What happens when one of the world's most heavily regulated industries starts moving at AI speed?

At Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas, I sat down with Sid Nadella, Director of Financial Services and Market Leader at Google Cloud, to talk about how AI is reshaping banking, wealth management, and capital markets from the inside out.

With more than 20 years of financial services experience, including a long career at Goldman Sachs, Sid brings a rare perspective on how traditional institutions are balancing innovation with regulation, trust, and zero tolerance for error. We explore why the industry is moving beyond simple AI pilots and into what he calls the "doing era," where agentic AI is helping firms move from static dashboards and fragmented workflows toward intelligent systems that can reason, anticipate, and act in real time.

Sid shares where he sees the biggest business impact today, from fraud detection and risk management to operational efficiency and unlocking new growth. We also discuss real-world examples from firms like Citi Wealth, Citadel, Scotiabank, and Starling Bank, and why the real opportunity lies in building the right foundations first: governance, compliance, observability, and strong data access across increasingly complex environments.

We also tackle one of the biggest concerns around AI adoption, the fear that it replaces people. Sid explains why the real story is augmentation, helping teams remove repetitive work and focus on better decisions, stronger customer relationships, and higher-value outcomes.

If you work in financial services, enterprise technology, or simply want to understand what agentic AI looks like beyond the headlines, this is a conversation packed with practical insight.

How close is your organization to becoming truly agentic?

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