Banking executives say AI agents could shrink operating models and fragment customer relationships, but warn that automation must be matched by human oversight, tighter governance and stronger defences.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a speculative add-on for banks but a shift that could reshape staffing, customer relationships and risk management, senior executives said at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit in Mumbai. Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, group head of information technology and chief information officer at HDFC Bank, said the arrival of AI-driven and agentic systems would give lenders an edge, but only if they were willing to rethink how much work remains human-led and how much can be handled by machines.
Lakshminarayanan argued that banks will eventually need to prepare for a much leaner operating model, with autonomous systems taking on tasks now performed by large teams. Rajesh Prasad, a director at Punjab National Bank, said Indian lenders are capable of adopting AI and autonomous agents whether they began with paper-based processes or have already moved to digital systems, though he said human oversight will still matter. Sameer Shetty, group head of digital business and transformation at Axis Bank, added that customers may increasingly spread their financial relationships across several banks, choosing one for deposits and another for borrowing as technology reduces friction in switching providers.
The discussion also pointed to a more difficult question: how banks can use AI without creating new vulnerabilities. Paritosh Wechalekar, managing director of technology services for India at Accenture, said institutions need clear boundaries and risk tiers for AI use cases, echoing the view among regulators that not every task should be handed to autonomous systems at once. Nishant Singh, founder and chief executive of Business Next, said the biggest change will come when banks decide whether to keep applying manual rules inside those boundaries or rely on the outcomes suggested by AI agents, a step he described as central to becoming truly autonomous.
That debate comes as HDFC Bank is also strengthening its internal technology defences. Reporting by the Financial Express and Mint has described a move towards more in-house control of software development and cybersecurity, including AI-led controls, specialist hiring and a greater emphasis on proactive rather than reactive security. Separate coverage by Moneycontrol has said the bank has also built an internal AI platform, Neev, as part of a wider push to keep data, governance and decision-making under tighter control. Together, the developments suggest that India’s largest lenders see AI not merely as a productivity tool, but as a strategic test of how far banks can automate while still preserving trust, compliance and resilience.
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