National Australia Bank (NAB) is preparing to test the security and operational guardrails of an agentic AI platform, as reported by Bloomberg.

The move comes as Australia’s largest lenders expand their use of the technology.

The bank aims to develop AI agents that can interact with staff and core banking systems on behalf of customers.

Patrick Wright, NAB’s Group Executive for Technology and Enterprise Operations, said NAB will conduct pilots and experiments over the coming year to assess the capabilities and limits of these agents.

“Customers will expect one day to interact with us through agents,”

Wright said.

NAB already uses agentic AI for selected internal processes. The technology helps its operations team complete complex tasks more efficiently.

The upcoming pilots will test the platform’s security and operational safeguards. They will also focus on reducing the risk of unforeseen errors.

“Security is the thing I think about,”

Wright said.

He added that the bank must deploy the technology safely despite its significant potential.

Australian banks expand agentic AI adoption

NAB ranked 34th in the 2025 Evident AI Index of global banks. The ranking places it ahead of ANZ Group Holdings and Westpac Banking Corp, but behind Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which ranked fourth globally.

CBA has expanded its AI capabilities this year. CEO Matt Comyn said agentic AI systems help write fraud detection rules and strengthen security patching.

NAB’s planned pilots form part of its broader effort to evaluate how agentic AI can be support customer interactions and internal operations while maintaining strong security controls.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Australia, based on image by alexgolovinphotography via Magnific