To Request or Not to Request: Solving the KYC Questionnaire with Generative AI

The Know Your Customer for Business (KYB) process is a significant pain point for banks onboarding business clients. Collecting and verifying documents manually can lead to delays, compliance risks, and frustrated customers. Striking the right balance for KYB onboarding between requesting too many or too few documents upfront is critical.

The Document Collection Problem

• Manual Document Review: Banks traditionally collect documents for their KYB and CDD process such as shareholder information, UBO verification documents, director appointments, and address confirmations manually. Reviewing them for completeness and compliance takes significant time and resources.
• Follow-Up Delays: Missing documents often require multiple follow-up requests, which frustrate customers and delay their onboarding.
• Compliance Risks: Ensuring all documents meet regulatory standards (e.g. AML) is time-consuming and prone to human error. Missteps can expose banks to regulatory scrutiny and financial penalties.

The Initial Request Dilemma

Banks are caught in a dilemma:

• Too many document requests upfront can overwhelm and scare customers off, leading to drop-offs in the onboarding process.
• Too few document requests result in endless follow-ups, further delaying onboarding and increasing the risk of human error in manual compliance checks.

Enter GenAI: The Smart Solution

Generative AI (GenAI) offers a smarter approach to KYB automation. Instead of choosing between too many or too few requests, dynamic document collection powered by AI agents, adapts in real-time.

Here’s how it works:

• Smart Document Collection: GenAI dynamically adjusts document requests based on what the customer uploads. It identifies gaps in business due diligence process and automatically requests additional documents or clarifications in real time. This eliminates the need for follow-up emails, significantly speeding up the process.
• Real-Time Validation: AI agents powered by GenAI validate documents instantly, cross-referencing regulatory requirements like AML and data privacy laws. This automation reduces compliance risks by ensuring all necessary documents are correct and complete before submission.

Intrepid Fox Case Studies: Success with GenAI

At Intrepid Fox , we specialize in GenAI compliance solutions. We implemented our Smart Document Collection in onboarding automation flows for a number of of payment company operating internationally across the UK, Europe, UAE, Hong Kong, and Singapore. We fully transformed how they collected, reviewed, and followed up on client documents. The results were striking:

• 3x reduction in follow-up requests: The dynamic collection system for KYC identified gaps in real-time and automatically requested missing documents during the initial upload.
• 50% faster onboarding: Onboarding time was reduced by half, with GenAI handling document validation and requests autonomously.
• 75% of customers completed the process within 30 minutes: The majority of clients were able to upload their full document sets in just 30 minutes, drastically improving the customer experience and reducing friction.

Compliance Benefits of GenAI

With regulatory scrutiny increasing globally, compliance failures can result in severe penalties. GenAI mitigates these risks by:

• Automatically checking documents for AML, KYC, and data privacy standards.
• Identifying missing or incorrect information and requesting clarifications in real-time, reducing human error.
• Ensuring that all documents are valid and compliant before they are passed for final review, cutting down on risk and delays

 Conclusion: A Future-Ready KYB

Generative AI is changing the way banks approach KYB onboarding automation. With dynamic document collection, real-time validation, and a substantial reduction in follow-up requests, banks can now onboard business clients faster, with fewer compliance risks. The results speak for themselves—faster onboarding, happier clients, and better regulatory compliance.

By integrating GenAI into KYB processes, banks can streamline operations, reduce manual labor, and create a better customer experience. This is not just the future of banking; it’s the present.