Torsten Slock, chief economist at Apollo Global Management and former International Monetary Fund employee, has warned that the widespread adoption of autonomous AI agents could trigger significant deposit flight from traditional banks.
Slock outlined a scenario in which AI agents automatically redirect household savings from checking accounts paying an average of 0.1% nationally to higher-yield accounts offering 3.3% to 5.0%. He cited examples like Revolut and other institutions offering elevated returns, which agents might prioritize to optimize returns for users.
The systemic risk
According to Slock's analysis, if households increasingly use AI agents to optimize cash returns, banks could lose substantial deposits they currently rely on for lending operations. "If every household used AI agents to optimize the return on their cash balances, banks could lose a large share of the cheap deposits they rely on to make loans, which would be a problem for the entire financial system," Slock stated.
Industry response
The thesis has drawn mixed reactions. Some analysts argue the outcome would not constitute a complete bank run but rather the end of inexpensive funding models for traditional banks. Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, noted that "business models built on friction and human laziness will (rightly!) get slaughtered in the coming years."
However, Qureshi warned that in crisis scenarios similar to the 2023 Silicon Valley Bank failure, AI agents could accelerate bank failures due to their uniform behavior patterns. He cautioned that "cascading agentic bank runs will likely be more violent and sudden than human ones."
