Shinhan Securities Introduces First AI Agent Department in South Korean Finance

Shinhan Securities has established South Korea's first AI Agent Department at a financial firm. The department, which is part of the company's AX Division, consists of four artificial intelligence agents that work together to handle tasks such as information research and document preparation.

The team leader agent assigns tasks to the other three role-specific agents, who then carry out their respective roles and hand off work to each other before producing the final output. A human will review the final output, even if AI agents performed the work. An AI specialist will also oversee AI governance, security, and quality control.

The department's first pilot project is supporting the wholesale business by preparing meeting materials and proposals, conducting market research, and analyzing issues. This allows employees to focus on higher-value work such as developing investment strategies and identifying new business opportunities.

Shinhan Securities aims to use AI not just for automation but as a digital co-worker that combines employees' judgment with AI's execution capabilities to boost productivity. The company plans to standardize operating principles and build a collaboration framework among AI agents that goes beyond simple automation.