Indian banks embrace AI to drive costs down

SBI has deployed a virtual assistant to resolve customer queries.

Indian banks are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence in a bid to drive costs down as they grapple with the fallout of soaring bad loans, reports Times of India.

Also read: HDFC Bank rolls out second version of humanoid bot for branch banking

State Bank of India has deployed a what it calls SBI Intelligent Assistant to resolve customer inquiries in chatbox on the SBI portal.

The bank is also in the process of setting up an 'Innovation Centre' that will explore the potential of emerging technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in streamlining internal banking processes.

State lender Bank of Baroda has also rolled out hi-tech digital branch equipped with advanced gadgets like AI-powered robot named Baroda Brainy and Digital Lab with free Wi-Fi services.

"Indian banks are making AI investments in areas that are data intensive, systematic and critical to the bank's focus on profitability, customer experience, productivity and compliance," Kalpesh Mehta, partner at Deloitte India told Times of India.