AI’s real value is decision intelligence, not automation: Madhusudan Warrier, CTO, Mirae Asset Sharekhan
In India’s capital markets, the trading app has quietly lost its power as a differentiator. What was once a badge of innovation is now table stakes. Every broker has one. Every platform promises speed. Every interface looks reassuringly familiar. The real contest, as Madhusudan Warrier sees it, is no longer about features, it is about outcomes.
“Having a trading app today is hygiene,” says Warrier, Chief Technology Officer at Mirae Asset Sharekhan. “What truly matters is how deeply technology is embedded across the value chain to drive growth, trust, and client outcomes.”
That philosophy reflects both Sharekhan’s legacy and its current transformation. One of India’s earliest online trading pioneers, Sharekhan has spent over two and a half decades building technology systems that survived market crashes, regulatory shifts, and exponential growth in retail participation. Now, under Mirae Asset’s ownership, the mandate is not reinvention for novelty’s sake, but responsible modernisation, making a stable platform smarter, more predictive, and more resilient.
From front-end features to embedded intelligence
For Warrier, technology’s role in capital markets has fundamentally changed. It is no longer a showcase layer but a silent engine working behind every decision, every interaction, and every trade.
“We do not look at technology as a front-end feature,” he explains. “We see it as a growth engine that is embedded across the value chain.”
That embedding begins with data. Decades of client behaviour, transaction histories, portfolio movements, and engagement patterns are no longer treated as static records. Instead, they are being transformed into decision intelligence that informs how relationship managers engage with clients, how portfolios are reviewed, and how risks are identified.
Technology, Warrier notes, allows Sharekhan to understand not just what a client owns, but who the client is, “their behaviour, their risk appetite, and the lifecycle stage they are in.” Those insights help move conversations away from generic recommendations towards relevance and context.
“The idea is that our advisors are not telling clients what they think is right,” he says. “They are talking about what the client actually needs at that moment.”
This intelligence flows across Sharekhan’s ecosystem, from relationship managers on the ground to its extensive partner and franchise network. Research, long a core strength of the firm, is no longer confined to emailed reports. It is being augmented with data-backed prompts, risk alerts, and next-best-action insights, making every advisor more precise and productive.
When markets break, platforms are remembered
In capital markets, trust is tested not during calm periods but in chaos. Warrier is clear that volatility is where technology reveals its true value.
“When markets are volatile, clients remember who supported them,” he says. “Speed and stability become the real differentiators.”
That belief has shaped how Mirae Asset Sharekhan designs its platforms. Systems are built not for the average trading day, but for the worst one. The architecture assumes extreme surges, sharp volatility, and moments when millions of decisions are being made simultaneously.
“Our approach is simple,” Warrier explains. “We design for resilience, speed, and intelligent prioritisation.”
The firm operates on a geographically distributed active-active infrastructure with real-time replication, eliminating single points of failure. If one environment falters, traffic is automatically rerouted without disruption. Low-latency trading cores, high-speed exchange connectivity, and event-driven processing ensure that even during five to ten times volume spikes, order execution remains consistent.
“In extreme situations, we prioritise what matters most,” he adds. “Order placement and risk validation always take precedence over non-essential services.”
Continuous monitoring, predictive alerts, and frequent stress testing mean that the system’s breaking points are understood long before clients feel them. It is this preparedness, Warrier believes, that underpins Sharekhan’s long-standing client loyalty.
“Trust is built over time,” he says. “And stability during chaos defines that trust.”
Integrating legacy without losing discipline
Mirae Asset’s acquisition of Sharekhan was not a collision of old and new, but a convergence of experience. Both organisations brought deep capital markets and technology expertise to the table, reducing the friction that often accompanies large integrations.
“Sharekhan already had a very strong technology foundation,” Warrier notes. “Mirae also had mature broking platforms, so we knew exactly what we were working with.”
The integration strategy was guided by two principles that Mirae Asset emphasises globally: customer excellence and innovation. But in a regulated industry, innovation cannot outrun governance.
“In financial services, innovation has to move at the same pace as regulation,” Warrier says. “That is why compliance by design is non-negotiable for us.”
Every new capability, whether AI-driven insights or digital onboarding, passes through stringent regulatory validation, audit logging, and explainability checks. Governance, risk, and compliance teams work alongside technology teams, not after them.
“We ensure complete auditability and transparency,” he explains. “That gives regulators confidence that even after the acquisition, the systems remain resilient and accountable.”
For Warrier, this discipline reflects a broader philosophy. “Sustainable innovation is not about moving the fastest,” he says. “It is about moving responsibly.”
AI as decision intelligence, not theatre
In an industry flooded with AI claims, Warrier is measured in his assessment of its true impact.
“AI has become a buzzword,” he admits. “Everyone claims they have it. But the real value is not in automation, it is in decision intelligence.”
At Mirae Asset Sharekhan, AI is being positioned as an augmentation layer rather than a replacement. Its role is to help humans make better decisions faster, not to remove human judgement from the equation.
“We are moving from static portfolios to dynamic, personalised insights,” Warrier explains. “Insights that adapt to a client’s risk profile, behaviour, and market conditions.”
AI-generated alerts around unusual trading behaviour, concentration risks, or rebalancing opportunities empower relationship managers to engage clients proactively. For risk teams, pattern recognition replaces manual scanning of vast datasets.
“Instead of reacting late, we can intervene early,” he says. “That changes client outcomes.”
However, Warrier is clear that AI is only as good as the data beneath it. Much of the firm’s recent work has focused on strengthening its data lake and analytics foundation.
“You cannot just plug in an AI tool and expect magic,” he says. “The data has to be accurate, structured, and contextual.”
Several AI initiatives are already in advanced pilot stages, with some insights reaching customers. Others continue to mature internally, guided by real-world behaviour rather than hype.
“Our goal is simple,” Warrier adds. “We want to anticipate needs, not just process transactions.”
The next decade: Intelligence, speed, and trust
Looking ahead, Warrier believes the next phase of capital markets will be defined by three forces: intelligence, speed, and trust. Transaction platforms will evolve into predictive engines. Client interactions may move beyond apps to conversational interfaces, voice, messaging platforms, or AI-driven agents.
“A day may come when clients do not transact through an app at all,” he suggests. “They might simply interact through a conversation.”
At the same time, regulatory scrutiny will only intensify. Surveillance, auditability, and real-time compliance will move from reactive to proactive. Cloud-native, API-driven, modular architectures will become essential to support partnerships and ecosystem integration.
“Cybersecurity and digital trust will define brand credibility,” Warrier says. “As volumes increase, protection must scale with speed.”
For Mirae Asset Sharekhan, the ambition is not just to keep up with change, but to lead it responsibly.
“As markets evolve, technology cannot merely follow,” Warrier concludes. “It has to lead, intelligently, resiliently, and with trust at its core.”
