As the global banking and financial sector undergoes rapid digital disruption, Anaptyss is leaning heavily on its India centre to lead the charge in building intelligent, AI-driven risk management systems. In an exclusive conversation with Express Computer, Rohit Gore, Chief Digital Officer, Anaptyss, shares how the company is leveraging its Digital Knowledge Operations™ framework to drive proactive compliance and real-time risk detection across BFSI. From building tools like ALFA and CovenAce™ to scaling talent in Tier-2/3 cities, Gore outlines how India is no longer just a back office but the strategic brain of global innovation.
You recently expanded your Centre of Excellence to deliver AI-powered real-time risk systems like ALFA, which offers 75%-80% accuracy in fraud detection. How are you leveraging your India centre to transform traditional risk management frameworks into real-time intelligent systems?
Yes, it is. So see, the way I look at it is that in the banking and financial sector, everybody is essentially working in managing risk. While enterprise risk management as a function is primarily responsible for carrying out the entire structured approach towards it, we are all really working on managing the risk.
Those days when it was more of a very reactive and process-heavy system, where you had to follow a set of dilutive processes all the time and react to risks being observed in the system, and then you had a standard operating procedure to deal with it step by step. Those days are behind us. That scenario was there for a number of decades.
But with AI and intelligent-led solution capabilities transforming the landscape, it has become proactive and extremely real-time. So what we propose, we always have lived by our Digital Knowledge Operations™ framework. The three words in it: digital, knowledge and operations. Digital makes you proactive because you’re building solutions not for today but for the future. You rely on knowledge, and you transform your operations. That’s our philosophy that unlocks this proactive ability of capturing the possibilities of risk in real time.
That drove us to build something like ALFA. It’s essentially a very strong and effective transaction monitoring framework and tool that can detect a whole lot of false alerts with over 75% to 80% accuracy.
Now, in risk management, what happens is that a lot of operational bandwidth, effort, and talent capability is lost in assessing all of these false positives that are generated because of risk management procedures. Most of them can be taken care of by a combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and some sort of robotics.
So we created this, and what we have seen is that it has reduced the turnaround times by around 40%. In certain cases, far more than that. It has unlocked the ability of the people who are proactively doing the enterprise risk management within the bank function to be more insight-driven, to learn from the output of ALFA, put that learning back into ALFA, and become far more insight-driven and proactive. And that’s how they’re staying ahead of all the risks that we believe the bank is facing all the time.
India was once the BPO capital of the world, but now it’s seen as a global innovation hub. What is driving this shift, and why are so many foreign companies setting up innovation hubs in India?
I think there are three or four very prominent factors to it. First is the sheer scale of the digital-first talent available in India. We have talent that is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. That is a very attractive reason for many organizations and enterprises to consider India as their GCC destination.
Second, over the last several years or decades, we have gained a whole lot of domain knowledge. This is both an outcome and a conscious effort. If you go to a destination where you are trying to offload very low-end, human-centric activities, there’s very little differentiation. But as a result of the domain experience, I have seen that journey myself. Back in 1998, my first program was with a bank, a credit risk workflow tool. We had no domain knowledge then. But by the mid-2000s, domain knowledge had exploded in the organizations I worked with.
Successively, many of our organisations inculcated that culture. The government also helped in ensuring domain knowledge transfer. Since the mid-2000s, it’s been a nonstop, accelerated journey of domain knowledge growth.
Third is the ability to culturally align with modern approaches our clients follow. Within Anaptyss, we have culturally driven programs like Spark and Thrive. Thrive might sound simple—how much tenure you have and what incentives you get—but to thrive, you must add real value to your client journey. Unless that value is articulated, communicated, and lived by, the program won’t succeed. You cannot just exist; you have to deliver value.
There’s a certain DNA to American, European, and Canadian banking, and programs like Thrive help us align with it. Spark is about mentoring and collaboration to drive transformation at scale. These programs are consciously driven to bring in culture, and I’ve seen them succeed at Anaptyss. Other successful GCCs have also done this repeatedly.
Finally, there is a strategic mindset change within global CXO organisations. They have seen the consistent value delivered by India and Indian organisations – the work ethic, innovation, cultural affinity, and drive to achieve. It’s no longer about replicating old tasks but innovating and resonating with their journey. Decision-making entities globally have matured. They’ve seen it, experienced it, consumed it, and that’s how GCCs like ours have succeeded brilliantly. And it’s only going to continue.
Are GCCs bringing culture shifts to Indian workplaces?
Yes, I think it’s about embracing the positive aspects of different cultures and enhancing them. When we interact socially and professionally with counterparts abroad, we experience different cultures within a formal relationship framework.
Over decades of working with American and European counterparts, positive aspects of their cultures have seeped into our way of delivering. Similarly, aspects of our culture have seeped into theirs. I remember a customer from Texas in 2004 who said, “Get out of here!” in excitement, which was shocking to our Indian team member. That same person, over the years, embraced Indian cultural nuances, and our team learned from him too. It’s mutual cultural osmosis.
How is Anaptyss’ India centre addressing the growing need for AI-driven compliance and digital risk tools in BFSI? Any successful deployments in AML, KYC, or model risk management?
Anaptyss has been at the forefront of driving innovation for our clients. It’s not just us saying it; our clients repeatedly tell us this.
We have a multi-pronged approach. Our Digital Knowledge Operations™ framework is at the core. As our CEO Anuj Khurana often says, it’s about helping clients evolve from managing tasks to owning and leading functions.
In enterprise risk management, we begin by managing strategic tasks. As we gain insight, we combine domain knowledge with transformative capabilities like machine learning, data analytics, data engineering, and AI.
We don’t rely only on generative AI. We also have scientists with PhDs in neural research helping clients unlock advanced AI capabilities. It’s a framework-driven journey from task execution to function ownership, empowering our customers to focus on innovation.
Tools like ALFA, our ERM solutions, and CovenAce™, our AI-driven covenant management solution (developed in India), showcase this approach. CovenAce™ is not just prompt engineering; it uses adaptive, generative AI.
Our customers often realise the value we bring after we solve problems they didn’t even know existed. That’s real innovation.
What is the current headcount of Anaptyss in India?
Anaptyss currently has over 600 employees in India. Over the past year, we have witnessed over a 150% increase in our workforce.
Anaptyss also plans to nearly double the India workforce by 2027, aiming to hire over 600 additional professionals, bringing the total headcount to more than 1,200 employees in the country
With the intense competition for talent in India, what are your best practices to attract and retain talent?
Five reasons, which I personally resonate with:
- People-first philosophy: As part of the C-suite, I can attest we live this daily. It’s not lip service.
- Empathetic leadership: Our CEO, Anuj Khurana, ensures personal engagement with new hires, which inspires the entire leadership.
- Cross-functional opportunities: Employees can move freely between consulting, operations, and digital.
- Inclusive growth programs: Spark, Thrive, and other initiatives aren’t checklist-driven. They blend empathy, value-driven leadership, and a true people-first approach.
- Purpose-driven careers: Our associates stay not for perks, but for the purpose their careers serve. I’ve personally experienced this after joining a year and a half ago from another human-centric organization.
Where does the India centre stand in Anaptyss’ global operations?
India is a very significant part of our global operations. It is the engine that drives global growth. It provides scale, capability, capacity, innovation, and foundational culture
It is our showpiece when clients visit. GCCs are no longer optional; they are strategic. Our India GCC is a powerful, central capability.
In how many geographies is Anaptyss currently operating?
Anaptyss has a presence in the United States (global headquarters) and Canada in North America and Mexico in South America. The organisation has plans to penetrate into Europe, with planned growth in the UK, Romania, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, and Germany.
In India, Anaptyss has GCCs and significant operating infrastructure in the cities of Gurugram, Noida, Pune, and Kolkata. Additional operating capacity and capabilities are delivered through satellite teams based in Bengaluru. Anaptyss plans to establish a presence in cities such as Jaipur, Hyderabad, and other locations that are emerging hotspots of the GCC ecosystem with ready availability of high-quality talent.
There is a narrative that GCC growth in India is saturating. Do you agree?
Certain areas may slow down if they lose global relevance. But the AI and data science revolution is creating new opportunities.
While some fear AI will replace jobs, I believe it will create new roles and capabilities. These will need to be learned and scaled globally. India’s GCCs know how to scale. That is an art we have mastered.
Yes, some areas are flattening, but others are growing. We’ve created roles like Chief Digital Officer and Chief AI Officer, which didn’t exist earlier. These roles need large organisations around them to succeed, and GCCs enable that.
Are you planning to expand into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities?
Absolutely. Talent is pervasive in India. With the internet and e-learning platforms, talent in Tier-2/3 cities now has similar access as metros.
While there are infrastructure challenges, we believe these cities hold strategic relevance. I’m from Nagpur, which went from Tier-3 to Tier-1 in 20 years. GCCs contributed to that. We want to be part of that journey elsewhere too.