Part 2: Powering Viksit Bharat 2047

Redefining Customer Journeys with AI: The Next Step in Financial Inclusion for Viksit Bharat 2047

Financial inclusion in India has come a long way. Millions now have access to bank accounts, credit, and insurance—thanks to relentless efforts by banks, NBFCs, and fintechs. But as we move toward the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the question is no longer about access. It’s about experience.

Today’s customers expect financial services to be as intuitive and seamless as the apps they use every day. They want speed, personalization, and trust. When these expectations aren’t met, inclusion becomes fragile—people disengage, and the promise of empowerment fades.

This gap between access and experience is where the next big challenge lies. And it’s best illustrated through a real-world scenario.

Case-in-Point: When Access Isn’t Enough

Arjun, a young professional in Mumbai, recently tried to open a digital savings account. What should have been quick and seamless turned into a frustrating process with multiple document uploads, hours of verification, a confusing interface, and a generic product offer. Disappointed, Arjun abandoned the process midway, costing the bank not just a customer but a potential long-term relationship.

This highlights a critical truth: access alone doesn’t guarantee inclusion. Banks and NBFCs have made accounts widely available, but the real challenge is delivering a smooth, engaging experience. Today’s customers compare financial services to the apps they use daily—shopping, ride-hailing, streaming. If onboarding is slow, options feel one-size-fits-all, or data security seems unclear, they disengage. Inclusion without engagement is like a bucket with a hole: people enter, but they don’t stay.

The Three Pillars of Customer Expectations

Today, customers measure their financial journeys based on three critical parameters:

• Choice: They expect tailored options, whether for a savings account, insurance, or a loan. McKinsey notes that 71% of consumers want personalized interactions, while 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them.
• Speed: From onboarding to loan approvals, real-time service is now the norm. A BCG study shows that banks’ digitizing onboarding saw a boost of 10-20% in satisfaction and faster product launches.

• Privacy and data security: Customers demand transparency and control over how their data is collected, stored, and used. Strong governance, encryption, and audit trails are no longer optional—they’re mandatory.

Meeting these expectations isn’t a bonus; it’s the minimum to stay relevant.

How AI Delivers Better Journeys

AI is helping financial institutions shift from basic transactions to truly personalized experiences. By analyzing customer behavior and preferences, AI can recommend products that align with individual life stages, goals, and risk appetite. It also streamlines onboarding through biometric KYC and real-time verification, eliminating long waits and repetitive document uploads. Beyond convenience, AI embeds trust with governance frameworks, audit trails, and consent tracking, ensuring transparency while maintaining speed. For someone like Arjun, this means an account opening journey that verifies him instantly, suggests a product tailored to his lifestyle, and clearly explains how his data is used, turning frustration into confidence.

Why Experience Equals Inclusion

Opening an account is only the first step—what truly matters is whether customers stay and engage. Financial inclusion fails when journeys are abandoned. Experience isn’t just about convenience; it’s about continuity. A farmer who struggles with claim settlement may never buy insurance again. Similarly, a gig worker facing delays in loan disbursement could lose trust in formal credit. And for a young professional like Arjun, a poor onboarding experience could push him toward a fintech wallet instead of a traditional bank. These examples showcase how every poor experience chips away at inclusion, while seamless, transparent, and personalized journeys strengthen trust and long-term engagement.

How Institutions Are Adapting

Forward-looking banks and NBFCs are redesigning journeys with an AI-first approach. These include:

• Building frictionless onboarding flows to reduce drop-offs.
• Using predictive models to anticipate customer needs and offer timely solutions.
• Embedding data governance layers to strengthen trust and ensure compliance.
• Leveraging low-code platforms to adapt processes as expectations evolve quickly.

Ultimately, financial inclusion succeeds only when customers stay engaged long enough to benefit from credit, insurance, and investment products. AI makes this continuity possible.

AI in Action: Enhancing Experiences Across the Lifecycle

Banks and NBFCs are steadily shifting toward AI-first platforms to keep pace with rising customer expectations. The goal is simple: make every interaction, whether onboarding, loan servicing, or trade processing, faster, smoother, and more transparent. To deliver these experiences at scale, institutions rely on purpose-built AI agents to simplify onboarding, speed up approvals, and even detect risks before they escalate.

This is where NewgenONE comes in. With its suite of domain-trained AI agents, Newgen helps financial institutions reimagine experiences from start to finish:

• Know Your Customer AI Agent: Streamline onboarding with biometric checks and real-time data integration, reducing drop-offs and ensuring compliance.

• Agentic Credit Decisioning Engine: Enable faster and more transparent loan approvals through predictive rules and evidence-based risk assessments.
• Early Warning System: Detect financial stress early and predict defaults, enabling timely interventions that protect customers and portfolios.
• Collections AI Agent: Use predictive insights to personalize repayment strategies and improve recovery outcomes while maintaining a positive experience.
• AURA AI Agent for Trade Finance: Automate document validation to ensure compliance, minimize errors, and accelerate global trade transactions.

By uniting these capabilities on a single platform, NewgenONE helps financial institutions deliver faster, more personalized, and resilient experiences, moving inclusion from simple access to long-term engagement.

Why This Matters for Viksit Bharat 2047

India’s vision of becoming a developed nation by 2047 will depend on providing citizens access to accounts and ensuring that those accounts are used meaningfully. This requires customer journeys that are simple, personalized, and trustworthy. Inclusion must feel like empowerment, not effort. For Arjun and millions like him, the promise of inclusion will be realized only when financial institutions move beyond access and deliver experiences that rival the best digital interactions.

Final Thought

Arjun’s experience reminds us that access alone does not guarantee inclusion. Unless financial journeys are seamless, personalized, and trustworthy, people will disengage and look elsewhere. AI is already helping institutions deliver these better journeys, turning accounts into active relationships and making inclusion sustainable.

But even the best-designed experiences must withstand uncertainty. The real test of inclusion lies in building systems that are resilient enough to support customers through stress and protect institutions from risk. That’s the focus of the final part of this series, where we explore how AI is helping banks and NBFCs make financial inclusion last on the road to Viksit Bharat 2047.