Notes from the AI-in-FinTech Bharath Conclave

Last week’s AI-in-FinTech Bharath Conclave in Bengaluru felt like a curtain-raiser for the AI Summit in New Delhi this week.

With key policymakers from the government, FinTech leaders and investors in attendance, it was a useful preview of how different stakeholders view AI’s role in financial services.

What stood out most for me was how the government's perspective was noticeably more progressive than even many industry voices.

On being pressed by Kunal Shah on the disruption from AI to India’s tech and services sectors, S Krishnan, Secretary from MeITy, was quick to point out that AI-driven creative disruption is likely to create more jobs than it would disrupt over time, citing recent studies and projections by the Niti Aayog. It's great to see senior policymakers as conversant on various elements of AI and its implications as seasoned industry leaders.

Corporate teams present in the event were clearly excited by the potential from AI, but somewhat skeptical of the pace of progress, with more pilots than production deployments ongoing. I personally feel that this is more a feature of the current evolutionary stage of the tech than hesitation, as highly regulated spaces like finance require careful moves through risk, compliance and liability waters for larger corporates.

The investor panel (with voices from Z47, Stellaris and others) was clearly bullish with the pace of emerging AI innovations, with voice AI being the current dominant theme. Investor focus is clearly towards use-cases where AI can make a critical difference to performance or scaling. Personally though, it did feel as if capital is still skewed towards near-term applications than longer-term deep AI builds, a reality perhaps of the Indian market.

Overall, a strong gathering and a useful signal of the conversations likely to surface at the AI Summit this week. Looking forward to seeing how these themes evolve in the main summit.