Data & AI mega trends of future; be ready for the tsunami: Amitabh Chaudhry, Axis Bank

“I do not know how the future millennials would like to lead their lives and the way the trends are emerging and how quickly they have emerged just tells you one thing that we today do not even know what some of those mega trends could be which could change the life of how we live and how the banks have to react and manage their customers, says Amitabh Chaudhry, MD & CEO, Axis Bank.

Chaudhry further says that “we have to be ready for the tsunami. We need to be standing at the right place so that we can manage that tsunami as and when it comes.”

Covid was an eye opener for us. The term I used was survival. Then it became revival and then a year ago it feels like a sugar rush. In terms of demand, credit growth, economic offtake, is that sugar rush behind us? Are we in for normal years of growth now?
We are in for normal years of growth because during Covid years, there was a suppressed demand which did take off and it reflected in the GDP growth rate. It is hopefully going to normalise now and from here on depending on how India does and geopolitically how things play out things will get normal.


Frankly we are in the risk taking business but at the same time we are in the risk management business also. We cannot allow the sugar rush to continue for too long because if we do, we will end up making the same mistakes that we have done in the past. Are we making the mistakes today which will lead to a problem three to five years down the line? We should keep asking ourselves this question. We try to do it in Axis and we believe that today we are not, but time will tell. Secondly you have to keep looking for things where things will go wrong and that is part of the job of the management team to keep asking themselves the question, is there something happening out there today which could lead to a problem tomorrow? And yes, you have to keep proactively managing it.

Has life really normalised for Axis Bank in real terms? I remember we had long engaging conversations during Covid. We were all sitting at home. Banks’ branches were half open. There was a two-day week or a three-day week. Now everything is normal. Have a lot of those Covid assumptions been rebooted?
No we did change quite a bit because of Covid. On June 21, we had announced that we will move to a two-day roster week, we have not changed from that. We are still following it. Yes more people do end up coming in office because people want face to face meetings but if there is someone who does not have face to face meetings, can come to office only twice a week and it is all fine because Covid did prove to us that it is not required that we will be present here just for the sake of being present here.

So we have kept to that promise though a lot of our employees initially did not believe it. We have not changed. Yes this question keeps coming up. Sshould we change that two to three? We are still trying to look at the data and see what it is telling us.

So you come to the office only twice a week?
Sometimes I end up coming more often but I am talking about the larger set. We also have more than 3,500 employees who have permanently shifted to home. We are not asking them to come to the office at all. There is another set of employees we call the gig employees who are working on gig basis, sitting from anywhere in the country. So we have done some things and changed some things permanently. It is not just one time and we will continue to build on that as we move forward. So yes Covid has brought about a clear change in how we work.

Walk us through a mega trend and I will take the clock back before you take it forward. 20 years ago digital, banking was a novelty. Now it is a necessity. Five years from now, ten years from now, what is that mega trend which you see will emerge in the banking sector, especially in India?
There are two things we need to think about. One, while data is ubiquitous, it is not necessarily available at the right time to the right people. I think what the way the government is going about it and the kind of platforms they have created, data will give you insights which are not available today. So it is not only about the fact that data is available, I think the trend would be who can use data in the best possible form and shape and what are the use cases you build with it. Whoever is able to do that will be the winner in the marketplace. Second, what AI seems to be telling us today is scary.

Too much data but?
Well, you know my worry is that lot of the use cases will emerge in the hoopla around it in terms of what AI can do and what you really need to potentially, how you take it to the customer and how you use it will lead to a situation where if you are not in it, there will be a problem. If you have too much in it, that could also create a problem. So we need to watch how it plays out but I would say that could be a huge bigger trend.

I recently read this article in the New York Times about how chatbots responded about trying to be independent and stuff like that. Some of the stuff is scary. A lot of people who understand some of these trends have written to the US government saying that we need to control it. But it is a trend which needs to be watched out for.

A couple of years back, it was all about meta and the meta world, I think that noise has died down a little bit but that could be another trend which could emerge over a period of time. I do not know how the future millennials would like to lead their lives and the way the trends are emerging and how quickly they have emerged just tells you one thing that we today do not even know what some of those mega trends could be which could change the life of how we live and how the banks have to react and manage their customers.

So we just have to be ready for the tsunami, just you need to be standing at the right place so that we can manage that tsunami as and when it comes.

I will throw some names at you, some sentences at you, and you will have to give me your reaction. And of course, this is something I have not discussed with you. So this is going to be straight out of his gut. Aditya Puri?
World class franchise builder.

Shaktikanta Das.
Strong, steady hand.

Infosys, when you are managing Progeon.
One of the best times I had.

HDFC Life
Another great innings for me, a lot of learning.


Axis Bank, HDFC Life, Infosys -- wehich is the best stock to buy?
Obviously Axis Bank, what else am I supposed to say?


Axis Bank, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Thoroughly enjoying it, looking forward to more.

Extension. Chat GTP.
Amitabh Chaudhry: Interesting and worrisome.

When you are not thinking, what are you doing?
Oh, listening to music, reading books.

One book which you have read again and again.
No, no, I am not there as yet, I need to read a book again and again. Enough books to read.

Which is your all-time favourite book?
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, because it gave me a very different perspective on what the World War was about. I used to be a great Osho fan, so a number of Osho books were quite revealing.

What is that one thing you think has been the most challenging time for you in your current tenure?
Well, I think the acquisition of Citi was quite challenging because we did it at a time when firstly we did it in a time frame which was shorter than what we had told the market. This institution has been around for 120 years, a deal of a lifetime. We got 96-97% of the employees to come and join us.

The day one went extremely well. Looking forward to the next 12 months when we will have transitioned the customers to Axis Bank platform. It is a very complex deal, not a difficult but complex deal and I think I am very happy that we have done a great job till now. I think half of it is over. The more important half is still to be done.