Hi everyone,  
 
Every decade, finance seems to reinvent itself. If you zoom out over the last three decades, finance has gone through a series of resets: 

• 2000s: Internet banking went mainstream – customers could access bank accounts online, anytime.  

• 2010s: Mobile wallets and payments exploded – money moving as fast as texts, driven by UPI, Paytm etc.  

• 2020s: Embedded finance - credit, insurance, and payments stitched directly into customer platforms.  

Each reset reduced friction and widened access.  

But today’s reset feels fundamentally different. Generative AI is not just a channel or product – it could become the default system of workflows in finance.  

 
One thing I’m curious about: What can we anticipate about the future if finance stops being about distribution and starts being about intelligence? 
 
From distribution to intelligence 
 The distribution problem in finance is largely solved. At least from a known solution perspective. While many lenders and enterprises, struggle with expanding reach of their credit products – partnership lending made easy through products like FinBox Prism help scale reach of contextual credit across large platforms.  

On the other hand, customers are also spoilt for choice. Be it credit, payments, or insurance – financial products are just about everywhere. But it’s not necessary that these offerings are contextual or tailored in a way that solves their problems.  

The real differentiator for modern financial organizations is going to be a mix of thoughtful reach and intelligent decisioning.  

How adaptive is your product? How quickly can you respond to a customer's profile, context, needs?  
 
We’ve now entered a new phase where it is no longer customers competing for credit – it is credit competing for customers.  
 
And this competition won’t be decided by who has the largest footprint. It will be decided by intelligence. The lenders that can: 

• anticipate any potential risks early 

• personalise offers to context  

• embedded compliance into every journey, and  

• deliver decisions that customers and regulators trust 

...will move ahead in the lending game.  

 Generative finance: hype or transformation?  
 
Forbes calls this the “generative transformation of finance”. And it feels apt.  

We’re already seeing what it looks like in practice; 

• Advisory at scale: AI that minimises days of research into seconds, leaving humans to just judge and act.  

• Compliance that runs itself: Everything is tracked automatically, reports are generated instantly, and audits become quick and painless.  

• Conversational finance: Smart assistants that anticipate needs, nudging you during every action and showing you flagging outcomes before you act.  

This is not a far-off vision. It’s already happening in pockets. The real challenge is to scale it responsibly.  

Four shifts that can’t wait  
 
As someone who spends majority of their time with lenders and fintech partners, I’m convinced these four shifts are overdue: 

1. Policies as code → Credit rules shouldn’t live in policies. They need to compile in APIs, validation rules, and test cases that are easier to move across the system.

2. Dynamic optimisation → A BNPL borrower isn’t necessarily the same as an SME borrower. Yet today, many face the same old rigid systems that run on straight-jacketed scoring and broad bucketing. AI can help adjust policies in real time for each segment and partner – a finer comb rather than a broad stroke.

3. Compliance by design → Compliance shouldn’t be bolted on. Generative systems can ship in with built-in checks, real-time monitors and audit ready.

4. Flexible journeys → One size fits all doesn't work for this phase. Higher-risks customers should be able to see extra checks because of obvious reasons. The backbone of risk remains the same, but the experience flexes.
    

Confidence is the new currency of finance 

 Market signals are clear. Mckinsey estimates that AI could unlock $4.4 trillion annually across finance and other industries. IBM reports that 78% of banks have already adopted generative AI to accelerate automation and advisory. And startup insights finds that early adopters in financial services are seeing a 3.7x ROI for every $1 invested. This isn’t hype – it’s a structural reset in how finance is built, delivered, and trusted.   

The winners of this decade won’t be the ones making the flashiest claims about AI.  

They’ll be the ones making it invisible – embedded, explainable and boring in the best possible way. Customers won’t notice the algorithms at work. What they’ll notice is the confidence, fairness, and consistency those systems create.  
 
It’s no longer about how fast money moves, but how smoothly it lands in the bank account of the right borrower.