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Advanced AI deployments are laying the foundations for long-term economic growth through the financial services sector, finds new techUK report

24 June 20264 min read
techUK

[London, UK] 24 June 2026 – Technology trade association techUK today launched Agents of Change, a new report on generative and agentic AI in financial services. The report documents the progress of AI agents and generative systems across banking, insurance, and capital market, and sets out the roadmap to sustain long-term economic progress. 

A world-leading, AI-enabled financial services sector is central to the UK's ambition to become the world's most technologically advanced global financial centre by 2035 and to support the government’s own economic growth ambitions.

The deployments documented in the report, with case studies provided by major tech companies such as NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft, and IBM among others, demonstrate that the foundations for that leadership are already being laid and producing measurable outcomes.

Examples include a real-time agentic AI system operating inside a live fraud contact centre, interpreting calls as they unfold and surfacing risk signals to colleagues in real time; an AI-powered complaints transformation at a major UK bank cutting resolution times from 18 days to 8 and improving allocation accuracy from 60% to 90%; and AI-driven supply chain mapping enabling insurance products that previously couldn't be offered at scale.

The report finds that the most advanced deployments share a common characteristic: governance built directly into deployment architecture from the outset, rather than applied after the fact. 

As AI is proven to provide clear value in the financial services sector, the report explores   how governance, oversight, and operational resilience frameworks should evolve alongside increasingly capable systems. The right framework will be required in order to realise the full economic potential of AI in UK financial services. 

In the report, techUK sets out three directions to support these goals: 

  • Establish a dedicated agentic AI workstream as part of an existing public-private initiative 
    As firms deploy more agentic systems, there is value in using an existing forum to develop practical guidance and shared approaches to the governance questions these systems raise, including how human oversight can remain meaningful as agentic systems operate at greater speed and scale. techUK believes the Bank of England and FCA's AI Consortium, or a similar cross-cutting public-private forum, is the right mechanism. A dedicated workstream should publish a programme of work before the end of 2026. 

  • Expand shared AI deployment infrastructure 
    The FCA's Supercharged Sandbox demonstrates the value of shared AI deployment infrastructure, but demand has outpaced capacity, with 132 applications for 22 places in Cohort 1. Government and regulators should build on this model by expanding capacity to meet demand and sustaining long-term investment in the FCA's AI Lab. Shared infrastructure lowers the barriers to responsible AI adoption for firms of all sizes and strengthens the UK's position as the leading environment for responsible AI experimentation in financial services. 

  • Strengthen AI supply chain resilience across the ecosystem 
    Technology providers, financial services firms, and government each have a role to play. Technology providers should improve transparency around model changes and deprecations. Financial services firms should build on existing operational resilience and third-party risk management frameworks. Government should progress the first Critical Third-Party designations without further delay. A resilient AI supply chain is a prerequisite for the sustained, confident adoption that the UK's economic ambitions require. 

James Challinor, Head of Financial Services at techUK, said: 

"The UK has all the ingredients to be the world's leading AI-enabled financial centre – the institutions, the talent, the regulatory framework, and now the evidence of live deployment at scale. AI in UK financial services is no longer arriving – it is already here, and it is already working. The task now is to ensure that governance, resilience, and shared infrastructure keep pace with that deployment. If we get that right, the UK's ambition to be the world's most technologically advanced global financial centre by 2035 is within reach." 

Notes to Editors

The report will be available at this link. (from 00:01 on 24 June)

The report was developed through written engagement, virtual workshops, and webinars with techUK member organisations across the financial technology ecosystem. Use cases featured in the report were submitted directly by contributing organisations and reflect leading edge practice.

Press contact:

Margherita Certo, Head of Strategic Communications, techUK

Amelie Hayes, Junior Communications Manager, techUK