At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping the global financial landscape, Rajiv Anand, MD & CEO of IndusInd Bank, is positioning AI, especially Generative AI, as the bank’s next structural growth lever, likening its impact to, or even surpassing, the core banking and digital revolutions of the past two decades.
AI moves from buzzword to backbone
For IndusInd Bank, AI is no longer experimental, it is foundational. Anand underscored that the bank is embedding AI across customer experience, employee productivity, credit risk management, and financial crime prevention.
To accelerate this shift, the bank is setting up a dedicated AI Centre of Excellence aimed at scaling GenAI adoption enterprise-wide. Ten high-impact use cases have already been identified, spanning sales productivity, conversational banking, credit underwriting, and collections, several of which are already live, Anand told analysts at the latest earnings call.
Early traction signals strong internal adoption. The bank’s in-house knowledge platform, Indus Compass, is seeing over 3,000 daily active users, handling more than 15,000 employee queries every day. Its enterprise AI chat platform is witnessing similar engagement, with nearly 3,000 daily users and upwards of 70 interactions per user per day.
Equally critical is talent readiness. Over 9,000 employees have undergone AI training so far, with plans to significantly expand this as part of a long-term capability-building strategy.
Digital push and brand reset on the horizon
Alongside AI, the bank is sharpening its digital edge. Anand highlighted a “transformational shift” in customer experience, particularly in current and savings account onboarding. The lender is also preparing for a broader brand repositioning exercise expected around mid-next year, signalling a refreshed market approach.
Retail-focused growth with risk discipline
On the business front, IndusInd Bank is recalibrating its loan mix, focusing on secured retail lending while maintaining caution in unsecured segments.
Gold loans have emerged as a standout performer, with disbursements tripling over the past six months and the loan book crossing ₹1,000 crore. The product is now available across more than 500 branches, setting the stage for continued momentum.
In contrast, the bank has deliberately moderated its exposure to unsecured credit. The personal loan book saw a marginal 2% sequential decline to ₹10,358 crore, while the credit card portfolio dipped 5% QoQ to ₹9,751 crore.
SME and retail deposits gain traction
The SME segment remains a strategic priority, with the bank upgrading its processes, risk frameworks, and operating structures to unlock growth from a relatively smaller base. The SME loan book stands at ₹44,347 crore, registering modest sequential growth.
Retail deposit mobilisation continues to be a bright spot. The bank added ₹6,800 crore in deposits during the quarter, entirely driven by retail inflows. This pushed the share of average retail deposits to 47.9%, reflecting improving liability franchise strength.
Asset quality improves, credit costs ease
IndusInd Bank also reported encouraging trends on asset quality. Net slippages declined 37% quarter-on-quarter, supported by improved recoveries across retail portfolios. Annualised net slippages eased to 1.71%, down from 2.65% in the previous quarter.
The broader stress book, including net NPAs, security receipts, and restructured assets, continued to moderate, reinforcing management confidence that credit costs have likely peaked, subject to macro stability.
The road ahead
With AI at the core, a sharper retail focus, and improving asset quality, IndusInd Bank appears to be stitching together a multi-pronged transformation strategy. As Anand puts it, the combination of stronger inputs and improving outcomes positions the bank to “do much better” in the periods ahead, potentially redefining its competitive edge in an increasingly AI-first banking world.