory imperative,” recommendations for policymakers, the importance of transparency, challenges in legacy integration, and the technical profile needed to keep pace with the evolution of AI agents.

Jones notes that biometrics and tokenization are now the industry’s baseline for securing agentic AI transactions, with Visa and Mastercard at the forefront, “using tokenized credentials and biometric authentication to ensure that AI agents act only on behalf of users.” Still, she says, these measures “do not yet deliver the level of explainability or auditability that regulators and auditors increasingly expect.”

Jones believes “the rewards of agentic AI remain too significant to ignore.” Navigating its complexities will require collaboration, creativity and discipline. Ultimately, “the successful adoption of agentic AI in financial services will depend not just on technical prowess, but on commitment to transparency, robust governance, and alignment with human values.”

Investors advised to focus on infrastructure level

Some human values involve money, and AInvest has an article on how AI agents are reshaping e-commerce and fintech, and where investors should be looking. It forecasts a “staggering” surge in market potential: “the total addressable market (TAM) for agentic commerce is projected to reach $136 billion by 2025, with a long-term potential of $1.7 trillion by 2030.” The growth is “fueled by AI advancements and platforms like Mastercard’s Agent Pay and Visa’s tokenization protocols.”

The infrastructure layer will be critical for adoption of AI agents, and the piece recommends investors keep an eye on “early-stage platforms like Newgen and PayOS, which are directly addressing infrastructure gaps.”

“Investors should prioritize early-stage platforms enabling AI agent interactions and fintech enablers securing agent-driven commerce, as regulatory frameworks and consumer adoption accelerate the trillion-dollar shift.”

Strata Identity launches Identity Orchestration for AI Agents

Strata Identity apparently got the memo. A press release from the Colorado firm announces the introduction of a new product, Identity Orchestration for AI Agents, built on Strata’s Maverics vendor-agnostic identity fabric and hybrid air-gap architecture.

“Autonomous AI agents now act as users in enterprise systems – but without user-level guardrails or observability. So Strata is bringing policy-based identity security to runtime where agents live,” said Eric Olden, CEO of Strata Identity and co-author of the SAML standard. “Strata’s Maverics supports open identity frameworks such as OAuth and emerging standards like the AI-native MCP protocol, enabling seamless interoperability across vendors, platforms, and agent ecosystems at scale.”

Article Topics

AI agents  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  financial services  |  identity orchestration  |  Strata Identity  |  tokenization