“A solution would have been a lot harder in an ecosystem without a lot of high-quality data,” says Agrawal. “But when you combine a rich data ecosystem with agentic tools, you move from incremental fixes to high-velocity transformation.”

By investing in AI data and tools and focusing on rapid experimentation, Agrawal says the cycle of deploying solutions can be accelerated. Teams learn that if they meet customer needs and iterate on a wider range of solutions much faster, then the entire innovation cycle speeds up.

For example, Capital One used customer insights to build a state-of-the-art, multi-agent AI framework called Chat Concierge to enhance the customer experience for car buyers and dealers. In a single conversation, Chat Concierge can perform tasks like comparing vehicles to help car buyers decide on the best choice and scheduling test drives or appointments with salespeople.

Agrawal explains that car buyers can engage with Chat Concierge directly through participating dealer websites. Dealers can access and can take over the chat through Navigator Platform. The AI assistant consists of multiple logical agents that work together to mimic human reasoning, allowing it to provide information and take action based on the customer’s requests.

The elements of an AI-first mindset

According to a recent MIT Technology Review Insights survey, 70% of leaders say their firm uses agentic AI to some degree. Roughly half of executives say agentic AI systems are highly capable of improving fraud detection (56%) and security (51%), reducing cost and increasing efficiency (41%), and improving the customer experience (41%).

Looking into the future, achieving these outcomes looks even more likely. More than half of the banking executives surveyed say they expect to continue to improve fraud detection (75%), security (64%), and the customer experience (51%). Agentic AI use cases that show strong potential to transform the customer experience in financial services include responding to customer services requests, adjusting bill payments to align with regular paychecks, or extracting key terms and conditions from financial agreements.

Placing the customer at the center of a transformation requires an AI-first mindset. Companies must shift from simply augmenting an existing product to fundamentally reimagining the problem and the user’s needs through the lens of AI’s capabilities.

A few best practices that Agrawal recommends include:

Reimagine the core function of AI to solve a user’s problem: “The true value isn’t in chasing the AI hype; it’s in solving meaningful customer problems. By focusing on impact, we ensure that our innovation isn’t just fast; it’s transformative,” says Agrawal.

Start with high-quality, well-governed data as the foundation: “Data readiness and unified information across systems are the non-negotiable foundations of AI. A clean data layer is what orchestrates the agentic loop— enabling the perception, reasoning, and execution required to solve a customer’s problem before they even have to ask,” explains Agrawal.

Rebuild workflows with AI embedded from the start: “People treat models as black boxes, but agentic systems require tremendous rigor and oversight. Having a data ecosystem that is well-governed and responsible AI standards are essential pillars for building trust in these systems,” says Agrawal.