WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2026 — The Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) announced that Jeremiah “Jerry” Buckley will join the organization, bringing decades of leadership in consumer financial services law, financial policy, regulatory modernization, and electronic commerce to AIR’s work at the intersection of technology, regulation, and consumer protection.
In this role, Buckley will lead a new body of AIR work focused on agentic AI and the future of consumer finance. The work will explore how AI agents and AI-enabled advisory tools could help consumers compare, choose, obtain, and manage financial products in ways that expand consumer agency, strengthen trust, and support better financial health.
AI agents are expected to change how consumers interact with financial services providers in the $18.8 trillion1 consumer lending market that includes mortgages, auto loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and other financial products. AI agents can also help consumers better understand options, compare terms, assess affordability, navigate applications, manage financial decisions over time, and engage more effectively with providers. They can assist in detecting adverse product terms and in protecting people from scams, fraud, cyber theft, and threats to privacy.
“Jerry Buckley has been one of the most influential thinkers and practitioners in consumer financial services law for decades, and his perspective is especially valuable at this moment,” said Jo Ann Barefoot, Co-founder and CEO of AIR. “Agentic AI could give consumers powerful new ways to understand and act on their financial choices. Jerry brings rare experience in both consumer protection and technology-enabled change, and I am thrilled he will help AIR explore how this next generation of innovation will transform the consumer finance marketplace.”
AIR’s work will focus on the practical, policy, and market questions that will shape how agentic AI can fulfill its potential for consumers. These include how AI agents should be designed, governed and supervised; what duties of loyalty or care may be appropriate; how consumer data should be protected; how conflicts of interest should be addressed; and how longstanding consumer protection principles embedded in existing laws will relate to an AI-enabled financial system.
“Agentic AI will transform consumer finance, providing consumers the ability to better understand and manage their financial options,” said Jerry Buckley, AIR Counselor Advisor. “Both consumers and financial services providers will benefit. But as AI consumer finance agents emerge, we will have to reexamine our decades-old consumer financial services regulatory regime and ask what needs to change to accommodate this new market dynamic while preserving the consumer protection principles that the U.S. Congress has enacted.”
Buckley was a founder of Buckley LLP, a leading national consumer financial services law firm that merged with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in 2023. He has been described by Chambers USA as a “recognized dean of the consumer finance bar.” Earlier in his career, he served as Minority Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and he also played a leading role in the development of major legal frameworks governing electronic records and signatures, including work related to the federal E-Sign Act and the development of Standards and Procedures for Electronic Records and Signatures.
At AIR, Buckley will support research, convening, policy analysis, standards-oriented work, stakeholder engagement, and thought leadership focused on agentic AI, consumer empowerment, and the future of financial services. AIR expects to engage leaders across government, industry, technology, academia, civil society, and consumer advocacy as the work develops.
The announcement comes at a moment of growing attention to the role of AI in financial services and the future of consumer decision-making. AIR’s focus will be complementary to other efforts underway across the market, with a distinct emphasis on the regulatory frameworks needed for AI agents in consumer finance.
As part of Buckley’s transition to AIR, the REGFi podcast he co-hosts will become part of AIR’s growing portfolio of knowledge products. Buckley took the lead in launching REGFi with the belief that financial regulation, driven by technology, will change more in the next 10 years than in the last 50.
AIR will share more in the months ahead as this body of work develops, including opportunities for stakeholder engagement, research, convening, and public dialogue. To stay connected, sign up for AIR’s e-newsletter and follow AIR on social media for future updates.
The Alliance for Innovative Regulation (AIR) is a nonprofit, non-membership organization working to make the financial system fully inclusive, fair and resilient through responsible use of new technology. By connecting regulation, finance, technology and society, AIR drives global innovation and collaboration to address rapid technology change.
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