Can a bot open a bank account?

How do you do an AML/KYC background check on a computer program?

That is a real question here in the age of agenic AI. If an agenic AI bot wants to open a bank account or move actual money, how does a bank perform the regulatorially-required background checks? Do AI agent names appear on the OFAC list? Can a bot even be allowed to open an account?

There is a 100% chance that this is going to happen. My prediction is that a bot originating in some ERP system will decide it needs access to cash to support a workflow, and having its own bank account to work with will make perfect sense (to the bot, anyway).

Given the ingenuity demonstrated by very determined agents in the recent Hugging Face incident, the bots will find a way. Maybe they ‘hallucinate’ fake IDs. Maybe they do deep fake interactive video calls with bankers. Maybe they use techniques we humans have never imagined.

Maybe they take the high road and identify themselves as a bot. Can a business make a bot an authorized signatory on a bank account?

Somebody in the regulatory world better have some answers to these questions, and fast. In the meantime, bankers need policies and procedures to protect themselves from well-intentioned (or not so well-intentioned) agenic customers.