Betting on AI vs. Banking on AI

AI in banking is as much about privacy, transparency and explainability as it is about higher wallet-share and personalisation. Rajashekara V. Maiya, VP and Global Head of Business Consulting, Infosys Finacle, explains why, and how carefully, banks are embracing AI while he also assesses the prospects of microservices, APIs, open banking, embedded finance, decentralised financing, capital markets, wealth management in this shift to AI-assisted and AI-driven banking.

- Pratima H

How excited are you about the advent of AI -- especially agentic AI - in the banking vertical?

AI is a technology that will have transformative impact on every industry including Banking and Financial Services. Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Natural Language Processing, Agentic AI - all of this will improve efficiency, automation, customer services and help reduce risk. Agentic AI is going to be helpful specifically in the area of marketing and customer service area in Banking.

Have banks moved from looking at AI from the point-of-view of productivity to fraud control to mass-personalisation to hyperand revenue-rich personalisation?

Yes, banks have progressed from PoC to production, but the trend is not the same across the regions. Asia Is leading in that direction with banks offering hyper-personalisation to their retail customers, which will not only help them retain and sustain the customer relationships, but also help them increasing the wallet-share. Banks in Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan have implemented many of these programs using AI.

Do banks differ in their approach and the advantages that they get out of AI?

Banks do differ in their approach, speed, spend when it comes to deploying AI - it is obvious as there are different segments of banks globally and in India, such as public, private, small finance, co-operative banks etc. Tech-savvy banks are quite ahead in their journey and they believe AI will deliver transformative benefits including competitive advantages.

"With AI, banks have progressed from PoC to production, but the trend is not the same across the regions."