The fintech revolution in India has transformed not just how people pay, but how they live. In the past decade, the country has gone from experimenting with digital wallets to becoming a global benchmark for digital payments and innovation. For R V Raghu, ISACA India Ambassador and Director at Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd, this intersection of data, technology, and finance is one of the most exciting places to be.
“For someone passionate about data, fintech is as good as it gets,” says Raghu. “Few industries have this combination — vast data availability, commercial impact, and the ability to influence real economic outcomes. Financial services produce mountains of data, and when mined responsibly, it can unlock immense business value.”
India’s digital payments revolution: A front-row view
India’s digital transformation story is remarkable, and Raghu has had a front-row seat to its evolution. As one of the earliest players in the payments aggregation space, he has witnessed the country’s journey from early digital experiments to global leadership.
“Over the past decade, India has firmly established itself as a global leader in digital payments,” he emphasizes. “It’s been truly remarkable to witness this transformation unfold. Yet, we’re only at the beginning. The digital economy is expected to grow five to seven times in the coming years, and on the credit side, much of the borrowing is still offline. That’s where we’ll see the next major wave of digital transformation.”
As digital adoption deepens, customer expectations have evolved too. Merchants now demand higher success rates, greater reliability, and more value-added services from payment providers.
“The demand side has changed dramatically,” Raghu notes. “Merchants expect robust, stable platforms and seamless success rates. Once that’s achieved, they start asking what additional value you can deliver — analytics, customer insights, or better integration. So it’s a continuous cycle of innovation and improvement.”
AI across the value chain: From risk to customer experience
While India’s payments ecosystem matures, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quietly redefining the fintech value chain. From automating onboarding and managing risk to improving customer experience, Raghu believes AI has moved from hype to hard results.
“We’ve deployed AI across our entire value chain — for growth, for risk and fraud management, for customer experience, and even for internal efficiency,” he explains. “For example, when a merchant applies to join our platform, we’re required to ensure the accuracy of their details — that their line of business is correct, and that they’re not selling prohibited items. This used to be a highly manual process. Now, AI agents handle 40–60% of these applications.”
The impact has been twofold — faster onboarding for merchants and stronger compliance for the platform.
AI also plays a key role in fraud detection and credit risk monitoring, enabling real-time decision-making at scale.
“We use AI for transaction monitoring, credit risk prediction, and underwriting,” Raghu adds. “It’s helping us detect anomalies in real-time and act on them before they become issues.”
Even customer engagement is getting an AI boost. Raghu notes that his teams have launched AI-driven tools that enhance customer service quality and response time. On the development side, AI assistants are helping engineers and analysts build faster and more efficiently.
“It’s truly multi-pronged — growth, risk, customer experience, and internal productivity — all powered by AI,” he says.
Driving adoption: Making AI accessible to every employee
But the success of AI, Raghu points out, isn’t just about technology — it’s about people. He emphasises the importance of democratising AI within the organisation.
“When we started our AI journey, one of the first things we did was ensure AI is at the fingertips of every employee,” he explains. “Because adopting AI is not just a technology shift, it’s a cultural one.”
The company deployed multiple foundational AI models within its secure internal environment, localised in India, and made them accessible across teams.
“Within two months of the rollout, we had 80% employee adoption,” Raghu shares. “We even developed a compliant AI assistant that employees could use safely and productively. It’s remarkable how quickly people embraced it once they saw its usefulness.”
Challenges: Doing it the right way
Despite the successes, Raghu admits that deploying AI responsibly in fintech is not without its hurdles.
“The first challenge was ensuring we deployed AI in a compliant way,” he says. “Unlike e-commerce companies, we deal directly with customers’ financial data. That comes with a higher degree of responsibility. So we took extra time to ensure everything — from data handling to model deployment — met compliance standards. It slowed us initially, but we wanted to do it right.”
Another challenge was separating hype from reality.
“We experimented with some extreme AI use cases,” Raghu recalls. “In some cases, the conclusion was that AI, while powerful, isn’t quite there yet. So the challenge has been to calibrate expectations — to focus on what’s possible now and what will mature over time.”
Compliance and data governance: The bedrock of fintech AI
In a heavily regulated sector like fintech, governance and compliance are foundational — not optional. Raghu emphasises that the company’s AI models and data practices are designed with compliance at their core.
“Compliance is paramount,” he states. “We take a very structured approach to data privacy, access control, and localisation. All our AI models are based in India — even if that means using slightly older versions. Data localisation, audit trails, explainability, and model monitoring are non-negotiable.”
The focus on compliance also includes continuous model performance checks to detect bias or degradation over time.
“Every model is monitored for accuracy and fairness,” Raghu adds. “We maintain audit trails and ensure explainability — so every AI decision can be traced and understood. That’s the level of transparency fintech demands.”
From cost centre to strategy partner: Redefining data’s role
Raghu believes the real differentiator between fintechs that thrive and those that struggle lies in how they perceive data.
“Across the industry, I see two types of organisations,” he explains. “In the majority, data is a support function — a cost centre that fulfills requests, builds models, or publishes reports. But in a minority of forward-looking companies, data is a strategic enabler.”
The difference, he says, isn’t about tools or techniques but organisational mindset.
“The real question is: does data have a seat at your boardroom table?” Raghu asks. “A mediocre data team will only validate management’s ideas. A great one will challenge them with evidence. That’s when data becomes a true strategic advantage.”
2030 vision: Digital banking and lending will redefine finance
Looking ahead, Raghu sees 2030 as a watershed moment for India’s financial ecosystem. If the past decade was about digital payments, the next will be about digital lending and banking.
“By 2030, digital banking will be as ubiquitous as UPI is today,” he predicts. “Retail banking and lending will move entirely online. Borrowing will be frictionless and data-driven, supported by AI insights and secure digital identity frameworks.”
Data and AI, he says, will play a pivotal role in ensuring that this shift is both inclusive and trustworthy.
“We’ve come a long way in digital payments, but the next leap will be even more transformative. As AI and data become embedded in every financial decision, trust will be the defining currency of the digital economy.”
The balancing act
For Raghu, fintech’s future rests on one essential balance — between innovation and governance, speed and stability, automation and accountability.
“AI is helping us move faster, smarter, and safer,” he concludes. “But innovation without integrity doesn’t last. Compliance, privacy, and ethical AI are what will define long-term success in fintech.”