Artificial Intelligence is soon going to step into another role: AI agents will monitor millions of bank accounts to detect and fight financial crimes in the wake of growing cyber-related threats.
To make this possible, Anthropic and Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) have partnered to develop new AI tools designed specifically for banks.
Under this partnership, both the companies will develop and deploy agentic AI systems to protect financial institutions against nefarious designs and criminal activities such as money laundering, terrorism and drug trafficking.
The primary goal is to leverage Anthropic’s cloud to automate complex financial tasks using FIS’s data infrastructure.
Stephanie Ferris, CEO of FIS, said the first AI tool will automate financial crimes investigations and thoroughly investigate criminals, including drug traffickers and other criminals who exploit the financial system.
The tool will be tested first by the Bank of Montreal and Amalgamated Bank and later in the second half of the year, financial crime agents will be available to other customers as well.
Talking about its efficiency, the tool is expected to reduce the time and cost of anti-money laundering efforts through automation in collecting evidence from various sources.
Although these agents act autonomously, Ferris explained that despite the automation of data gathering related to account information and transactions, human investigators will still make the final decisions about whether to pursue cases.
The move comes as banks are already spending billions annually on anti-money laundering efforts as the Trump administration signals a shift toward focusing on high-risk crimes rather than technical compliance.
