According to a recent CMR-NASSCOM report, the BFSI segment strongly feels the need for AI. Here’s why along with some challenges hindering the progress.
Artificial Intelligence can have a profound impact on just about every industry, and the BFSI segment is no exception. According to a recent CMR-NASSCOM report on AI for BFSI, which was based on a survey of senior IT decision makers from BFSI, 75% of the respondents felt a strong need for AI. As it’s still a relatively new technology, the levels of agreement varied for different uses it could be put to. Some felt it could enhance operational efficiency while others went as far as to say that it could transform core financial processes.
The report, which can be downloaded from the websites of CMR or NASSCOM reveals some interesting insights on how the BFSI segment perceives AI, which AI technologies are they planning to deploy in the near future, and what are their challenges with the technology.
Business Objectives of AI
The primary business objective for AI emerged as enhanced customer support and the ability to offer a more proactive and personal experience. This was followed by management of back-end business processes to reduce human error. Whether AI will replace manpower and the humble IVR based menu system is still a contentious issue, and most respondents only partially agreed that this will happen. Other reports by prominent advisory firms say that AI will create more job opportunities than losses.
Key Challenges
While the BFSI sector is extremely positive about using AI, there are some concerns. One key concern raised by over 50% of the respondents is that AI based solutions lack common standards to help them differentiate between different vendor offerings. With so many AI technologies and vendors to choose from and no common framework to evaluate various offerings, it becomes a major challenge to choose the right one. It also becomes difficult to determine how an AI system could be plugged into their IT infrastructure or the outcomes it would deliver.
Use Cases of AI
Another key issue many respondents feel is that there aren’t enough use cases of AI in BFSI that could cater to their specific needs. Only a few BFSI Indian companies are using AI extensively. The rest (over 64%) are either seriously evaluating its usage or have just begun to introduce AI based products. They would need all the help they can get to aid their deployment plans. That’s why, we’ve carried ample global and Indian use cases of AI in our report, along with some of the best practices that could be followed while deploying.
Moreover, the eco-system of AI based startups with solutions for BFSI segment is also growing, and we’ve featured a few prominent ones in this report.
