If generative AI changed how we produce content, agentic AI will change how we work
Read this guest blog by Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman at City of London Corporation, for techUK’s Tech and Innovation Focus Week 2026.
For the past two years, much of the discussion around AI has focused on access: who has the technology, who is investing and where the most visible use cases are emerging. As organisations move from experimentation to deployment the real barrier is changing. We must now ask ourselves whether organisations trust their systems enough to use them at scale.
That challenge becomes sharper with agentic AI. These are systems that can do more than generate "answers". They can plan, act, coordinate with other tools and carry out multi-step tasks. In practice, that means they could help people navigate public services more easily, reduce administrative burden, improve compliance processes, support professional advice and make financial and professional services (FPS) more productive.
The opportunity is considerable. But scale will not come from capability alone. It will depend on confidence.
This is where the conversation often becomes muddled. We still tend to talk about AI adoption as though it were mainly a technology story. In reality, it has become a trust, governance and capability story. Productivity gains are earned. Organisations only realise them when people understand the tools, trust the process and know what to do when something goes wrong.
That point matters even more when systems begin to act. If an AI tool generates a poor summary, the damage may be limited. If an agent drafts a client response, updates a record, escalates a risk, books an appointment or triggers a workflow, the consequences are much more immediate. The same quality that makes agentic AI attractive also raises the bar for responsible deployment.
For that reason, financial services offers a useful analogy. Firms are already familiar with the principle of Know Your Client. For agentic AI, we may need an equally disciplined mindset: Know Your Agent.
That means asking a set of practical questions before we worry about hype. What agents are deployed? What systems and data can they access? What are they permitted to do without approval? What are they explicitly prevented from doing? How are they monitored over time? When is a human brought in? And who is accountable for performance, failure modes and risk?
These questions sound simple, but in large organisations they are not. Even relatively straightforward internal systems can become difficult to navigate once responsibility, access and workflows are spread across multiple teams and platforms, as anyone using a shared drive knows. Add AI agents operating across those systems, and the need for clear lines of authority becomes obvious.
This is why technical levers matter. Responsible adoption will require strong identity and access controls, reliable audit trails, robust data governance and a clear understanding of how systems behave in real operating environments. Organisations need confidence that an agent is taking the right action, in the right context, with the right permissions.
But technical controls are only part of the answer. Agentic AI is also an organisational challenge. It is not just another software rollout. It is much closer to redesigning workflows and rethinking how work is handed off between people and systems. Leaders need to be clear where agents add value, where human judgement remains essential and where automation may simply shift risk elsewhere in the organisation.
That is why many of the most sensible early use cases are unlikely to be the most glamorous. Back-office processes, internal knowledge management, compliance support and administrative workflows may provide safer routes to build confidence before organisations move into higher-stakes, customer-facing decisions. In highly regulated sectors like financial services, that is likely to be the most credible path to responsible scale.
Skills are central to this. We often talk about AI literacy, but agentic systems require something closer to AI fluency: the ability to define goals, delegate tasks, challenge outputs, identify failure modes and intervene when necessary. In many organisations, the limiting factor will be whether teams can effectively manage systems acting on their behalf.
That is not a narrow training issue. It is a strategic one. Through initiatives such as Jobs 2030, the sector is beginning to come together to define what this kind of fluency looks like in practice. We support the campaign aims to upskill 100,000 FS workforce by 2030. If we get this right, the UK has an opportunity to turn a global challenge into its competitive advantage.
The prize is significant. Used well, agentic AI could improve productivity, strengthen public services and support high-growth firms across the economy. For the UK, it could also reinforce our position as a leading centre for financial and professional services in an increasingly AI-enabled world.
The organisations that succeed will be those that understand agents best: what they do, why they do it, what they can access, when they stop, and who is accountable.
That is the real task ahead. If we want responsible agentic AI adoption at scale, the priority is building the trust architecture around these systems: practical assurance, clear accountability and the workforce capability to govern action as well as output.
Agentic AI will change how work gets done. The question now is whether we are being intentional enough about the work we ask these systems to take on, and whether we're prepared enough to govern what follows.
Author
Chris Hayward
Chris Hayward
As Political Leader of the City of London Corporation, the Policy Chairman acts as a principal spokesperson and advocate for London as a global financial and professional services capital. Financial and professional services drive the UK economy, generating over £85bn in economic output annually, contributing 12% in total tax revenue to the UK government.
As Policy Chairman, Chris steers the development and delivery of the City Corporation’s priorities through the work of the Policy and Resources Committee which oversees the provision of local government services for our 8,600 residents and over 600,000 workers based in the Square Mile. Beyond our remit for financial and professional services, the City Corporation is the UK’s fourth biggest funder of culture, is the primary sponsor of the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is principal supporter of the Barbican Centre, Europe’s largest cultural space, and is leading the £397 million redevelopment of the London Museum.
In a career spanning more than four decades, Chris has founded, led, and expanded companies across the UK and globally in a range of industries – including aviation, publishing, B2B business development and construction. He has balanced his professional responsibilities with a commitment to public service, engaging in British politics at both the local and national level since early adulthood. He is a former Deputy Leader of Hertfordshire and Dorset County Councils and was first elected to Common Council of the City of London Corporation in March 2013. He has previously served as Chairman of the City Corporation’s Planning & Transportation Committee and as Sheriff of the City of London from 2019 – 2021.
He continues to serve as a Non-Executive Director working with companies focused on property, infrastructure, civil-engineering, and planning.
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Authors
Chris Hayward
As Political Leader of the City of London Corporation, the Policy Chairman acts as a principal spokesperson and advocate for London as a global financial and professional services capital. Financial and professional services drive the UK economy, generating over £85bn in economic output annually, contributing 12% in total tax revenue to the UK government.
