At DBS Bank India, the local subsidiary of the Singapore-based bank, the emphasis is firmly on empowering its staff to learn and get trained in artificial intelligence (AI) tools. “The idea is to empower the staff and to take away some of that toil from work and to assist them in being more customer-centric,” Rajat Verma, MD & CEO of DBS Bank India, tells BT. DBS, winner in the Best Adoption of Emerging Technology & AI category in the BT-KPMG Best Banks and NBFCs Survey, has invested in building a good quality source of data to make agentic AI more effective, useful and accurate, says Verma. “The acceptance level of AI is high. That’s one of our competitive advantages. A lot of people use it and, therefore, its use cases have a much better chance of success,” he adds. The foreign lender believes in democratising AI. “Almost every staff member has to use it for information gathering, customer service and compliance among others,” Verma says, adding that some of these ideas have come from staff suggestions and hackathons. Verma sees AI as an enabler and doesn’t believe that it will take away jobs. He says it will help improve interactions with clients. “There is enough for the staff to do. We will do this with less toil, more efficiency and more productivity,” he says. As the use of AI grows, DBS Bank India is keeping cybersecurity at the forefront of its digital transformation. “As technology deepens, risk management must evolve with that,” Verma says. In India’s competitive banking landscape, DBS Bank India wants to keep its focus on SME and retail businesses. There are certain products that the lender wants to be very good at. “We won’t do every product. We won’t be all things to all people. But we will do certain products and improve on them,” he adds. Verma is bullish on the India opportunity. “It is a large, fast-growing economy with strong governance structures and world-class public financial infrastructure. India has deep technology and talent pools. A high-growth market with improving risk characteristics offers a great opportunity.” @karandhar11
