One in five UK consumers say they would use agentic AI for financial decisions. The FCA’s Mills Review, published yesterday, treats that as more than a consumer preference — and Capco’s AI Lead argues the regulator is right to.
Charlotte Byrne, AI Lead at global technology and management consultancy Capco, said the review represents a meaningful step-change in how the FCA frames AI in financial services. “The Mills Review marks an important shift in the FCA’s thinking. While until now, much of the conversation has been about how firms can adopt AI safely, this report goes further, clearly recognising that AI is becoming part of the financial system itself.”
The consumer-willingness figure carries particular weight for Byrne. “The finding that one in five consumers would be willing to use agentic AI for financial decisions is particularly significant, highlighting that consumers are clearly becoming more comfortable with AI. While this indicates the potential for AI to narrow the advice gap and make high quality financial support available to many more people, it’s important to distinguish between curiosity and trust. Consumers will not judge AI on how ‘intelligent’ it is, they will judge it on whether it delivers high quality outcomes consistently. As AI takes on more responsibility, the controls around it need to become stronger, not weaker.”
Notably, the FCA has not proposed an entirely new AI regulatory framework. Instead the review builds on existing principles including Consumer Duty, accountability, and governance. Byrne reads that as the pragmatic call. “When it comes to regulation itself, it’s particularly encouraging that the FCA hasn’t proposed an entirely new AI rulebook that risks becoming outdated. Instead, it builds on existing principles such as Consumer Duty, accountability and governance, while recognising that expectations need to evolve as AI becomes more autonomous. That feels like a pragmatic approach, that strikes the right balance, giving firms the confidence to innovate without creating unnecessary regulation.”
For firms, the operational challenge now is embedding those principles throughout the AI lifecycle. “Most organisations understand what good AI governance should look like, but the harder part is embedding it from design and development through to deployment, monitoring and assurance. As AI becomes more autonomous, oversight, accountability and controls need to be built in from the start, not treated as a final-stage compliance check.”
Capco is a Wipro company specialising in digital transformation for the financial services industry.
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