In the realm of modern-day banking, customer experience is nothing but technology experience, says Milind Nagnur, group president & CTO, Kotak Mahindra Bank. Responsible for technology strategy, enhancing digital capabilities and harnessing new age AI/ML technology solutions for all areas of the bank, he talks to Sudhir Chowdhary about the bank’s digital transformation strategy.
Excerpts:
How is Kotak Mahindra Bank positioning itself as a tech-first bank?
In the past one year, we have made significant strides in digital transformation shifting our focus from product to becoming more customer-centric. With investments in technology and talent, we now operate like a tech company with an aim to enhance customer engagement, provide tailored financial solutions, and streamline processes. We believe our customer-focused solutions backed by technology, will be our strategic differentiator as a leading financial institution.
What role do AI & ML play, and how have they been integrated into the bank’s operations?
Kotak caters to over 40 million customers in India whose needs are diverse and rapidly evolving. Particularly with the use of digital platforms and mobile banking, we are competing for their mind space with other consumer brands. We also have a massive data and analytics infrastructure and we are doubling down on it to manage huge volumes of data at record speed to derive valuable insights from it. So from using customer insights to customise products, improving transacting experience, improved loan and credit decisioning to cross-selling offerings, we are using new-age technologies to improve operational effectiveness and reduce business risks.
What emerging technologies are you most excited about? How do you see them impacting the banking industry in the future?
I am excited about the transformative potential that emerging technologies such as software engineering, data and analytics, AI, hold in re-imagining the banking and finance industry. We have seen some very interesting use-cases emerge in personalisation, customer engagement and even data security. The integration of these technologies will pave the way for a promising future in banking, where innovation and customer-centricity thrive.
How is the bank using data to enhance customer experience?
We are building future platforms where data drives every customer interaction with the firm. Whether it’s the mobile app, call centre, conversational AI or branch interaction, we want the customer to feel we have their context and are already equipped to help them on an upcoming interaction powered by data and analytics.