Complacency Kills, Agility Wins in Banking’s Next Act, Sanjay Singh, CEO, Azentio

By Puja Sharma

Composability and embedded compliance, not just AI, are quietly redefining the BFSI tech stack. The winners will be agile, user-first, and built for ecosystems, not silos.

Beyond AI and automation, what will have the biggest impact on BFSI and enterprise software?

There’s a powerful shift happening in BFSI tech: composability. It may not have the hype of AI, but it’s quietly transforming how institutions think about scalability and vendor independence. Businesses today are seeking modular, API-first platforms that allow them to tailor capabilities to their needs and evolve on their terms. Composability isn’t just about integration; it’s about strategic flexibility. It gives banks and financial institutions the ability to innovate faster without being locked into monolithic systems.

The other major force is regulation. From financial crime to data privacy and ESG reporting, regulatory demands are becoming more frequent, more complex, and more localised. Yet, it’s often overlooked in tech strategy conversations. The future belongs to providers that build compliance into the very DNA of their platforms, not as an add-on but as a native function. As frameworks tighten and cross-border expectations rise, embedded compliance will be a major differentiator.

How should businesses future-proof their tech investments?

You don’t future-proof by betting on the shiniest tool in the room. You do it by investing in adaptability. Cloud-native platforms, low-code/no-code tools, and microservices architectures all play a role, but at the core, it’s about building an IT environment that can flex and scale when market conditions change.

One thing I’ve observed consistently is that successful digital transformation is never just a technology project. It’s a cross-functional alignment exercise. Business, IT, compliance, and operations need to be aligned on the “why” behind the transformation. Without that, even the best tech investments underdeliver. When that alignment is in place, transformation gains traction quickly and sustainably.

Future-ready institutions are also those that think in terms of platforms, not point solutions. They build ecosystems, not islands. That means selecting tools with strong integration frameworks, clear roadmaps, and a focus on interoperability. Flexibility and optionality are your insurance policy against future disruption.

AI and machine learning are transforming insurance. How do you see InsurTech evolving, and what’s holding it back?

AI is already delivering a meaningful impact in insurance. What used to take weeks, like claims assessment, now happens in minutes through intelligent automation, OCR, and natural language processing. Fraud detection has also been elevated. Machine learning models are getting smarter at analysing patterns across policy, claims, and customer behaviour data to detect anomalies early.

But adoption at scale is still uneven. The biggest barrier isn’t capability; it’s trust. You’re asking a highly regulated and risk-averse industry to trust algorithms over rules. That’s a paradigm shift. For AI to gain broader acceptance, we need to focus on explainability, auditability, and governance. Regulators and compliance teams need to understand how a model works, not just what it delivers.

Then there’s infrastructure. Many insurers are still running on ageing core systems. You can plug AI into the front end, but if the back end is fragmented and inflexible, the value is limited. Modernisation and intelligence must go hand in hand.

There’s also a talent component; insurers need more people who can bridge data science and domain knowledge. As InsurTech matures, hybrid talent will be a competitive advantage.

Digital lending and embedded finance are reshaping credit. What comes next?

Embedded finance is fundamentally changing the customer relationship. Today, credit isn’t just offered by banks; it’s embedded into the platforms where people live their digital lives. Retailers,
ride-hailing apps, and telecom providers are all becoming financial access points. That creates both disruption and opportunity for traditional players.

I believe we’re heading toward a future of invisible banking. Consumers won’t open a banking app to apply for credit. They’ll get real-time approvals while checking out their online cart or booking a vacation. The bank’s role shifts from being the brand in front of the user to being the infrastructure beneath the experience.

To stay relevant, financial institutions need to adopt a platform mindset. That means exposing services via APIs, building flexible product engines, and being ready to partner with non-traditional
distributors. The most valuable banks in the embedded future will be the ones with strong digital plumbing, fast, secure, and compliant.

This also requires a shift in how banks view themselves. They can no longer be just product manufacturers; they must become enablers of ecosystems.

What excites you most about the future of BFSI?

What truly excites me is the industry’s overdue shift toward usercentricity. For too long, financial services were designed around internal processes and legacy systems. Now, we’re seeing that flip.
Everything, from onboarding flows to insurance claims to SME lending, is being reimagined with the end user in mind.

Even more inspiring is the pace of innovation in emerging markets. In regions like Southeast Asia, Africa, and parts of the Middle East, financial services are leapfrogging traditional models. They’re not constrained by legacy infrastructure, which gives them the freedom to build customer-first, digital-native experiences from the start.
These markets are showing the rest of the world what agile, inclusive financial innovation can look like.

I think the next decade will be defined by tech that’s not just smarter, but fairer, designed for inclusion, transparency, and personalisation. And that’s a massive opportunity.

Where do you see the biggest risks?

The biggest risk I see is complacency, the belief that what worked yesterday will work tomorrow. In this climate, doing nothing is not a neutral choice. It’s a strategic risk. Banks that delay cloud adoption, AI integration, or core modernisation are not standing still; they’re falling behind.

Another major risk is fragmentation. As institutions chase innovation through various pilots and partnerships, they risk ending up with a patchwork of disconnected systems. Without a unified architecture or integration strategy, they create silos that slow them down and expose
them to operational risk. Integration is no longer a backend concern;
it’s a strategic enabler.

And, ofcourse, cybersecurity remains a critical and growing concern. The more digitised and interconnected the ecosystem becomes, the broader the attack surface. That’s why security must be built into every layer of the digital stack, from infrastructure to application.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give BFSI leaders?

Don’t try to boil the ocean. Start with a single, high-impact use case, something that’s painful for your customers or inefficient for your business, and solve it exceptionally well. Then, scale the learnings. The biggest mistake I see is organisations launching multi-year transformation programs with vague goals and too many dependencies. In today’s market, that’s too slow and too risky.

The winners will be the ones who move in sprints, who experiment, adapt, and learn fast. Transformation isn’t about grand strategies anymore. It’s about execution, speed, and staying laser-focused on value.

And remember: transformation isn’t a destination. It’s a continuous cycle of improvement. So stay agile, stay aligned, and keep solving real problems.