'Speed, Accuracy, Fairness': RBI Governor Bats For AI In Banking

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra has encouraged banks to adopt advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline customer service and resolve inquiries and complaints, enhancing the overall banking experience. In the RBI's March 2025 bulletin, the Governor emphasizes how AI can help banks improve operational efficiency and provide more seamless services to customers.

RBI Governor Calls For AI In Banking

In his speech ‘Transforming Grievance Redress: The AI Advantage’, he said, “We are entering an exciting era where technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), can drive remarkable improvements in speed, accuracy, and fairness of complaint resolution” on Wednesday.

He also underscores that millions of grievances are reported annually, making it difficult for banks to address them efficiently and assess the magnitude of each complaint. This further complicates efforts to reach the most affected users at the right time.

How Can AI Can Help?

“AI can help categorize incoming complaints by urgency, complexity, or subject area, ensuring minimal delay in reaching the right people or the right team. AI can also help in optimising complaint routing. Further, it can assist in decision-making and reducing processing time,” he stated, as per the RBI bulletin.

He noted that in the 2023-24 fiscal year alone, 95 Scheduled Commercial Banks received over 10 million complaints from their customers. The number would be even higher when factoring in complaints received by other RBI-regulated entities (REs).

India, being a diverse country with multiple languages, also faces linguistic barriers, making it challenging for people to voice their problems and for banks to provide resolutions. “AI-driven chatbots and voice recognition tools can eliminate language barriers by operating in local languages,” he further added.

Integrating AI at every stage—from complaint lodging to closure—can result in a seamless, efficient, and data-driven grievance redressal system. Such a framework not only reduces processing times and addresses repetitive complaints but also fosters equitable outcomes by mitigating human biases.

Complaints Increase 

Under the RBI’s Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, complaints increased at a compounded annual growth rate of almost 50% over the past two years, reaching 9.34 lakh in 2023-24. Additionally, the number of complaints processed at the Office of the RBI Ombudsman increased by 25%, rising from about 2,35,000 in 2022-23 to almost 2,94,000 in 2023-24.

Possible Risks

However, while adopting AI technology, banks should also remain mindful of security concerns associated with it. “As we embrace AI in grievance redressal or any other process, we must also remain mindful of ethical considerations,” he stated.

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