Technology leaders at banks across the Asia Pacific expect agentic artificial intelligence to create more technology roles rather than replace them, according to a new survey by Accenture.
The Banking IT Executives Survey found that 74% of banks in the region expect to increase their technology headcount as a result of agentic AI, while only 4% anticipate reducing staff numbers.
Instead of replacing employees, banks are reshaping roles to work alongside AI. More than half (58%) of banks are creating hybrid positions that combine traditional technology responsibilities with AI oversight. Around 30% plan to reskill or redeploy technology staff so they can manage or collaborate with AI-driven processes.
However, many banks are still cautious about deploying AI agents at scale. Half of the organisations surveyed said they are currently running pilot projects or using the technology in only a few functions. A further 23% said they are not using AI agents at all.
Governance remains a major gap. Only 23% of banks manage AI agents through a formal lifecycle and access model. The remaining 75% either have no formal governance in place, manage agents informally within business units, or track them centrally with limited oversight.
Looking ahead three years, 62% of banks expect moderate adoption of AI agents across several use cases, while only 25% foresee scaled adoption. Just 6% anticipate full integration of AI agents into cross-functional workflows.
Legacy technology continues to be a major challenge for banks in the region. About 70% still rely on older in-house core systems such as COBOL or mainframe platforms, or packaged on-premise cores. Maintaining these systems is costly, with 45% of banks spending between 26% and 50% of their annual IT budgets on legacy core banking systems.
Generative AI is also expected to change how banks build software. CIOs estimate efficiency gains of 24–34% across the software development lifecycle, particularly in code generation, testing and documentation. Most expect manual coding and testing work to fall by 10–50%.
At the same time, banks are increasingly turning to open-source technologies. Around 77% of banks surveyed said they plan to increase the adoption of open-source software to reduce costs in non-strategic areas.