Agentic AI can carry a piece of work forward across several steps and systems. That reach turns it into an operating question for the whole bank. Disputes, payment traces, and loan applications are illustrative examples. Each can involve multiple teams or systems, depending on the bank. An agent working on that kind of request raises questions for several executives at once.
This guide helps leadership teams align on four questions:
- Which business domains should come first?
- Who sponsors each one?
- What may agents do, and when must a person approve?
- How does the bank judge results?
Domain portfolio discussion prompts
Pick the domains that deserve strategic investment first.
We recommend agreeing on a focused list of business domains before you choose tools. For example, servicing, onboarding, lending operations, and fraud resolution.
Treat the prompts below as a leadership discussion. They are meant to surface differences of view. This guide does not score or rank individual workflows.
- Strategic fit: Which bank priority does this domain support, and how directly?
- Sponsor: Which executive is willing to sponsor the outcome and stay involved?
- Measurable outcome: Which customer or operating result would show progress?
- Dependencies: Which teams, systems, data, and approvals does the domain rely on?
Naming dependencies early gives sponsors a fair view of what each domain will need. We recommend capturing them before any commitments are made.
For workflow-level scoring, use the prioritization guide on agentic banking use cases. For wider context, read the nine-workflow overview of agentic AI use cases in banking.
A practical role model for the executive team
Every bank divides these responsibilities in its own way. Treat each role below as a practical starting point for your own organization chart.
- Chief Digital Officer (CDO): convenes customer and digital priorities, keeping the agenda tied to customer intent.
- Digital transformation leader: supports planning and delivery, coordinating teams around the CDO’s priorities.
- COO: owns operational economics, including cost to serve, throughput, and service levels.
- CTO or CIO: owns technical fit, including architecture, integration, and governance of the technology stack.
- Line-of-business leaders: influence and sponsor domain outcomes in retail, small business, commercial, wealth, or private banking.
- Risk, security, and compliance leaders: assess risk and feasibility as domains take shape and as work moves toward production.
The CDO convenes the group around customer and digital priorities. A digital transformation leader supports planning and delivery. Line-of-business leaders sponsor outcomes within their domains. The COO assesses operational economics. The CTO or CIO assesses technical fit.
Structure can also affect how quickly a bank moves. The article on how an org chart problem is stalling agentic AI explores that theme.
Write a domain charter before you set autonomy
The domain charter is a suggested planning aid that banks adapt to their operating model. This section sits after the executive role model and before the autonomy-policy section. Each priority domain gets its own charter, so sponsors agree on scope and ownership before anyone discusses agent authority.
Fields for each domain charter
- Domain and customer need: Name the domain and describe the customer need it addresses in plain language.
- Strategic fit: State which bank priority the domain supports and how directly it does so.
- Executive sponsor and accountable outcome owner: Name the executive who sponsors the domain. If a different leader answers for the result, name that person separately.
- Intended business outcome: Describe the result in business terms and link it to the relevant measure on the board scorecard.
- Major dependencies: List the teams, systems, data, and approvals the domain relies on.
- Authority policy reference: Point to the authority policy that applies to the domain, by name or document reference.
Keep domain details and business ownership in the charter. Keep specific agent permissions and operational controls in the autonomy section that follows. The charter points to that policy and leaves the detail there.
Set executive policy for what agents may do
Autonomy is a policy decision for the bank. We recommend the executive team make four choices explicitly for each domain.
- Permitted actions: which actions an agent may take.
- Human approvals: which actions need an employee to approve before they run.
- Exception paths: where work goes when a case falls outside an agent's authority.
- Pause or revocation authority: who can tighten, suspend, or revoke an agent's autonomy, and how quickly.
In Backbase's Banking OS, autonomy levels can be tightened, suspended, or revoked without changing the underlying model. That gives leaders room to adjust authority as the bank gains experience.
Related reading covers agentic AI compliance in banking, agentic AI banking security.
Measure outcomes with Serve, Grow, Resolve, and Control
Backbase's strategic outcome framework uses four families: Serve, Grow, Resolve, and Control. It points to customer and operating results as the measures that matter.
- Serve: illustrative measures include self-service rates and first-contact resolution.
- Grow: illustrative measures include deposit growth and customer retention.
- Resolve: illustrative measures include resolution time and backlog.
- Control: illustrative measures include policy adherence and human exceptions.
The four families are Backbase's framework. Each bank picks its own measures and sets the baseline, target, owner, and review cadence for each one.
Outcome scorecard template: retail customer onboarding as an example
Note: All figures in this scorecard are fictional examples. Every number is hypothetical and was created solely to demonstrate the template. None of them are Backbase results, customer results, benchmarks, or recommendations for any bank. Use bank-specific baselines and targets in actual planning.
Reminder: the baselines and targets above are hypothetical examples that show how a completed scorecard reads. Set your own figures from your bank's data, and choose the metrics and owners that fit your operating model.
Where Backbase fits
Backbase builds the AI-native Banking OS. Digital Banking creates the interface, Agentic Banking resolves the work, and the Banking OS powers both.
The Banking OS gives the frontline shared context and bank-defined authority, and it connects work across existing systems. Learn more on the Banking OS page, or read the article on AI-native versus AI-enabled banking.
FAQs
Are Serve, Grow, Resolve, and Control an industry standard?
No. They are Backbase's outcome framework. Banks choose their own measures within each family and set their own baselines, targets, owners, and cadence.
Who should convene the executive discussion?
The CDO convenes the discussion around customer and digital priorities. A digital transformation leader can support planning and delivery.
Does this guide rank domains or workflows?
No. It offers discussion prompts for leadership. For workflow-level scoring, use the prioritization guide on agentic banking use cases.
Who decides what an agent may do?
The bank does. The executive team sets permitted actions, human approvals, exception paths, and who can pause or revoke an agent's autonomy.
How should leaders track progress?
Use the outcome scorecard. Each row names a family, a domain, a measure, a baseline, a target, an owner, and a review cadence.
