Your AI may soon spend your money - which is why you should know the risks

Dubai: AI assistants that can pay your bills, shop online and move money between accounts may not be far away. The bigger question is what happens when something goes wrong.

Who is responsible if an AI agent sends money to the wrong account? What if hackers trick it into approving fraudulent payments? Or thousands of AI systems react to the same market signal and move billions of dollars at the same time?

Those are among the questions raised in a new Moody’s Ratings report, which follows growing interest in so-called AI agents — software designed to complete financial tasks on behalf of users instead of simply recommending what they should do.

Today’s AI assistants can compare products, answer financial questions or suggest where to save money. They generally cannot move your money.

Moody’s says digital cash, including stablecoins, tokenised deposits and deposit tokens, has the potential to “turn AI agents from tools that recommend actions into delegated economic actors that can initiate payments, move liquidity, post collateral and settle obligations.” Their authority, the report adds, would remain constrained by “mandates, limits, compliance checks and settlement rules.”

For UAE consumers, that could eventually mean AI handling routine financial tasks such as paying utility bills, renewing subscriptions, booking travel or managing household payments after receiving pre-approved instructions.

One of Moody’s biggest concerns is what happens when millions of AI systems begin making financial decisions simultaneously.

The report says “the same features that make agentic digital-cash systems powerful also increase risk.”

If many AI agents rely on similar models, objectives or market data, they could all respond to the same signal by moving cash into higher-yield accounts, delaying payments, redeeming stablecoins, selling assets or posting collateral at nearly the same time.

While each individual decision may be rational, Moody’s says the combined effect creates “a tension between micro-efficiency and macro-fragility,” potentially amplifying financial stress instead of reducing it.

The report also warns that AI-powered financial systems dramatically increase cyber risks.

Rather than targeting individual consumers directly, criminals may attempt to manipulate the AI systems controlling payments.

Moody’s says “agents expand the attack surface” because they interact with digital wallets, banking systems, APIs, smart contracts, market-data feeds and cloud infrastructure.

Among the threats identified are prompt injection attacks, compromised data feeds, malicious invoices, API privilege escalation, credential theft, wallet-draining permissions and model manipulation.

For consumers, this could mean future fraud attempts focusing not only on stealing passwords but also on deceiving AI agents into authorising payments they should never make.

Moody’s says traditional fraud controls alone will not be enough once AI gains authority to move money.

Instead, financial institutions are likely to introduce entirely new protections specifically designed for AI agents.

The report says “strong controls” including “Know-Your-Agent frameworks, transaction limits, audit trails, real-time monitoring and human override mechanisms will be essential.”

It also expects regulators to place greater emphasis on “agent identity, auditability, liability, cyber resilience and human override mechanisms,” alongside emergency pause tools, secure API governance and human approval for higher-risk transactions.

The UAE has invested heavily in artificial intelligence, digital banking and digital assets, making it one of the markets where AI-powered financial services could emerge relatively quickly.

Consumers are unlikely to hand over complete control of their finances overnight, and banks are unlikely to allow unrestricted access to customer accounts.

Instead, AI agents would probably begin by handling repetitive, low-risk tasks within carefully defined spending limits before taking on more complex financial responsibilities.

For UAE residents, that means the future of AI in banking may be shaped less by what the technology is capable of doing and more by how safely it can be deployed.

Moody’s says the long-term impact will depend on whether financial institutions can “combine automation with strong controls, deterministic settlement and clear accountability.”