The Rise of Agentic AI and Agentic Workflow in KYC — Emerging Vendors Redefining Process Management for IT Buyers

This IDC Perspective discusses the evolution of know-your-customer (KYC) processes, which is accelerating as financial institutions adopt agentic AI and agentic workflow platforms to modernize compliance, improve operational efficiency, and enhance risk management. Traditional KYC methods, reliant on manual workflows and fragmented systems, struggle to keep pace with growing regulatory demands and evolving fraud tactics. Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI introduce intelligent automation that streamlines identity verification, automates risk assessments, and enhances real-time compliance monitoring.Despite these advancements, legacy system constraints, metadata gaps, and regulatory complexities remain significant challenges. Organizations must prioritize AI governance, vendor collaboration, and strategic technology adoption to fully unlock the benefits of AI-driven KYC modernization. This document examines how emerging vendors are redefining KYC process management, offering guidance to IT buyers on evaluating AI readiness, agentic AI capabilities, and integration strategies for scalable, future-proof compliance solutions.“Agentic AI and agentic workflow can revolutionize KYC, transforming compliance from a rigid, rule-based function into an adaptive, intelligence-driven process,” says Sam Abadir, research analyst, Risk, Compliance, and Financial Crime at IDC. “By automating decision-making and seamlessly integrating workflows, financial institutions can reduce onboarding times, lower operational costs, and proactively manage risks. However, success depends on a well-executed AI strategy — one that ensures data interoperability, regulatory alignment, and automation of external data ingestion with its contextual elements to autonomously enhance risk detection and minimize friction. Crucially, these systems must also recognize when human expertise is needed, either by design or dynamically escalating complex cases or uncertain scenarios to compliance professionals for review. Organizations that embrace agentic AI–led orchestration today — while maintaining human oversight where necessary — will gain a significant competitive edge in compliance efficiency and customer experience.”