Banking Leaders Urge Shift From AI Experimentation to Implementation
Indian banking executives and global researchers warn that financial institutions must align their AI ambitions with strict governance frameworks to avoid systemic risk.
Banking executives at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2026 in Mumbai called for the Indian banking sector to transition from artificial intelligence experimentation to full-scale operational implementation. Leaders from IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank, and IDFC First Bank discussed using AI to reshape lending models and improve risk governance, emphasizing that technology should augment human judgment and solve specific business problems.
R. Subramaniakumar noted that the Reserve Bank of India has been clear that banks must move toward practical deployment. V. Vaidyanathan detailed how AI can analyze unstructured data for credit evaluation and argued that every bank requires a formal AI policy. Panelists warned that scaled deployment necessitates strict data governance and cybersecurity to ensure institutions remain accountable for AI-generated decisions.
Parallelly, a global study by FT Longitude, SAS, and Microsoft revealed a significant gap between AI ambitions and governance. While 76% of banking leaders expect AI to make autonomous credit and risk decisions by 2031, only 18% have fully operational governance processes. The research found that 92% of respondents have at least one large language model operating outside formal frameworks, and 63% are willing to use opaque black-box models for superior performance. The European Banking Authority has urged banks to ensure their risk management capacity matches their technological ambition to prevent financial and reputational damage.
