Arundhati Bhattacharya, President and CEO of Salesforce India and South Asia and former chairperson of the State Bank of India (SBI), said on Tuesday, 9 June that public sector banks (PSBs) are increasingly embracing artificial intelligence and are actively looking to adopt next-generation technologies to strengthen customer service, operational efficiency, and risk assessment. Speaking in an interview, Bhattacharya said PSBs have recognised the urgency of adapting to rapid technological change — and are capable of moving swiftly once they commit.

PSBs Ready to Move Fast on Technology

'Public sector banks are waking up to the reality that they need to be part of this new age. One good thing about public sector banks is that when they make up their minds, they move very quickly,' Bhattacharya said. She noted that many state-run lenders are looking to leapfrog directly to the latest technologies rather than adopting them in incremental stages — a sign, she argued, of genuine appetite for transformation rather than cautious, compliance-driven adoption.

Agentic AI: A Game-Changer for Customer Servicing

Bhattacharya highlighted agentic AI — systems capable of independently performing tasks and interacting with users without step-by-step human instruction — as particularly well-suited to banking. 'Agentic AI, in particular, is very well suited for customer servicing, which has historically been a challenge across the banking sector,' she said. She cited Salesforce's own experience as evidence: when the company introduced an agentic AI layer on its support helpline, customer engagement rose rather than fell. 'We found that customers actually asked more questions because they were getting useful responses. The same principle can apply in banking,' she said.

Strengthening Underwriting and Risk Management

Beyond customer-facing applications, Bhattacharya said AI can materially improve underwriting by drawing on data from multiple sources simultaneously, identifying potential risks earlier, and reducing human error in credit decisions. The technology can also enable banks to engage more meaningfully with borrowers and offer personalised products at scale — areas where PSBs have traditionally lagged private-sector peers.

Broader Impact on Banking Operations

AI-driven tools, she added, can lift overall productivity and expand customer outreach, helping public sector lenders close the service gap with private banks. Bhattacharya said AI is expected to play an increasingly central role across customer service, lending, risk management, and back-office operations as financial institutions deepen their exploration of the technology. This comes amid a broader push by the Indian government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to accelerate digital infrastructure across the banking sector, making PSBs' AI readiness a matter of national financial policy as much as competitive strategy.