Financial services enters the agentic GBS era

Regardless of the approach, many firms find themselves at a crossroads. Some have yet to embark on the transformation journey, remaining siloed and fragmented, sometimes exacerbated by less efficient outsourcing practices. Others may have achieved initial cost savings by relocating operations to low-cost centers but have reached a plateau, unable to realize further gains without a fundamental shift in their technology and operating models.

Either way, most are in one of two places: still at the very beginning of their transformation journey, remaining highly siloed and fragmented; or stuck in the middle, having already moved some functions to low-cost centers but struggling to deliver true value without a more broad-ranging operating model overhaul.

While artificial intelligence (AI) has been touted as a solution in some cases, most firms have deployed only limited AI capabilities, scattered across platforms and yielding minimal return on investment. These piecemeal AI implementations may have fallen short of delivering the promised transformative impact on operations and efficiency. They tend to operate in silos without integration or coordination. As a result, they’re frequently narrow in scope, focused on specific tasks like data summarization or basic automation.

This piecemeal approach to AI adoption may not offer optimal value for many firms, as confirmed by a recent MIT study. Without a holistic strategy and unified technology platform, the potential benefits of AI are not being fully realized. To truly harness the transformative power of AI, financial services companies should seek to move beyond these limited and fragmented deployments. A broad-ranging AI strategy, underpinned by a robust technology platform that is designed to enable a more seamless integration and orchestration of AI capabilities across the enterprise, is crucial for driving substantial operational efficiencies, cost savings, and enhanced customer experiences.

Global Business Services with KPMG Velocity, enabled by ServiceNow, is an agentic AI-enabled offering designed to improve operational productivity of corporate functions. By establishing a unified platform with shared data models and visualizations, organizations can give AI agents a holistic view of business processes. This enables automation of tasks, compliance monitoring, risk detection, and security enhancements. The result is a more streamlined operation where employees can be freed from repetitive tasks and can focus on higher-value work. This shift not only boosts productivity but can also drive cost efficiency and improve the overall customer experience.

The offering is also designed to address some of the long-standing issues in financial services, such as fragmented technology systems and siloed operations. By consolidating tech infrastructure, Global Business Services with KPMG Velocity can reduce complexity and maintenance costs while fostering better collaboration across departments. Its AI capabilities can enhance risk management by detecting fraud patterns and anomalies that might escape human notice. Automation also supports stronger compliance by reducing human error and helping to ensure consistent policy adherence. These improvements contribute to greater resilience and regulatory confidence in an increasingly complex environment.

To implement this transformation effectively, organizations are encouraged to adopt a phased approach—starting with back-office functions before expanding to middle and front-office operations. This strategy allows firms to build confidence in the technology, realize early wins, and develop governance frameworks before scaling. In the back office, AI can automate tasks like data entry and reporting. As the platform matures, it can support risk modeling in the middle office and enhance customer interactions in the front office. This gradual rollout helps to ensure a smooth transition and improve the value of agentic AI.

As financial services firms are buffeted by economic and competitive pressures, operational and technological evolution has become an imperative. Global Business Services with KPMG Velocity helps to show that AI is at the nexus of these transformations.