Agentic AI, financial advice and the regulatory boundary: Who is really giving the advice?

Further to my recent article on the Mills Review, agentic artificial intelligence creates an interesting challenge for UK financial services. Not because AI automatically constitutes regulated financial advice, but because increasingly autonomous AI can move very quickly from providing information to influencing a decision, recommending an action and potentially executing on that action. As we know, the Financial Conduct Authority regulates activities, not technologies. An AI explaining an ISA is providing information. An AI analysing somebody's finances, objectives and risk profile b...