Business Wire·Nov 9, 2026, 11:00 AM ET

Northern Trust and Microsoft Frontier Company Collaborate to Transform Client Onboarding Through AI

Northern Trust & Microsoft deployed a new AI-powered client onboarding agent developed jointly by Northern Trust & Microsoft Frontier Company Forward Deployed Engineering teams.
The agent reduces client onboarding data preparation time by 83 percent, cutting the process from 2.5 weeks to 3 days.
The solution achieves a 96.5 percent F1 first-pass quality score through automated conversion of historical transaction data into standardized formats.
Built on Microsoft Azure & Microsoft Foundry, the agent integrates with Microsoft 365 tools like Excel & SharePoint for analyst review & refinement.
Human oversight remains embedded in the workflow to allow analysts to validate reasoning, resolve exceptions, & improve performance via expert feedback.
The system uses an "eyes off" development approach with anonymized data to ensure strict privacy, security, & governance controls for financial data.
A governed intelligence layer on Azure preserves approved onboarding knowledge to enable continuous improvement based on institutional expertise.
Pete Cherecwich, Northern Trust COO, stated the agent combines asset servicing expertise with AI to create capacity for higher-value work.
Bill Borden, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, highlighted the collaboration as a model for next-generation enterprise operating models with built-in governance.
As of September 30, 2026, Northern Trust reported US$19.9 trillion in assets under custody/administration & US$2.0 trillion in assets under management.