At Money20/20 in Amsterdam, AI was everywhere – on stage, in product demos, in meetings and in almost every conversation about where financial services is heading next. Much of the discussion focused, understandably, on what the technology can now do and how quickly new use cases are moving from theory to reality. But the session that stayed with me took a slightly different angle. In a panel between Rory O’Neill, CMO of Checkout.com, and Ross Gallagher, Head of Consulting at 11:FS, the most interesting question was not how quickly agentic AI might transform the industry, but what it will take for people to trust it.

That question matters well beyond financial services. Agentic AI – technology that can act on behalf of a user, rather than simply respond to a prompt – is viewed as a technical breakthrough. But its adoption will depend on something much more human: whether people feel comfortable handing over a degree of control.

Consumers will want to know what an agent is doing, why it is doing it, who has influenced its recommendation, what data it is using, and who is accountable when something goes wrong. These are not minor operational details; they are the foundations of confidence.

That is where communications and marketing have a critical role to play. Every major technology transition has required more than infrastructure. The shift from cash to cards, from desktop to mobile, from branch banking to digital apps all depended on people understanding how a new system works, why it is safe and what protections sit around it. Agentic AI will be no different.

For brands, AI agents could create new ways to understand customer intent: what people want, what they value and what they are trying to achieve. But access to that decision-making process will have to be earned. Customers will need clear reasons to believe that brands, platforms and agents are acting in their interests.

That puts communications much closer to the centre of the agenda. The way propositions are explained, the language used to describe autonomy and control, the safeguards put in place and the expectations set with customers will all influence whether people are willing to engage.

The task for communications leaders is not to make agentic AI sound exciting. It is to make it understandable, credible and safe enough to adopt. The companies that make progress will be those that treat trust as part of the product experience itself, rather than a message layered on afterwards.