The application of artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to grow, covering both basic tasks and complex processes such as international investments. The central concept here is agentic AI, which implies trusting AI to make complex and significant decisions on behalf of the user.
This type of AI goes far beyond simply drafting emails or answering simple queries. Agentic AI is capable of performing much more intricate tasks, such as independently managing investment strategies, executing multi-stage business operations, or booking complete travel itineraries.
A roundtable meeting was held several weeks ago dedicated to bridging the trust gap in AI agents and examining how they are transforming banking, payments, and business workflows. The event was organized by Sumsub—an AI-powered trust infrastructure provider that combines identity verification, fraud prevention, transaction monitoring, and risk management to optimize compliance efficiency.
Under the leadership of Mick Amelish, AI advocate at Sumsub, discussions focused on what agentic AI could mean for South Africa as local adoption steadily expands. Hannes Bezuidenhout, Vice President of Sales for Africa at Sumsub, and Jarrid Jensen, Regional Director for South Africa, also shared their industry insights.
Amelish emphasized that 'the biggest shift towards operating in an 'agentic' mode is agency. Last year, AI was just an assistant—it helped proofread texts or suggest basic ideas. Now, AI can access the external world, read the live internet, interact with other digital products, make independent purchases, register on websites, or directly interact with bank accounts with permission.'
He continued to explain that for centuries, society functioned on the assumption that every operation or action was performed by a human. Today, this human factor is gradually being replaced.
For many, this rapid transition causes legitimate concern. However, these concerns can be largely mitigated provided there is proper education and a clear understanding of how to regulate agentic AI.
Despite these precautions, the threat of AI-driven fraud remains a rapidly growing problem. The situation is reminiscent of Kyle Reese's famous warning about the Terminator from the classic 1984 film: 'You can't negotiate with it. You can't bargain with it. It feels no pity, remorse, or fear. And it will never stop... until you're dead!'
Although Reese described an unrelenting cybernetic killer, this quote vividly reflects modern concerns about autonomous digital threats—without physical violence, but with equal persistence in exploiting digital vulnerabilities.
Turning to the local situation, Jensen noted how corporate banking trends are developing in South Africa. He stated: 'The large-scale adoption of true AI agents in South Africa is still quite low compared to global markets. South Africa has a complex market with advanced digital banking and instant payment systems, and consumers are already very comfortable with digital transactions. Nevertheless, full agentic adoption is still in its early stages.'
Adding this perspective, Bezuidenhout observed that while forward-thinking institutions like Discovery Bank are actively moving into the agentic space, South Africa as a whole lags behind international leaders such as China.
One of the main issues associated with agentic AI concerns accountability: what happens if something goes wrong, and who bears the ultimate responsibility—the person who gave the initial prompt, or the machine that executed the action?
The general consensus at the event was that the AI itself cannot bear legal liability for illegal activities; responsibility must always be traced back to the human operator or system controller. Nevertheless, new methods of financial fraud are evolving rapidly, and regulatory frameworks often lag behind these technological changes.
Illustrating this growing threat, Sumsub data shows that while the global rate of identity fraud slightly decreased to 2.2% in 2025 (compared to 2.6% in 2024), cases of high-tech fraud increased by 180% year-on-year, as attackers shifted from low-effort fraud to advanced AI-based attacks.
Ultimately, as agentic AI transitions from a new experiment to core financial infrastructure in South Africa, balancing automated convenience with vigilant human oversight will be key to maintaining security and trust.