Intelligent Automation Technology Trends And How The Indian BFSI Sector Is Adopting The Same By Ulhas Kulkarni, SVP – Process Automation & RPA, Datamatics Global Services Ltd.

Intelligent Automation Technology Trends And How The Indian BFSI Sector Is Adopting The Same

Ulhas Kulkarni, SVP – Process Automation & RPA, Datamatics Global Services Ltd. | Friday, 10 January 2020, 11:37 IST

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Ulhas Kulkarni, SVP – Process Automation & RPA, Datamatics Global Services Ltd.Automation is all set to transform the BFSI sector in India. However, to deliver business efficiencies and improve service quality, individual technologies cannot function in silos. Automation has to be a heady mix, which is thought through to deliver the desired result. This mixology is unfolding today in the BFSI sector. We are witnessing a “dynamic automation” or a “technology convergence” involving Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML), Analytics, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Intelligent Data Capture or Intelligent Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Referred to as “Intelligent Automation”, the mash-up is empowering businesses to go beyond point solutions and move towards a holistic approach to solve complex business problems.

BFSI sector worldwide has been an early adopter of Intelligent Automation. Though the India story started much later, it has now caught up with the global trends. Here, the risk of being a late adopter, and not specifically a laggard, weighed down the options of making any meaningful gain in a rapidly evolving global trade scenario.

Today, enterprises have identified earlythat the permutation and combination of the different technology elements have not just a “high” but an “exponential” business impact. With this realization, we are witnessing a gradual yet steady rise in adoption of intelligent technologies to drive complex business use cases. As most enterprises in the industry vie to either become global players or are tending to become ones sooner, centralized scrutiny of KYC documents, fast customer service, and compliance & security are proving to be the low hanging fruit. These use cases are quite ideal for providing quick business results through Intelligent Automation.

“Intelligent Automation across the enterprise using cross-functional technologies is making business sense in an increasingly agile scenario as compared to developing and deploying smaller point solutions”

1 .e-KYC

Intelligent Automation enables fully centralized KYC operations. Here, the AI engine quickly scans the supporting documents, followed by sorting the scanned copies and tagging them. Subsequently, AI algorithms intelligently extract the required data, unify the data from multiple sources, and store it in a singular data lake.

Nowadays, with operations spread across multiple locations and branches, Intelligent Automation makes central KYC processing, an equally faster onboarding within 3 minutes, and immediate delivery of personalized banking/operations kit, a business reality.

The process engages multiple technologies, including AI, Intelligent Data Capture or Intelligent Optical Character Recognition, Biometrics for reading fingerprints or facial characters, and APIs for mass-scale application integration.

2. AI-powered customer service

Intelligent Automation, powered by AI algorithms, helps to extract the required information from service requests received in the CRM applications or email. It further quickly routes the requests to the right enterprise bucket, followed by an equally faster response to the customer.

However, the main issues revolve around data silos and lack of expertise in data collection, data preparation, analysis, and application.

Here, Intelligent Automation solution, powered by ML and Deep Learning algorithms, is set atop CRM application. This mash-up helps BFSI enterprises to unify the data and easily detect/learn patterns from that data. Use of Segmentation software and Predictive Analytics to segment customers helps to extend proactive and personalized services to customers, promote precision marketing, and deliver better services instead of just relying on age-old segmentation methods. In short, this is “Intelligent Automation in Action at its Best”. It is facilitating discovery about “what customers need” instead of “showering one size fits all offers” as prevalent in current business scenarios.

3. Risk, compliance, and security:

We are witness to a massive explosion of fast-moving data – both structured and unstructured. This data burst is posing a deep risk to compliance and security. As the evolving business scenarios seek technology recourse, Intelligent Automation powered by AI/ ML is showing the way ahead through integrated solutions.

With ML maturing over time, AI/ ML algorithms keep on improving their ability to detect patterns about security concerns, which are not visible to the human eye. AI/ML enables the quick building of massive knowledge repositories, interprets natural language, and executes operations in compliance with statutory requirements. As a result, it is easier to find answers to questions more accurately and reliably to detect and resolve issues in real-time.

Business benefits achieved through Intelligent Automation in the BFS sector:

• Capability to deliver personalized offers/services and custom advice powered by knowledge discovery, which generates further interest in customers to consume different BFSI products

• Meting algorithm-powered advice on portfolio management with minuscule human involvement

• Ability to go beyond customer experience to create customer delight

• Significant gains in productivity due to the automation of tedious routine processes to make them highly effective

• Ability to identify opportunities and threats on a proactive basis, which may not have been detected by the human eye

• Development of operational models that constantly keep on upgrading as the perceived business threats keep on changing

Intelligent Automation – The future scope:

Intelligent Automation benefits are widespread. This technology enables you to develop out of the box solutions for complex business requirements.

Intelligent Automation technologies are becoming increasingly affordable to both big and small enterprises. Along with the cheaper availability of fast computing power, they are creating high relevance for the BFSI sector. This holy-grail is enabling BFSI enterprises to compete on a leveled field with Fintechs or their born-digital counterparts.

Technology-enabled massive revenue savings and the enhanced capability to detect fraud are both creating a significant impact on the BFSI sector. Intelligent Automation across the enterprise using cross functional technologies is making business sense in an increasingly agile scenario as compared to developing and deploying smaller point solutions.

Most enterprises have noted that the risk of inaction or policy paralysis vis-à-vis AI and Advanced Analytics powered Intelligent Automation weighs more. Along with this, the moral nudge to overcome inertia and stay relevant in an ever-changing geopolitical market, as well as the will to change business processes, has forced BFSI enterprises to re-imagine business processes. Thus said, the notion of having achieved extreme automation is finally laid to rest.

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