How AI agents are transforming India's financial services sector

For a small dairy farmer in a semi-urban part of Andhra Pradesh, applying for a home loan can begin with something simple: being understood in a language he is comfortable speaking. Niwas Housing Finance uses multilingual voice-to-text technology to bridge that gap by capturing customer conversations and integrating them into the lending process. This signals a larger change. Technology is moving beyond answering questions to interpreting, coordinating, and acting within workflows. By July 2026, UPI had processed 23.65 billion transactions worth ₹29.87 lakh crore in a single month, with more than 741 banks live on the platform, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Digital transactions have become part of ordinary financial life at a scale hard to imagine a decade ago. AI is now entering the processes behind that activity, from understanding customer requests and processing documents to supporting financial decisions. At a recent episode of All About AI, moderated by Abhishek Singh, Associate Editor, LiveMint, leaders from Salesforce, Godrej Capital, Mirae Asset Investment Managers and Niwas Housing Finance discussed what that shift could mean for lending, investments and customer engagement. Sonali Kalyanikar, VP Sales, Salesforce India, sees the change mainly through speed. "Two years back, three years back, I think things have changed. When we talk about AI, it's all about velocity; it's all about speed," she said. Generative AI made it easier for people to connect with technology through natural language. Agentic AI goes further by letting systems complete tasks and interact directly with other systems. As Kalyanikar puts it, the expectation is that "my agent will talk to a bank agent or an NBFC agent." For financial institutions, this technology could connect parts of a customer process that have traditionally operated separately: onboarding, document collection, underwriting, and servicing. The significance is not just that a machine can complete a task faster. Different parts of a financial process could increasingly communicate. This frees employees to spend less time coordinating and more time on decisions that require judgment. Shreejit Menon, CEO, Niwas Housing Finance, sees the potential especially among customers who are "very light on documents." The company's voice-to-text tools, which are multilingual voice agents, make these conversations easier to capture and process. But Menon does not see technology as a substitute for the relationship at the centre of lending. "How do you kind of blend technology and the AI yet retain the empathy and the human touch which is critical to the success of this," he said. This distinction matters as financial inclusion widens. The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) rose to 70.0 in March 2026, from 67.0 in March 2025. Reaching more customers is only part of the task. The system must be easy for them to use and understand. That is the next step. At Godrej Capital, the potential of AI extends deeper into the lending process. Jyothirlatha B, CTO, said technology is no longer simply a support function. "Technology is not a kind of supporting department. It is a kind of business in itself, actually," she said. One practical application is underwriting. Loan documents that once had to be read, interpreted, and entered into relevant fields by employees can now be processed by AI agents. As Jyothirlatha explained, "The agents should be reading the documents and filling the entire field so that human intervention is minimal." The change is less about removing the underwriter and more about shifting their focus. They spend less time transferring information from documents and more time examining the case and making decisions requiring human involvement. This transformation depends on reliable data. "Getting that golden record of the customer is super critical," Kalyanikar said. A Salesforce study published in December 2025 found that 89% of India's data leaders believe organisations need to modernise their data strategies before AI can deliver meaningful results. Among organisations already running AI in production, 94% reported inaccurate or misleading output. At Mirae Asset Investment Managers, Head of IT Vijay Rao said they treat AI as an organisational capability, not just a project. They built a dedicated AI department and are using agents throughout their data infrastructure. "AI is now slowly becoming an operating system for modern financial services," Rao said. In finance, an error carries more significance than elsewhere. A wrong chatbot answer is frustrating. A wrong AI-driven decision on a loan, investment, or account can cost someone money. “Security architecture is the biggest challenge because every day this technology is changing, but the security guardrail framework is not evolving as fast as this technology," Jyothirlatha said. Kalyanikar was direct about the stakes: "You can't hallucinate because you're talking of numbers. You're talking of, you know, responding to customers' real money." Rao's rule at Mirae Asset is equally direct: "We always put security before innovation." Vijay Rao also sees AI helping people make sense of financial language. Instead of making customers work through technical terms, AI could explain information in simpler language. That idea brought a lighter moment to the conversation. Abhishek Singh asked whether AI could take a financial concept and explain it "like I'm a 4-year-old". The question was playful, but the problem is serious. Customers deciding on loans or investments shouldn’t need specialist vocabulary. If AI can simplify information without losing accuracy, financial services become easier to navigate for everyone. For the dairy farmer, it means speaking to a lender in his language. For an underwriter, it’s less time on paperwork. For investment professionals, it’s more time for judgement and client conversations as AI handles routine analysis. That’s the true promise of AI in finance: not just speed, but making the system easier for everyone to use and understand. Note to Readers: All About AI is a Mint editorial initiative, produced in partnership with Salesforce. For about a decade, Livemint—News Desk has been a credible source for authentic and timely news, and well-researched analysis on national news, business, personal finance, corporates, politics and geopolitics. 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