The delivery-side record, in brief.
Between April and June 2026, 850 delivery staff rated and described 150 agentic AI outsourcing engagements at Tier 1 financial institutions. Four findings, six actions, and one authority throughout — the institution’s own.
By Phil Hatch · Akholi · First Edition, July 2026 · DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.33005630
Who was asked, and about what.
Respondents work on the 150 engagements this report draws on, serving ten types of financial institution across four primary outsourcing models. They build the agents, operate the processes, and assemble the client reporting. Their account is delivery-side testimony, uncorroborated by client records — and that is the source of its value: it is the view from inside the work.
What the study surfaced.
The industry is new. Every participant is inventing the practice in live engagements. No respondent reported more than one year of experience with agentic AI.
Failure is material now. Cancellation is 37.33% for a study set with a median engagement length of five months. Client preparation was rated the weakest among all measured factors; vendor capability second weakest; co-management becomes the primary success factor once in production.
Reporting is more likely manipulated than accurate. The people who assemble client-facing reporting put the likelihood of manipulation at 6.26 of 10.
Oversight rests on a workforce that is leaving. The agents are overseen by a junior and dissatisfied workforce — job satisfaction 4.19 of 10 — most of whom intend to leave. What holds these engagements together is undocumented knowledge, and departures remove it.
Six executive actions
Part 5 →Gate every agentic contract behind an institutional readiness standard
Build co-management discipline before contract signature, and improve it throughout
Audit the design and execution of vendor reporting, not its arithmetic
Restructure commercial terms around outcomes and exit
Treat the human oversight layer as a control function
Listen directly to the vendor’s delivery team
Every action is within the institution’s own authority. Engagements that met these conditions succeeded; those that did not failed at higher rates and returned lower customer satisfaction.
Read the full report.
Why Engagements Fail
Five problem areas; the institutions on both sides come before the technology.
The Integrity of Performance Information
Reporting the producers rate more likely manipulated than accurate.
Conclusions & the Executive Agenda
Six actions, all within the institution’s own authority.
Study Information & AI Disclosure
Design, independence, statistics, limits, and the AI-assistance disclosure in full.