Half of Singapore Borrowers Would Hand Credit Applications to AI

Singapore's lending market is inching toward a hand-off to machines. A fresh Experian study, drawing on Forrester Consulting research, found most local borrowers now trust software to hunt down credit deals for them, and roughly half would go further, letting an AI agent submit an application in their name. The report, AI in Risk: Rise of Agentic Commerce, surveyed 482 credit-holding consumers here within a 13-market exercise covering 6,247 people.

Confidence is strongest at the shopping stage, where 83% would let AI weigh loans from competing lenders. The appetite narrows once money is on the line: 49% are comfortable with an agent applying for a loan or card on their behalf. On how much rope to give it, 37% wanted none, 36% would sign off only after reviewing its move, and 27% were fine with limited or full autonomy.

Respondents also see practical upside. Close to nine in ten said the technology would widen the options they can weigh, 87% expect keener pricing, 85% anticipate time saved and 83% think it will surface fine print, including charges that are easy to miss. Familiarity counts too: 77% would be more at ease if the agent sat with a bank they already deal with.

The sharpest anxiety is foul play. Some 82% picked manipulation of AI agents, through bogus offers or impersonation, as their top concern, the highest reading for that risk among the 13 markets studied. Experian's conclusion: lenders need stronger identity checks, clearer consent trails and sturdier fraud defences before agents shoulder more of the journey, and it is building tools along those lines, including an Agent Trust framework.

The caution has context. Scam losses came to about S$410.6 million in the first six months of 2026, down 17.9% from S$500.2 million a year earlier, per police figures reported locally, while household liabilities rose 8.2% to S$415 billion in the opening quarter of 2026. Kabir Khanna, who heads Experian Credit Services Singapore, said consumers have already changed how they handle financial providers and now lean on AI for decisions that matter, leaving banks to work out how to capitalise on the shift without losing earned trust.

Why it matters for Singapore: The city-state trades on trust as much as on rates, so findings that half of borrowers would hand an application to software are both an opening and a warning. Rising household leverage and stubborn scam losses in the same data show why safeguards must track that enthusiasm, and why lenders that get consent, identity and fraud controls right will own the agentic era. Move too fast and they hand cybercriminals a new doorway.