The Limits of Intent-Based AI and What Comes Next for Banking

For decades, banking automation has been built on intent-based systems. Whether IVR trees or early conversational platforms, coverage was measured by how many scenarios you predefined. More intents meant broader coverage. More scripts meant tighter control.

In practice, it created an ongoing maintenance burden.

Every product update required script edits. Every compliance change meant retesting flows. Teams that were supposed to be improving customer experience often found themselves managing intent libraries instead. The automation built to reduce operational strain became another system that needed constant attention.

The issue was never a lack of intelligence. It was architectural.

As generative AI became viable in financial services, institutions faced a real tension. They needed AI capable of reasoning through unpredictable conversations, but they also needed it to remain within strict compliance and governance boundaries. Script-only systems offered control but limited flexibility. Unconstrained generative AI offered flexibility but introduced risk most institutions could not accept.

The solution is governed reasoning.

Instead of scripting every possible phrase a customer might say, institutions define the desired outcome, the compliance requirements surrounding it, the systems that must be accessed, and the language constraints where precision matters. The AI reasons within those boundaries rather than following a brittle decision tree.

This is the thinking behind Operating Procedures within Posh’s Agentic AI Workforce. Operating Procedures function like Standard Operating Procedures for AI agents. They define how an outcome must be achieved and rely on governed reasoning to navigate the conversation safely.

A traditional intent-based system asks what the assistant should say in a predefined scenario. A governed AI system asks what the approved way to resolve the request is and determines how to get there within institutional guardrails.

That shift reduces intent overload and makes systems more resilient as products, policies, and customer behavior evolve.

In financial services, reasoning without auditability is not useful. Every interaction must be traceable. Every workflow must be explainable. That is why Posh’s Agentic AI Workforce ties knowledge retrieval, policy enforcement, integrations, and security controls together within one governed architecture.

The future of banking automation is not about removing guardrails. It is about building AI that reasons and operates because the guardrails are built into the system itself.

More intents were never the answer. Architecture is.

Discover how Operating Procedures enable governed reasoning without the maintenance burden of intent overload.