How can banks turn AI potential into real ROI for KYC?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping corporate banking, offering unprecedented efficiency and strategic advantages. Yet, adoption is in its infancy in Know Your Customer (KYC) and the journey from experimentation to measurable business value is still evolving.

The key to adopting AI and maximizing Return on Investment (ROI) lies in trusted data foundations, robust governance, and responsible deployment. Combined with a decisive shift from pilots to planning for enterprise-wide adoption.

Today, only around 5% of Gen AI pilots deliver rapid ROI. Echoing patterns seen in previous technology waves such as cloud and blockchain. Looking ahead, analysts predict that by 2028, one-third of enterprise applications will be powered by agentic AI, signaling a transformative future for banking operations.

From experimentation to strategic ROI

Banks are moving beyond proof-of-concept projects and focusing on outcomes that matter. Early KYC initiatives often start with high-value use cases. Such as automating data extraction from documents or streamlining client due diligence workflows. These deliver immediate productivity gains and lay the groundwork for scaling AI across more complex processes.

Agentic AI is emerging as a game-changer, capable of autonomously managing multi-step tasks that previously demanded significant human effort. When paired with Small Language Models (SLMs), banks can achieve high accuracy, minimize errors, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

But technology alone does not guarantee ROI. Success depends on integrating AI with high-quality data, strong governance, and clear performance metrics.

Data is a critical enabler for AI-powered KYC. Accurate, structured, and lineage-rich data underpins reliable predictions, automation, and regulatory assurance. Helping banks unlock measurable value.

AI applications driving measurable value in KYC

AI is already delivering tangible benefits across KYC operations:

• Intelligent Document Processing (IDP): Rapid extraction and structuring of client information, reducing manual workload
• Automated customer due diligence: Natural language queries across multiple internal and external sources accelerating decision-making
• AI agents for compliance: Preparing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and managing routine tasks, freeing analysts to focus on high-value risk assessments

Integrating Corporate Digital Identity (CDI) amplifies the impact of AI. By unifying real-time, accurate public and private client data into a single verified identity, CDI ensures onboarding, refresh and remediation, are consistent, auditable, and compliant. When combined with perpetual KYC (pKYC), this enables continuous monitoring and dynamic risk assessment rather than static, point-in-time reviews. The result is faster onboarding and KYC reviews, lower operational risk, and enhanced client trust.

CDI provides a real-time, auditable identity that acts as the foundation for trusted AI. Regulators gain transparency. Banks gain speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Building ROI through discipline

Maximizing ROI requires a stepwise, data-driven approach:

• Prioritise high-value, measurable tasks for initial deployments
• Expand applications as confidence and capability grow
• Maintain Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) oversight for compliance, quality assurance, and continuous learning

Success is measured not only by efficiency gains, but also by outcomes that impact revenue, client satisfaction, and compliance reliability. Initiatives that neglect governance, data quality, or clear KPIs risk underperforming, reinforcing that technology alone cannot deliver ROI. Instead, it must be embedded in the operational and strategic framework of the bank.

A strong data foundation is key to trusted AI and KYC outcomes. CDI standardizes and normalizes data and resolves entities to deliver a real-time, structured identity with full audit trails and data provenance.

Overcoming barriers to scale

Scaling AI in KYC is not without challenges; organizational resistance, skill gaps, legacy systems, and regulatory complexity all play a role. Success demands cultural change, staff education, and a commitment to ethical, explainable AI.

Banks are increasingly adopting modular strategies, layering AI agents into existing Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) systems and automating workflows without disrupting core operations. Platforms like EC360, allow institutions to leverage real-time client information across the bank while maintaining strict regulatory compliance.

The strategic payoff: AI as a driver of value

AI in KYC is no longer experimental, it is a strategic driver of efficiency, client engagement, and business value. Agentic AI enables autonomous handling of complex processes, CDI provides a unified client view, and modular integration ensures scalable adoption.

With human oversight, strong governance, and measurable outcomes, AI and CDI together can reduce onboarding times from weeks to days, accelerate reviews, enhance accuracy, and improve client satisfaction.