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BoE and FCA survey: 80% of UK financial firms have AI agents deployed

For the chief risk officer at a us bank

The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority published their fourth survey of AI and machine learning in UK financial services on Oct. 26, reporting that 86% of respondents use AI and 80% have AI agents deployed.1

The survey updates the 2024 edition and is part of the Bank and FCA's wider programme of work on AI, which the report says aims to keep their understanding of how firms develop, deploy and oversee AI up to date given the pace of change.1

Autonomy is limited: 80% of respondents reported agents in production that provide decision support, meaning agents recommend actions and humans decide and execute, and only 2% reported agents with broad autonomy.1

Even including plans for the next 12 months, no more than 9% of respondents expected agents to approve or decline customer outcomes, execute trades or place orders, initiate, execute or block payments, or change limits, thresholds and controls.1

Around 7% of reported AI systems were assessed as high materiality, down from 16% in 2024, but the report says the absolute number of high-materiality systems was greater in 2026 than in 2024.1

Third-party implementations made up 53% of high-materiality AI systems, up from 35% in 2024; 81% of respondents relied on vendor assurance and contractual arrangements to understand third-party high-materiality systems, while ongoing monitoring, leakage testing and periodic review were each reported by around half, against more than 90% for human approval, pre-deployment review and vendor due diligence.1

Why it matters

Agents at most UK firms advise rather than act, so near-term supervisory attention is likely to fall on vendor-supplied high-materiality systems, where firms lean on contracts and assurance and report monitoring at only about half the rate of pre-deployment controls. Banks and fintechs that supply or buy such systems should expect questions on post-deployment monitoring and third-party oversight.

From the brief

Our take. 80% of UK firms run AI agents; 2% give them broad autonomy, and at most 9% plan to let them move payments or change limits. An agent of yours doing either is the outlier examiners will ask about.

Action. Model risk: Tag every AI agent by whether it can move payments, approve customers or change limits, and add post-deployment monitoring to each.

What our records say

The 2022 BoE/FCA ML survey is a voluntary survey of BoE- and FCA-regulated firms that places no obligations on banks, and it has been replaced by the 2024 survey (published Oct 11, 2022).1 Key findings: 58% of respondent firms used ML.2 14% more planned to within three years.2

  1. 2022 BoE/FCA ML survey: Machine learning in UK financial services (2022 survey)
  2. 2022 BoE/FCA ML survey: key points

From our records

Sources

  1. Primary sourceArtificial intelligence in UK financial services - 2026 | Bank of England – the UK's central bank Bankofengland
  2. Primary sourceFinancial Services AI Adoption Plan - GOV.UK Gov
  3. Also reported byFCA builds agentic finance rules as AI reshapes UK markets FinTech Global