What the Agentic Economy Means for Banks

As AI agents increasingly handle economic activities like transactions, contracts, and financing, the role of banks is evolving to become more integral in the agentic economy by providing trust, control, and governance. Banks are tasked with acting as the permissioning and governance layer for machine actors, ensuring that autonomous actions are tied back to human accountability and that AI agents operate under defined limits. This shift necessitates a reimagining of traditional banking functions, including the adoption of programmable money, which supports continuous, always-on commerce through tools like stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Additionally, banks must enhance their risk governance by transitioning from episodic to continuous underwriting, leveraging real-time data to make risk-based decisions. As the financial interface transitions into AI and digital platforms, banks that adapt early by integrating digital asset infrastructure and programmable money will play a crucial role in defining the operational assumptions required for machine-speed economic activities, maintaining their status as key players in this evolving landscape.