The race to own AI-mediated financial services in the UK will not be won by ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, it will be won by specialist, regulated AI agents that most consumers have never heard of, according to a new report.
AI and the Disruption of Financial Search and Distribution, published by strategic consultancy The Folk Group, argues that general purpose AI assistants are structurally unsuited to regulated financial services in the UK, and the platforms best placed to win are purpose-built, FCA-compliant agents designed to operate inside a conversational interface.
The report comes as major financial services brands accelerate their moves into AI channels. Aviva recently launched an app inside ChatGPT, following MoneySuperMarket’s move in February 2026 to become the first UK price comparison brand to do the same.
The regulation gap general purpose AI cannot close
In UK financial services, recommendations must be consistent, explainable and compliant with FCA rules. The report identifies four tests that general purpose assistants fail on most counts:
- The same inputs must produce the same outputs, every time
- The reasoning must be explainable and auditable
- The data used to reach the decision must be handled within a defined regulatory and data protection framework
- The firm making the recommendation must hold the appropriate authorisation
The FCA highlighted this risk in January 2026, warning that reliance on unregulated AI could cause consumer harm through hallucination, bias or incorrect guidance.
The alternative
The report outlines an emerging agent-to-agent model in which general purpose platforms like ChatGPT act as an interface, routing financial queries to specialist regulated agents that handle the actual assessment and recommendations, invisible to the consumer, but compliant by design. The FCA acknowledged the potential of this model in January 2026, stating: “Agentic AI in particular could support people to automatically optimise their household finances.”
Industry voices
Dan Mines, co-founder of Menna.ai and former head of customer and innovation at Confused.com and CIO at Admiral Money, said: “Focusing exclusively on general purpose assistants misses what may be the most consequential development in UK financial services distribution, the emergence of narrow, purpose-built AI agents that do something the big platforms structurally cannot: operate safely, fairly and transparently inside the regulatory perimeter. This will create a new and distinct distribution channel. Not an app or price comparison table, but an agent-to-agent handoff, invisible to the consumer, that delivers a curated, personalised, regulated recommendation within the conversational flow they are already in.”
Hoodi Ansari, Director of Data and Operations at GoCompare, said: “General purpose assistants like ChatGPT don’t fall under UK financial regulation and wouldn’t prioritise consumers’ best interests.”
Professor Ram Gopal, Warwick Business School, said: “How do you create AI systems that work on behalf of and only on behalf of individuals? I think that is probably the future. Regulators need to come to terms with that sooner than later.”
Josh Rix, co-founder of Woodhurst Consulting, said: “The FCA regulates an awfully big part of the market today, but has little jurisdiction over Co-Pilot, GPT, Gemini, Claude. When these platforms start to provide advice, as they inevitably do, the regulator is going to have far less oversight and control, it puts them in an incredibly difficult position, and exposes customers to risk.”
Sharon Flaherty, CEO of The Folk Group, said: “What we’re seeing with moves like Aviva’s ChatGPT app is a real first-mover mentality playing out, fuelled by concerns that general purpose assistants will disintermediate them. But ChatGPT doesn’t fall under UK financial regulation, the FCA has no jurisdiction over it, and there’s no consumer duty obligation if something goes wrong. That’s why it’s unlikely general purpose assistants will become the default marketplace of the future.”
The Folk Group’s AI and the Disruption of Financial Search and Distribution report is available here.
