Chris Jackson, Industry Marketing and Strategy Lead at Creatio
Board members have spent years setting AI strategy. But the people who actually know which processes are broken, the ones who take the calls, process the applications and absorb the complaints, still can’t do anything about it.
They know which processes create friction. They know exactly which legacy workflows cost the business customers.
What they haven’t had, until now, is the ability to act.
According to new research among UK financial services leaders, this is finally shifting. Nearly half (49%) now say AI agents are already a board-level discussion topic, with another 40% expecting them to reach the boardroom within 12 months.
But here’s the problem: while the strategy is being set at the top, execution is stalling at the bottom. 53% cite data quality and system integration as the biggest barriers to broader AI adoption. Legacy platforms, rigid vendor ecosystems and IT backlogs are preventing the very people who understand customer pain points from acting on them.
The solution isn’t another massive system overhaul. It’s to give frontline teams the tools to build and deploy solutions themselves.
The shift to frontline empowerment
No-code platforms combined with AI agents are removing technical barriers that have kept business and subject matter experts on the sidelines when it comes to building relevant and relatable workflows. Instead of sending tickets to IT and waiting months for a workflow change, teams can now build, test and launch automated processes themselves, in hours and days rather than months.
AI agents can handle the repetitive, manual tasks that drag teams down while surfacing context and ensuring consistent outcomes. Crucially, this doesn’t require coding skills. Through natural language interfaces and visual workflow builders, finance professionals can create, adapt, and execute processes directly.
Research shows confidence is building: 61% of decision-makers say they’re very confident in starting to use low-code or no-code platforms to build AI-enabled solutions in the next 12–18 months. And adoption is already mainstream: 58% of organisations have deployed low-code or no-code platforms enterprise-wide or across departments.
Where it’s already working
When asked which tasks or workflows they’d most like to see fully handled by an AI agent in the next year, leaders overwhelmingly indicated two areas: customer service and operational workflows. The results are clear: 94% of UK decision-makers believe AI agents will be strategically critical to their two-to-three-year goals.
In practice, this is playing out across four key domains:
- Customer lifecycle management. AI agents enrich customer profiles, route inquiries to appropriate teams and guide staff through onboarding processes. Advisors spend less time on admin and more time on what really matters: building relationships.
- Product fulfilment. AI-guided workflows support loan processing and product upgrades, helping teams maintain consistency and speed. By recommending optimal next steps, agents reduce processing time while enhancing customer communication.
- Operations and internal service. Standard processes including payments, transfers and service requests benefit from AI automation. Staff work within integrated systems that minimise handoffs, improve resolution rates and maintain service-level commitments.
- Compliance and risk. As regulatory requirements evolve, AI workflows assist teams in categorising alerts, identifying potential issues and following resolution protocols. Organisations preserve oversight and audit readiness while responding to emerging compliance challenges.
What unites these use cases is control. Frontline teams aren’t waiting for IT to configure a vendor system or for procurement to approve a new tool. They’re building and iterating themselves.
The bottom-up transformation
The most striking finding in our research is about people: only 9% of UK organisations foresee significant headcount reductions due to AI agents. The rest expect AI to augment and supplement teams, create growth opportunities for existing staff, or open up entirely new roles.
This reflects a pragmatic, human-first approach to automation. AI isn’t replacing loan advisors or compliance officers. It’s removing the friction that prevents them from doing their best work.
Financial services has been criticised for lagging in AI adoption, but the research suggests a more hopeful story. British businesses are being deliberate about where and how to deploy it. The focus isn’t on hype. It’s on compounding sustainable progress led by the people who understand the work best.
The next wave of transformation won’t come from another vendor platform. It will come from the people who’ve been waiting to fix things all along.
