When Siri becomes a deposit broker

Abstract In the near future, individuals and non-financial firms will use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to execute everyday financial tasks. Users may deploy ‘AI agents’ such as Apple’s Siri or Google’s Gemini to pay their bills, recommend financial products or manage investment portfolios, and perform myriad other financial activities. Although users may receive benefits from having AI agents offer financial services, these applications pose significant risks both to customers and to the financial system: they may fail to act in users’ best interests, engage in market manipulation, and cause financial instability. This essay argues that regulators are unprepared for technology firms to use open finance and AI architecture to provide individualized financial services without human interaction. It argues that AI agents are the next technological innovation in finance that should be regulated, but that US banking regulators lack authority to directly regulate deposit brokers, posing risks to financial stability and the general public.