Agentic AI

Agentic AI is more advanced than generative AI. Instead of generating, agentic AI acts and adapts. 

Primarily, the biggest differences between the two are that:

• Agentic AI makes decisions independently with minimal intervention and performs tasks without predefined instructions.
• Generative AI produces creative outputs based on learned patterns collected from large datasets. For example, it can create texts or images. 

Over the years, it has changed and evolved from basic, rule-based systems to autonomous agents that are flexible and can act on more complicated prompts due to the power of LLMs’ reasoning abilities. 

This is how modern agentic AI systems look compared to labeled data and fixed rule models:

• Text processing models. These include traditional LLMs that generate text but can’t act beyond prompts.
• Language agents. These work as a combination of  LLMs and external systems that are designed to observe, decide, and take action.
• Cognitive AI agents. These are the most advanced types of agentic AI, capable of reasoning, planning, and, more importantly, adaptive behavior.

Agentic AI boosts the efficiency of the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification, or identity verification, process, creating the same principle of effectiveness among many due diligence processes that can be automated. This results in more conversions during customer onboarding or better accuracy when monitoring existing customers and detecting suspicious activity for ongoing due diligence and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance. 

AI agents can streamline due diligence processes by completing and automating different tasks, such as:

• Conducting ID verification (collecting personal data and cross-referencing against official government registries to find matches, depending on the KYC method)
• Performing AML checks (screening customers against PEPs and sanctions, conducting a criminal background check, or looking up adverse media databases to assess risk)
• Automating risk assessment (detecting high-risk cases and sending real-time AML alerts for further manual enhanced due diligence (EDD) checks or Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing) 
• Continuously monitoring for AML red flags (tracking user risk profiles after the initial onboarding stage)

Via agentic AI and custom KYC/KYB and AML agents, or virtual assistants, businesses can perform various compliance-related tasks faster. Agentic AI is able to automate verification, the screening of customers against risk databases, conducting EDD for high-risk profiles, and continuously monitoring for new threats. This reduces manual work, speeds up KYC onboarding, and allows analysts and compliance teams to focus on high-risk cases that require immediate attention.