At a time when India’s financial services industry is witnessing a massive digital transformation, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s cloud computing wing, is playing a key role in helping companies upgrade operations and enhance their customer experiences. Indianexpress.com sat with Kiran Jagannath, head of financial services industry and conglomerates, AWS India and South Asia, to understand how the Amazon wing is impacting the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector at a time when generative AI is dominating every industry. The AWS executive shared his insights into how technology and AI are transforming this growing industry. Jagannath, who has over 28 years of experience in financial services, oversees AWS’s equation with banking institutions, capital markets, insurance companies, fintech companies, and NBFCs. “AWS supports transformation through various solutions, focusing on security, resilience, innovation, and customer experience,” Jagannath said. When asked about the role of AWS in India’s financial services sector, he said, “No growth comes without growth of financial services.” On why AWS is key to the growth of financial services, Jagannath said the banking sector’s asset book is expected to reach $7 trillion, payments are expected to be 2 billion UPI transactions a day, and that there will be more than five times demat accounts by 2030. “In such a paradigm, one of the biggest things that customers worry about is really the security, resiliency, being relevant, being innovative, and driving some really good customer experiences,” he said. During the conversation, Jagannath touched on how Covid-19 accelerated the shift from branch-based services to digital channels, underscoring the significance of adapting to evolving technologies. “Be it UPI transactions or the increasing scale of banking, AWS plays a pivotal role in this shift,” said Jagannath. He went on to talk about Axis Bank, which successfully implemented video KYC and e-KYC solutions during the pandemic. This according to him is the ideal example of rapid digital transformation by enabling seamless credit card onboarding when physical branches were virtually inaccessible. Getting on with generative AI In the last three years, we have seen some novel use cases of generative AI for enterprises across various industries. It seems Indian startups, fintechs, and financial institutions have been quick to embrace generative AI technologies. AWS provides a wide range of foundational models through its Bedrock platform, essentially offering organisations the flexibility to choose the AI solutions best suited for their requirements. “Generative AI is a game-changer, offering immense potential for personalised customer experiences, faster access to information, and improved operational efficiency,” Jagannath explained. The executive shared several success stories that highlighted this trend of generative AI adoption across India. He described how Bajaj Allianz General Insurance implemented an AI chatbot to deal with queries related to policies. Also, how one of India’s largest banks deployed AI tools to enhance frontline banker productivity and decision-making abilities. Even though companies are scrambling to adopt generative AI, the journey toward integration is not without challenges. When it comes to financial institutions, data accessibility, and modernisation are among the primary concerns. Speaking about how AWS addresses these challenges, Jagannath said, “AWS helps customers transform their data platforms to make data integration seamless. We also introduced features like Guardrails, which ensure that AI models are deployed safely and aligned with regulatory requirements.” Jagannath added that data privacy and sovereignty concerns are addressed through AWS’s two regions in India. According to him, this allows customers to maintain complete control over data residency (physical location of data) and compliance requirements. Cost-efficiency factor When asked about the cost factor, Jagannath said that AWS’s pay-as-you-go model has changed the traditional approach of provisioning infrastructure. This, according to him, has led to significant cost savings for financial institutions of all sizes. He said, “Axis Bank saw significant cost reductions by modernising its data platforms with AWS QuickSight, which improved data visualisation speeds and reduced data availability time from hours to minutes while cutting costs by 80 per cent.” In a similar example, Jagannath cited how HDFC’s launch of PayZapp is a testament to AWS’s substantial scaling of operations while maintaining both cost-efficiency and security. He said the platform went on to achieve a tenfold increase in operations without making any compromise with security or performance. How does AWS support the Indian fintech space? When asked about AWS’s role in supporting India’s fintech ecosystem and how he sees the space evolving, Jagannath said the company has made significant investments in the country’s thriving fintech sector. Through programmes such as AWS Activate, AWS offers startups mentorship, technical support, and credits, he said, adding that leading fintechs, including Acko General Insurance, Razorpay, Zerodha, and Upstox, have been using AWS infrastructure for their operations. Besides, the Speed Connect initiative allows for collaboration between fintechs and enterprise customers, fostering innovation within the ecosystem. When it comes to smaller financial institutions, AWS offers flexible pricing models and support programmes like Migration Acceleration Programme to ease the transition to cloud services. Shifting attitudes toward cloud Even though companies are increasingly opting for cloud services and deploying AI solutions for various operations, there is a considerable number of firms that are yet to take the plunge. When asked about the financial sector’s attitude towards cloud adoption, Jagannath said it has evolved significantly. “In the last 12-18 months, we’ve seen a shift from ‘Why cloud?’ to ‘How quickly and efficiently can we adopt the cloud?’” Jagannath said. According to him, this shift indicates the growing acknowledgment of cloud as a technology that is essential for digital transformation. AWS focuses on a methodical approach to cloud adoption as it emphasises more on business outcomes for each institution to find the best-suited solutions.
