NEW DELHI, December 13 (ANI): Agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how banks manage frontline sales, offering significant efficiency and revenue gains for relationship managers burdened by administrative workloads, weak leads, and fragmented systems, according to a McKinsey report.
“In frontline sales, the potential is vast. Agentic AI makes it possible to automate the complex workflows characteristic of financial services—something that bankers have long wanted to do but at which they have never fully succeeded,” the report stated.
At leading global banks, agentic AI is already being deployed across prospecting, lead nurturing, and account management, delivering measurable productivity and revenue improvements within months. Unlike traditional generative AI, which responds to prompts, agentic AI can independently interpret objectives, break them into tasks, interact with systems and people, execute actions, and continuously adapt with minimal human input.
The shift comes as the banking sector faces margin pressure, slowing growth, and rising cost-to-income ratios. Industry research indicates that when banks redesign entire frontline operations using agentic AI, revenues per relationship manager can increase by 3 to 15 per cent, while the cost to serve can fall by 20 to 40 per cent. “As banks face margin pressure, slowing growth, and rising cost-to-income ratios, agentic AI represents not just a productivity tool but a new operating model for relationship management,” the report noted.
Frontline bankers have long struggled with poor-quality leads, excessive compliance requirements, and fragmented technology systems. Many relationship managers spend more time updating CRM systems and preparing reports than engaging clients, contributing to high burnout and attrition across sales teams.
Agentic AI addresses these challenges by continuously scanning markets, analysing structured and unstructured data, prioritising high-potential prospects, and automating follow-ups. In sales outreach, AI agents can personalise communications at scale, nurture thousands of leads simultaneously, and escalate only qualified opportunities to human bankers. This allows relationship managers to focus on high-value conversations and complex client needs.
Banks piloting agentic AI have reported significant operational improvements. AI-driven market mapping has expanded sales pipelines by roughly 30 per cent in some institutions, while automated lead nurturing has doubled or tripled the number of qualified leads. AI-powered account intelligence tools have also reduced meeting preparation time and improved the quality of client interactions.
With routine tasks handled by agents, bankers can act more as trusted advisors, concentrating on insight-led discussions, strategic problem-solving, and long-term relationship building.
However, the report cautions that capturing the full value of agentic AI requires more than deploying isolated tools. Banks must reimagine frontline operating models end-to-end, invest in robust data foundations, establish clear governance, and upskill employees to work effectively alongside AI agents. With revenue uplift and productivity gains now visible, agentic AI is increasingly being seen not as an experiment, but as a new operating paradigm for frontline banking.
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