The increasing use of artificial intelligence in financial systems is driving the industry towards a model where machines handle transactions on a large scale, creating new challenges related to control, oversight, and infrastructure, according to executives from Microsoft and Chainalysis. At an event in New York City, Bill Borden, Microsoft's corporate vice president of worldwide financial services, stated that legacy systems will face growing pressure as transaction demands become more complex.
He emphasized that the tipping point occurs when latency, scale, and complexity start to impact a company's ability to compete, forcing firms to reassess their system architecture. Borden noted that while automation has long been a part of finance, the focus is now shifting from capability to trust.
He asked, "Can you trust the technology? Can you audit and control it?" To manage this transition, Microsoft is developing tools that assign identities and permissions to AI agents and track their actions.
In regulated environments, firms must be able to demonstrate what controlled a system and whether it followed the policy when decisions are made without direct human input. Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, pointed out that the crypto sector already has a working model of automated finance, with blockchain networks processing large volumes of transactions through smart contracts and software-driven wallets.
He described this environment as similar to agent-based systems and stated that they have been preparing for this moment long before other parts of the financial services industry. Levin also discussed risk management, citing efforts to track illicit funds across thousands of wallets as an example of the kind of monitoring needed in a system where transactions occur at scale without direct human input. Looking ahead, both executives expect a mix of systems to coexist.
Levin predicted that the majority of commerce in 10 years will be settled on public infrastructure, while Borden envisioned a more integrated approach that links public blockchains, private networks, and existing systems. Borden stated, "I think traditional systems will continue to exist, with software acting as the layer that connects them."