At the SPIEF-2026, the agent economy was discussed – a model where AI agents not only help people but also analyze the market, compare options, negotiate, and prepare solutions themselves. According to estimates by participants of the AI Alliance session, the global market for such agents is already approaching $10 billion and could grow 15-fold by 2034.
A third of survey participants believe that by 2030, 40 to 60% of corporate decisions will be made without direct human involvement. Sberbank's First Deputy Chairman of the Board, Alexander Vedyakhin, noted that AI agents reduce information asymmetry and effectively eliminate unnecessary intermediaries: such an assistant can independently study dozens of websites, choose the best offer, negotiate, and provide the user with a ready-made result.
The main question for businesses is how to get into the circle of agents that clients trust. According to T-Bank CEO Stanislav Bliznyuk, there will be thousands of such digital assistants, but users will choose only a few. The first scenarios are already working: at Alfa-Bank, agents look for anomalies in transactions and are being tested as investment advisors; at Yandex, they help turn business ideas into technical specifications; and at Apatit, part of the FosAgro group, they are used for back-office, production, and interaction with counterparties.
AI agents can also change the labor market: one specialist will be able to manage an entire "factory" of digital assistants and perform many more tasks. In the banking sector, this could lead to similar conditions among players, with competition shifting to emotions, trust, and engagement.
We are moving from fintech to fantech.