McKinsey: agentic AI can cut bank KYC time by 30–70%

Agentic AI could reduce the time banks spend on KYC processes by 30–70%, but high human-oversight costs and governance and accuracy challenges limit adoption, McKinsey & Company said in a report. Human oversight accounts for 70–75% of variable run costs of agentic tasks, while token costs are only 20–25%.

• Banks assign 10–15% of employees to KYC and AML work
• AI agents must hit 80% accuracy and 70% consistency thresholds
• Refining answers accounts for 60% of an agentic task's cost
• Optimisation could cut these costs by more than half