The UK Financial Conduct Authority has published a comprehensive 147-page roadmap outlining how artificial intelligence is transforming retail financial services. According to the report, AI agents could automate savings, investments, insurance, and payments, moving beyond traditional human-led, episodic financial activity to AI-enabled, continuous and delegated services. The report, prepared under outgoing executive director Sheldon Mills, describes a financial system where AI systems continuously manage financial decisions while humans become observers. As Mills stated, 'Artificial intelligence will transform financial services by 2030. It creates significant opportunities for consumers, firms and the wider economy.' The findings suggest that AI is set to become a defining influence on retail financial services, altering firm operations, consumer decision-making and the functioning of markets. The review emphasizes that people will need to be able to oversee, understand and challenge AI-driven decisions, especially when things go wrong, as unequal access to high-quality applications risks widening inclusion gaps.
Latest research reveals significant AI adoption in financial services, with 17% of people who had shopped for or used a financial product in the previous 12 months using AI to assist them. Current use is mainly 'assistive' with people using AI to summarise, explain, simplify and compare information, rather than delegate decisions outright. Use is higher for products and services such as investing, debt management and tax planning – areas where consumers traditionally have sought advice. 13% of people are willing to give AI real-time access to banking and financial data, while 55% identify at least one possible benefit from AI in day-to-day money management. However, 24% said nothing would persuade them to use AI in financial services, with concerns including the potential misuse of personal and financial data, lack of protection if something goes wrong, and concentration of power among large financial services firms. Among consumers who use AI in financial services, 24% report uploading personal financial data and 13% say they would be willing to grant real-time access to their financial information, indicating more advanced adoption patterns.
The FCA identifies the rapid emergence of 'agentic AI' - software capable of independently carrying out financial tasks across an autonomy spectrum. As reported by the FCA, more than 20 frontier AI models have been introduced since late 2025, accelerating the development of autonomous financial services far faster than previous regulatory expectations anticipated. Mills warned that financial institutions are moving beyond recommendation engines to systems empowered to take actions autonomously, with research commissioned by the FCA showing one in five UK adults would consider allowing AI to make financial decisions autonomously. The report finds there is already consumer appetite for agentic AI, with a fifth of people – equivalent to 11 million UK adults – are likely to use agentic AI. The review's central conclusion is that the technology could widen access, sharpen personalisation and boost efficiency, but may equally heighten dangers linked to fraud, cyber security, harm to consumers and the concentration of market power. Nearly seven in ten (68%) consumers expressed concern about data misuse, while 67% expressed concern about a lack of protection and 65% about concentration of power among a small number of large organisations.
The Mills Review identifies four major AI-driven shifts likely to impact retail financial services: the transformation of firm operations, the evolution of consumer journeys with people increasingly delegating to AI applications that act on their behalf, the reshaping of competition and market power, and the amplification of fraud and cyber risks. According to the report, AI has the potential to reshape everything from customer service and fraud prevention to operational efficiency, with huge benefits in personalising services and spotting vulnerability. However, the report warns that if firms don't lead with the customer outcome, and innovation races ahead of consumer protection, the result will be exclusion and entrenched bias. More than three-quarters of finance leaders believe their AI strategy could exclude vulnerable customers, yet only a quarter test their systems against real-life vulnerability and build clear routes to a human. The review emphasizes that AI has the potential to improve access, personalisation and efficiency, but could also amplify risks associated with fraud, cyber security, consumer harm and market concentration. Mills highlighted that AI will offer a 'once-in-a-generation chance to close the information asymmetries and frictions that have long left people making poor financial decisions'.
The FCA's report comes amid significant criticism from parliamentary committees about regulators' approach to AI. MPs on the Treasury Committee criticised regulators in January, reporting that the risks come as a result of the position adopted by the Bank of England and the FCA, which the committee described as a 'wait-and-see approach'. 'The major public financial institutions, which are responsible for protecting consumers and maintaining stability in the UK economy, are not doing enough to manage the risks presented by the increased use of AI in the financial services sector,' said the committee of MPs. FCA chair Ashley Alder praised the report, stating 'As is clear in the report, we need to keep pace with a rapidly changing environment and the principles-based, outcomes focused approach we've taken on AI – relying on the Consumer Duty and Senior Managers Regime – has been critical to us doing so.' The recommendations build on work the FCA has been doing, including allowing firms to test their use of AI with the regulator, and the FCA's own use of AI to be a smarter regulator. The Bank of England is separately exploring kill switches that could halt trading in the event of AI models going astray, as it accepts existing regulatory frameworks may not be adequate.
Despite the technological opportunities, the FCA dedicates significant attention to governance and legal responsibility. The report warns that firms cannot delegate accountability to algorithms even if AI systems execute financial decisions independently. Industry participants highlighted growing uncertainty over legal liability, with one chief executive suggesting financial markets could eventually require a 'Turing test' to distinguish between genuine human decisions and autonomous algorithmic activity. Emma Banymandhub, chief executive of The Payments Association, emphasized that firms should treat agentic AI as an accountability and governance issue while providing greater confidence to innovate responsibly. The report identifies five areas in which the current regulatory framework is likely to suffer stress as firms move across the AI autonomy spectrum, with operational resilience and the regulatory perimeter standing out as more likely to suffer stress in the nearer term. The FCA's recommendations include securing and adapting the regulatory perimeter, strengthening system-wide coordination and oversight, monitoring the transition to autonomous models and adapting regulatory frameworks, scaling up the FCA's AI Lab to support innovation, and building and adopting an AI-enabled agentic supervisory model. The review concludes that improving public understanding of AI's limitations will be just as important as improving the technology itself, with trust earned through accuracy and accountability rather than assumed because answers sound convincing.
