Elets Technomedia, in collaboration with The Banking and Finance Post Magazine, successfully hosted the Elets BFSI AI & Analytics Summit at The Lalit Mumbai, Maharashtra. This exclusive event, held on on 20th June 2024, gathered industry leaders to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector under the theme “From AI to Gen AI: Decoding the New Horizon”.
Shivam Pathania, Lead – BFSI Initiatives & Partnerships, Elets Technomedia, welcomed participants, highlighting the profound impact of AI in revolutionising the BFSI landscape. In his welcome address, he emphasised, “AI is no longer a concept of the future; it is reshaping every facet of BFSI, from operational efficiency to customer engagement. The summit serves as a crucial platform to address challenges and build partnerships that drive AI innovation forward.”
The keynote address titled “The Quantum Leap: Redefining BFSI Dynamics, AI-Powered BFSI Institutions, Unleashing the Future of Finance” delivered insights into how AI technologies are fundamentally reshaping financial services. Sumnesh Joshi, ITS, Deputy Director General (Joint Secretary Level), Ministry of Communications, Government of India, shared unique perspectives on leveraging India’s digital infrastructure to lead global advancements in AI adoption. He highlighted, “Countries worldwide are looking up to India for the progress we’re making in service delivery using AI. Our ecosystem is ready with 1.4 billion digital identities, 1.2 billion mobile connections, over 1 billion bank accounts, 900 million broadband connections, and affordable smartphones. We’ve entered the era of AI, ML, Blockchain, IoT, and 5G.”
Reflecting on the rapid pace of change in the BFSI sector over the past 10-15 years, he further added, “We must now dream bigger and achieve more. Proactively approaching consumers using data analysis is key, alongside ensuring data security and privacy. With the upcoming implementation of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, we must prepare our systems accordingly.”
The summit featured panel discussions and presentations exploring diverse AI applications across the BFSI sector. Vishal Bhatia, Chief Digital Officer, Canara Bank, said, “We have introduced GenAI to all our 9000 branches, conducting 900 successful pilots across various sectors like sales, marketing, customer servicing, fraud detection, and customer engagement. This initiative aims to leverage local business models around our branches, enhancing service delivery to schools, universities, and hospitals. With the RBI Innovation team and IIT Kanpur, Canara Bank is also developing a module for mule account detection and using predictive analytics to manage customer defaults effectively.”
Reflecting on the changing banking landscape, Siddhartha Thimmavajjalla, Executive Director at Standard Chartered Bank, underscored, “Adaptability of Generative AI is crucial for meeting diverse customer expectations and ensuring rich customer experiences.” “Post COVID, the product landscape of banks has significantly changed. Given these environmental shifts, what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow, underscoring the importance of adaptability. Customer expectations vary across regions like Maharashtra and UP, making adaptability key. As a BFSI stakeholder, integrating Generative AI into our strategy is essential for delivering a superior customer experience,” he said.
Nishant Pradhan, Chief AI Officer at Mirae Asset Global Investments, also emphassed the transformative potential of Gen AI, foreseeing its impact on customer sentiment analysis and operational efficiencies across industries.
The summit also addressed critical challenges in AI adoption, as highlighted by Vivek Zakarde, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at IDBI Bank, who discussed the hurdles of data silos and data quality in scaling AI initiatives. “The biggest challenge in scaling AI adoption is that we have all our data in silos, which makes it difficult to collect the data and maintain a unified platform as the bank’s core systems cannot be uploaded to a cloud. Another challenge is ensuring a high data quality index, which is mandatory in banks for tasks like customer segmentation and implementing AI models. Many organisations also struggle with the data engineering aspect, like consolidating data and using appropriate APIs,” he said.
Chintamani Joshi, Head – Solution Architecture & Presales Enterprise FSI, Red Hat India, presented interesting insights on the hybrid AI strategy. “AI is going to be hybrid, and five pillars are going to be key to its hybrid strategy. Firstly, it’s crucial to bring AI to your data, not the other way around. Optimizing AI to minimise costs is also essential. Future-proofing your investments ensures longevity and adaptability. Unifying AI and app development streamlines processes, and finally, building trust with a transparent ML supply chain is imperative for maintaining credibility and security,” he said.
Furthermore, discussions focused on AI’s role in compliance and regulatory landscapes. Speakers including Deepak Chandani, Chief Data Officer, Angel One Broking, and Kapildeo Singh Chandel, Executive Group Vice President and Head – Data Science, Motilal Oswal Financial Services highlighted AI’s crucial role in streamlining KYC processes and enhancing regulatory compliance through advanced analytics.
Srikumar Kumar, CEO and Founder of Aplharithm Technologies, highlighted the critical importance of AI governance in harnessing the full potential of AI applications. Kumar addressed the concerns of many business leaders regarding AI outcomes and the transparency of AI models. “When it comes to AI, 80 percent of business leaders are concerned about what comes out of AI applications. 48 percent think that AI models and their outcomes are not explainable. A lot of bias can creep into AI models. AI governance is becoming mainstream. It is a process of directing, monitoring, and managing an organization’s AI activities. Many countries are coming up with regulations to manage AI,” he said.
The Elets BFSI AI & Analytics Summit also featured the Elets AI & Analytics Breakthrough Awards. These awards aimed to recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements and innovations in the field of AI and analytics within the BFSI sector.
With Red Hat as the AI Technology Partner, FLYTXT as the AI for CX Partner, and GenRPT by YodaPlus and Claristaas the Exhibitor Partners, along with Alpharithm as the Awards Partner, the summit facilitated significant collaborations and innovations in the BFSI sector.
The Elets BFSI AI & Analytics Summit marked the 59th in-person BFSI event by Elets Technomedia, underscoring its industry leadership and commitment to excellence.
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