Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
AI The Almighty Buck

McKinsey Says Bank Profits Face Possible $170 Billion AI Hit (mckinsey.com) 26

Banks face a hit to their bottom lines of as much as $170 billion if they don't adapt their business models to respond to customers turning to AI to optimize their finances. From a report: The consultancy firm predicted that customer uptake of agentic AI -- effectively autonomous bots -- would hit the profits banks earn from customer money in low interest accounts, according to a report from McKinsey published Thursday. "Imagine you have an AI agent that says: 'Hey, you could save $2,000-a-year by moving your money,'" Pradip Patiath, a senior partner at McKinsey, said. "It automates a lot of the inertia that is in the system today."

Consumers hold $23 trillion out of a total of $70 trillion in accounts with close to zero interest rates, while the remainder is held in accounts that often pay relatively low rates, according to the research. Customer use of AI agents could lead to a 9% profit drop for banks, some $170 billion, if they do not change their business models. That could push average returns for banks below their cost of capital, the consultants said.

McKinsey Says Bank Profits Face Possible $170 Billion AI Hit

Comments Filter:
  • by nikkipolya ( 718326 ) on Thursday October 23, 2025 @01:09PM (#65745970)

    As it stands, Agentic AI is hot stinky gas at the moment. And this anal-ist is able to quantify that with a "Customer use of AI agents could lead to a 9% profit drop for banks, some $170 billion". Bravo McKinsey!

    • I canâ(TM)t work out why AI would be needed for this. Most of the profit theyâ(TM)re making is people leaving their money in low interest paying accounts or in accounts with fees they have no use for. AI isnâ(TM)t going to help these people anymore than a list of things to check will.
      • by Anonymous Coward
        This is a good description of nearly every place where AI is being claimed to actually add value: the real value add is deciding to do any automation at all and LLMs provide no help in actually implemented that automation. There already exist websites that recommend the bank accounts with the best interest. LLMs have no meaningful impact on whether people use such guides to decide where to keep their money.
  • by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Thursday October 23, 2025 @01:11PM (#65745974)

    That could push average returns for banks below their cost of capital, the consultants said.

    Naturally these are the same consultants who will instruct banking to lobby and ensure interest rates are well above yacht-sized quarterly bone-us'es for all banking executives Too Big To Jail.

    Spare me the empty bullshit threats. Today we have higher interest profits than ever due to the amount of ignorance that holds loans they don't even remotely understand. From the approved moron buying pizzas on credit, to the idiot who understands what a balloon mortgage is the hard way. Today's outstanding lending is starting to make 2007 look fiscally conservative.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Let me guess: McKinsey can help transform banks by providing ass coverage to do layoffs under this pretext.
  • The sky will fall--unless you use our product!
  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday October 23, 2025 @01:40PM (#65746022) Homepage Journal

    "Imagine you have an AI agent that says: 'Hey, you could save $2,000-a-year by moving your money,'" Pradip Patiath, a senior partner at McKinsey, said.

    Yeah, imagine you have an AI agent that does what the bank would have done for you if they were actually working for you like they claim they are. They're not serving you, they're milking you, and not in a fun way.

    • "Imagine you have an AI agent that says: 'Hey, you could save $2,000-a-year by moving your money,'" Pradip Patiath, a senior partner at McKinsey, said.

      Yeah, imagine you have an AI agent that does what the bank would have done for you if they were actually working for you like they claim they are. They're not serving you, they're milking you, and not in a fun way.

      This is not an AI thing. It's a case of people not making optimal decisions with their money. A lot of the times, they know their actions are not optimal. So, why don't these people do the "right" thing? Well, a lot of these people are poor people without a lot of money. The interest that they could get on their money is nice but doesn't really make a difference. The banks also make it not worthwhile for a lot of poor people with the better deals reserved for people with more money. Also, how much of

      • Why should not-getting fucked-over be a time-intensive task. If we truly had anything approaching civilisation, every person and business would take steps to do the right thing. You could be completely financially illiterate and asleep and have those who are more developed in that area looking out for you (*) instead of using your weaknesses against you.

        Again, FYI: to anyone using this approach - you are a waste of air and you know it.

        (*) automatically - not as a token gesture after years of litigation.

    • Re: uh (Score:4, Insightful)

      by home-electro.com ( 1284676 ) on Thursday October 23, 2025 @07:23PM (#65746848)

      To save 2k in one year on interest at a bank you need at least $100k. Imagine having $100k just sitting in a checking account for year. Yeah that happens a lot, sure.

      • by necro81 ( 917438 )

        Imagine having $100k just sitting in a checking account for year. Yeah that happens a lot, sure.

        Strangely enough, some folks do. There are some that burn through $10^5-10^6 per month on their extravagant lifestyles, for whom having that much cash in a bank allows the accounts to run largely on autopilot. These are, of course, a minority, and we needn't worry our heads about them or their bankers.

        On the other hand, there are retirees who subscribe to a bucket strategy [google.com], gradually shuffling assets from

  • There was a time (Score:2, Interesting)

    by caseih ( 160668 )

    There was a time when banks' purpose was to safeguard depositors money and invest it carefully so it would grow, and then share those profits with the depositors. Interest was essentially payment for the money we loaned them. Now banks want to take my money for nearly free and then charge me for the privilege. All the while using my money to make tremendous profits, which they keep to themselves (and stock holders).

    That said, there are serious issues with the whole ideal of infinite growth which is what

    • All the while using my money to make tremendous profits, which they keep to themselves (and stock holders)

      Worse than that, they make tremendous losses, and use Ponzi accounting to give themselves bonuses.

    • Yeap we (and by we I mean in this case POS bankers) reached the societal stage of teenager/six-year-old when the teenager realises they can actually do what they want and noone can make them do the right thing.

  • by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Thursday October 23, 2025 @02:05PM (#65746104) Homepage

    Replacing Consultants that tell businesses how to stop being morons.

    There are a lot of businesses that came up with a profitable method, grew to gigantic size and never fixed the stupid lazy crap they accumulated.

    Whether it is the founders ex girlfriend they never fired, or the petty cash fund that grew to 20 million sitting in an aluminum safe.

  • What? AI might actually start making money for individual peons instead of the elites? This must be stopped. It's not fair to all those that already have plenty. What do you expect? One of two of them forgo this year's yacht or new mansion just so a few peon's bank accounts can stop bleeding them dry? I mean, come on! What is AI for if not making sure we continue to aggregate all wealth in the hands of the few?

  • or it could do nothing. Or somewhere in between. Which one is it?

  • and moves your money from a savings account to a Ponzi scheme stock?

    I know of cases here in NH were financial advisors were sued and even prosecuted for misleading/undisclosed risky investments.

  • If banks are looking for sympathy, I found it in the dictionary, slightly ahead of 'syphilis'. Or perhaps they're considering using AI to actually help customers, because of the obscene profits they already make ?
  • by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Thursday October 23, 2025 @02:38PM (#65746206) Homepage
    Am I the only one that worries about the idea of "Imagine you have an AI agent that says: 'Hey, you could save $2,000-a-year by moving your money,'"? Trusting an AI with moving money brings a whole new level to "Hold my beer" and "What could possibly go wrong?".

    The banks may want to be deliberately late to the add AI to everything game as the day my bank offers an AI with power to touch my money is the day I start looking for a new bank.
  • What exactly does McKinsey do that ChatGPT wasn't capable of since last year?

    • Chatbots cannot (yet) bribe government and industry alike with lavish "networking dinners" and "complementary passes" and "attendee awards" in exchange for outrageous consulting fees with conditional clauses which ensure all parties involved get ridiculously wealthy. McKin$ey has the edge for now. Surely Zuckbot is working this gap, though.
    • Being smiley-gladhands, foster toxic work environments full of self-proclaimed alphas, have a business model that includes completely burning people out as a critical and strategic asset to place into former client organizations with a golden parachute so they have a widespread network for information and getting all the deals. Plus LLMs are currently pretty bad at showing up in a power-suit with a power-tie and act all self-important.

  • The shovel-peddler is praising shovels and you better buy one quick, if you do not then they will not give you the super expensive shoveling-consultancy to go along with that shovel!
    And if you buy right now, they throw in a few of their own burned-out shovelers you can employ in your org so the shovel-peddler can extend their mafia-esque network of corruption and collusion!

  • Arguably, this should be retroactive until the beginning of time as 'screwing people over' should not be a valid way to make money. Also, FYI: all y'all using this as a business model are piece of shit and you know it.

Heisenberg may have slept here...

Working...