Oliver Wyman

Agentic AI is reshaping how commerce works – from how decisions are made to how customers engage, buy, and stay loyal.   At SXSW London, we’ll be exploring what this shift really means for businesses, and how leaders can move from experimentation to real impact.   Join Adrian Oest, and experts from Virgin StartUp, 11teamsports Group, Toolhouse, and Air France-KLM Group, as they share perspectives on how agentic AI is reimagining commerce and what it takes to stay ahead as this technology evolves.   If you’re attending SXSW London, join us for the conversation.

Here are the top 20 cities supporting the next-decade growth. The Oliver Wyman Forum ranked 1,500 cities representing over 75% of global GDP by five factors: commercial vibrancy, connectivity, supply chains, innovation, and climate resilience. 1. Tokyo, Japan 2. New York, United States 3. Seoul, Korea 4. London, United Kingdom 5. Shanghai, China 6. Los Angeles, United States 7. Paris, France 8. Beijing, China 9. Singapore, Singapore 10. Hong Kong, China 11. Chicago, United States 12. Dubai, United Arab Emirates 13. Dallas, United States 14. Houston, United States 15. Washington, United States 16. Toronto, Canada 17. Atlanta, United States 18. San Francisco, United States 19. Mumbai, India 20. Madrid, Spain Read the full report for all insights and different rankings: https://owy.mn/495SWvd

The future of agentic commerce is here. Our partners at Experian just announced a new addition to the Agent Trust ecosystem. We believe this solution should be the de-facto for the industry. Why? 1. Agentic commerce is no longer theoretical. AI agents are already navigating the web, initiating transactions, and increasingly seeking permission to act autonomously on behalf of users. Adoption will accelerate quickly as utility improves. 2. Emerging agent protocols are an important step forward. Each has value (messaging, orchestration, or transaction standards), but is incomplete, leaving critical gaps around identity, authenticity, and fraud. 3. Data is the difference between a credible vs. fraudulent agent; this is the only solution that offer verifiable, immutable trust at every stage of an agentic transaction. Read about the Agent Trust ecosystem: https://owy.mn/4tHxWCl

The Oliver Wyman Forum ranked 1,500 cities representing over 75% of global GDP. One of many dimensions reviewed was the number of cities served by each city’s combined airports. It discovered that Istanbul can fly directly to 328 different cities, making it the most globally connected city in this ranking. Second was Frankfurt, connecting to 292 cities. Third, Paris connects to 290 cities, and fourth was Dubai connects to 288 cities. For more insights on 1,500 cities across five factors: commercial vibrancy, connectivity, supply chains, innovation, and climate resilience read the "The cities shaping the future": https://owy.mn/42E9VkJ

The geography of growth is changing swiftly as a new set of global cities rises to challenge the dominant legacy hubs. Today, the Oliver Wyman Forum publishes The cities shaping the future 2026, a ranking of 1,500 cities exploring which are shaping the next era of business growth. For decades, global business centred on a fairly small group of commercial, financial, and political capitals – think New York, London, Paris, Tokyo. Now, a broader set of highly-connected cities around the world with vibrant commercial, talent, and tech ecosystems are emerging as the new global outperformers. More than 570 cities in the analysis are in Europe and the US, where data center investment, reshoring, and technology ecosystems continue to drive growth. But an even larger share are in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, where GDP growth is often higher and most of the world's urban population lives. A modern global footprint needs to account for market access, supply chain resilience, talent, connectivity, and climate risk. The right answer may be an established hub – or a buzzing midsize city, a new industrial manufacturing stronghold, or a cluster of cities that together offer more scale and flexibility than one location alone. Read the full report: https://owy.mn/42E9VkJ

Wholesale banks are in great shape today. But the road ahead is uncertain, with a wave of structural shifts threatening the strong revenue outlook and economics of the business. Among these shifts will be the rise of Digital Assets. Together with Morgan Stanley Research – we take a deeper look at Digital Assets and the potential impact on revenue pools, economic models, and the competitive landscape for the industry: https://owy.mn/4uMjI44

AI is now central to the finance agenda, but scaling it is proving difficult. With large sums being invested, closing the gap between ambition and value delivered is becoming a critical issue for CFOs. Read the CFO Agenda 2026 report: https://owy.mn/4wsgOD9

Agentic AI is starting to shift procurement from a function that manages process steps to one that manages execution. Here's how: ➡️ From managing process steps to managing execution, agentic AI is unlocking value by speeding cycle times, tightening contract enforcement, reducing off-contract buying leakage, and releasing capacity from routine tasks to focus on outcomes. ➡️ Standard, repeatable procurement work can run end-to-end autonomously within explicit guardrails, while humans focus on exceptions and complex trade-offs, making procurement more efficient and risk-aware. ➡️ Savings come more from scalable discipline—such as coverage, enforcement, renewal capture, and avoided loss—than from isolated negotiation wins, emphasizing the importance of consistent AI-driven governance. ➡️ Early success depends on carefully selecting initial workflows ("lanes") that are repeatable and controllable, codifying clear guardrails, and assigning ownership for exceptions and decision rights to build trust and scale safely. ➡️ Scaling agentic AI requires robust foundations like audit-grade logging, segregation of duties, and a management rhythm focused on shrinking recurring exceptions rather than creating new processes. ➡️ Different industries benefit uniquely: for example, retail gains from leakage reduction and improved stakeholder experience; life sciences cut cycle times by ensuring right-first-time documentation; and financial services scale compliance and reduce rework without adding headcount. ➡️ Chief Procurement Officers must treat agentic AI as a strategic operating model shift, not just a technology upgrade, by codifying policy into executable rules, measuring lane health with metrics like cycle time and exception rates, and expanding autonomy lane-by-lane to stay competitive. Explore how agentic AI is impacting procurement operating models: https://owy.mn/4uBWq0A

Facing disruption in energy, geopolitics, and AI, next-generation leaders in commodity trading must be more tech-forward and cost-efficient than ever. The rise in stablecoins, women in infrastructure funds, how to make cities more human and more in this edition of Now You KnOW.

The way we finance education is being tested as never before. Fiscal constraints, learning poverty, demographic change, and rising expectations around skills and workforce readiness are converging — and traditional funding models, while still essential, can no longer carry the load on their own. As part of our growing Education Practice, we are pleased to launch a new Global Agenda Council with The Education Leaders Forum on the future of financing education. Together with leading voices across philanthropy, development finance, government, impact investing, private capital, and education delivery, the Council will examine the innovative financing models gaining traction today — from blended finance and outcomes-based funding to guarantee structures, public-private partnerships, and diaspora-linked approaches — to understand where they are working, what conditions make them viable, and what the sector should be paying closer attention to next. The Council will culminate in a report sharing findings from across this ecosystem of experts.