Gradient Labs brings compliant conversational AI to US financial services
Gradient Labs, a conversational AI platform built for financial institutions, is entering the US market after strong traction in Europe. The company focuses on automating customer operations in regulated environments, offering an AI support agent that spans chat, phone, SMS, and email.
For customer support leaders in banking and fintech, the pitch is simple: automate more without creating risk. The platform is built to handle high-stakes work like fraud investigations, payment disputes, complaint handling, and AML reviews-areas where many AI tools stall.
Why this matters for support teams
Gradient Labs reports 40-60% resolution rates from day one and CSAT in the 80-98% range across European clients. That matters in a market where nearly a third of consumers have walked away from brands due to poor service.
If you're under pressure to scale support while staying compliant, this is the kind of system that could reduce backlogs, shorten time to resolution, and keep auditors satisfied.
Built for compliance and complex workflows
Founded in 2023 by Dimitri Masin, Neal Lathia, and Danai Antoniou-early Monzo team members who worked on fraud detection and support automation-the company set out to build an AI agent that handles real operations, not just FAQs. It now covers multi-channel interactions and ties into back-office investigations.
"Held back by strict standards, regulated sectors have had to watch other industries benefit from automation," said Dimitri Masin, chief executive officer of Gradient Labs. "With Gradient Labs, it's no longer a choice between efficiency and compliance. We've proven this model in Europe - now we're ready to bring compliant, secure, and trusted AI support to US financial institutions."
If you're formalizing AI governance, consider aligning your playbook with frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework to set risk thresholds, escalation rules, and monitoring standards.
European momentum, US push
The US launch follows a $13 million Series A and recognition as one of Europe's 50 most promising startups. Through partnerships with companies like Zego, Plum, Nala, and Sling Money, the platform now reaches over 32 million end-users.
To lead growth in the US, Gradient Labs hired Zan Faruqui as head of go-to-market, a former founder and sales leader at Braze. A new head of marketing and a head of AI delivery are expected to join soon.
What support leaders can do now
- Prioritize use cases that are high-volume, rules-based, and auditable (e.g., account access issues, dispute intake, KYC checks).
- Define compliance guardrails early: data retention, consent, redaction, and human-in-the-loop for sensitive decisions.
- Map end-to-end workflows, not just chats-tickets, back-office steps, approvals, and system updates.
- Set clear metrics: first-contact resolution, average handle time, CSAT, deflection rate, and error rates by workflow.
- Pilot in one channel, measure, then expand to SMS, email, and voice once controls and quality gates prove out.
The bottom line
Gradient Labs is bringing a compliance-first AI support agent to the US, with results from Europe that will grab attention. If you run support in a regulated environment, this is worth a structured pilot-especially where manual work is slowing down customer outcomes.
If you're planning your AI support roadmap and want structured upskilling, explore curated resources for support roles: AI courses by job.
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