Indian banks are reporting gains of 10% to 50% in productivity, turnaround time and operating costs from artificial intelligence (AI) projects, according to figures shared by lenders with The Economic Times on 1 November 2026. Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and AU Small Finance Bank described AI use across corporate banking, collections and customer servicing.
What Indian banks say AI is delivering
At Kotak Mahindra Bank, an initiative called Project ACE uses AI to sort and route corporate customers’ requests on account servicing, payments, transaction disputes and inward remittances. Anu Aggarwal, Head of Corporate and Transaction Banking, said the efficiency gain has freed enough capacity for the same team to handle 20–30% more volume. The bank, whose Q2 FY27 profit rose 29%, is also building predictive tools to help corporate finance chiefs forecast inflows, payments and surplus liquidity.
HDFC Bank said digitisation and straight-through processing cut service-delivery turnaround times by 30% in the September quarter, while customer visits per frontline employee rose by nearly half. AU Small Finance Bank has halved the operating cost of its AI-led voice operations, after earlier work such as its AI-native loan origination system. ICICI Bank has built an enterprise AI platform that spans customer onboarding, fraud detection, portfolio monitoring, document processing and servicing.
Inside Axis Bank’s AXIOM programme
Axis Bank has published the most detailed numbers. Its Q2 FY27 investor presentation, filed on 17 October 2026, shows that under its AXIOM programme:
- AI bots handled about 60% of collection calls, with a call-resolution rate of about 50%
- More than 2.5 million sales calls were led by AI bots
- About 34 million documents were read with AI assistance, and about 9.5 million calls were transcribed
- Shared platforms for document AI, voice AI, enterprise knowledge search and a relationship-manager copilot are live
The bank says AXIOM is certified to ISO 42001, the international standard for AI management systems. MD and CEO Amitabh Chaudhry said tools such as Doc AI, Voice AI and GenAI-powered collections are improving both customer experience and operational efficiency. The programme follows the appointment of Namrata Dubashi as Axis Bank’s first Chief AI Officer in June 2026.
Why AI governance matters for banks now
The efficiency gains come as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asks lenders to tighten oversight of the same technology. Speaking in August, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra urged banks to keep a full inventory of their AI models, adopt board-approved AI governance policies, run red-team and stress tests, and retain human accountability for credit and other decisions. These expectations build on the regulator’s principles for responsible AI in finance.
Reuters reported on 30 October that the RBI has also asked banks to show compliance with existing cybersecurity rules and probe weaknesses in the APIs linking them to NBFCs and fintechs, amid a rise in AI-assisted attacks. As AI moves from pilots into core operations, the controls around it now matter as much as the savings.
Key takeaways
- Banks report 10–50% improvements in productivity, turnaround time and costs from AI.
- Axis Bank’s AI bots now handle about 60% of collection calls.
- The RBI wants AI model inventories, board-approved governance and human oversight.
Featured image: ICICI Bank Towers, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Photo: Rakesh from Bangalore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
