Dentsu Creative India has launched a new report examining how banks, financial institutions and other BFSI businesses can turn digital, media and AI capabilities into measurable customer and business growth.
India’s banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector has undergone significant digital transformation over the past decade. Technology and data have changed how financial institutions attract customers, deliver services and make business decisions. With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly influencing decision-making and execution, the next challenge is ensuring these capabilities deliver meaningful business results.
Addressing this shift, Dentsu Creative India has launched Rewire for Growth, a report that explores how BFSI organisations can move beyond building digital capabilities and focusing on individual performance metrics to create a more connected approach to growth.
The report argues that the next phase of growth will depend on how effectively financial institutions connect customer demand with decision-making, fulfilment and long-term value. Rather than investing in more standalone digital channels, technologies or AI applications, businesses need to align these capabilities with clear customer and commercial outcomes.
BFSI Growth Requires a Shift in Strategy
According to the report, financial institutions need to rethink how they plan and measure growth. Instead of starting with the channels or technologies they want to use, organisations should first identify the customers they want to reach, the demand they want to generate and the outcomes they expect to achieve.
This approach would help businesses direct investments towards opportunities that can deliver stronger results, rather than treating each digital channel or technology initiative as a separate growth strategy.
The report also highlights the need to look beyond customer acquisition cost (CAC) and initial response metrics. Acquisition performance should be assessed based on whether demand translates into customers who complete the intended journey, receive the service and generate lasting value for the business.
It further points out that individual teams can meet their targets while the organisation as a whole falls short of its growth objectives. This can happen when departments use different performance measures, lack clear ownership or fail to coordinate the hand-offs between different stages of the customer journey.
AI Must Be Linked to Business Outcomes
As AI adoption accelerates across BFSI, Rewire for Growth emphasises that technology creates greater value when it supports a specific business decision and contributes to fulfilment and continuous learning.
The report cautions against treating AI as a collection of disconnected use cases. Instead, financial institutions need to determine where AI can improve decisions, help convert customer demand and strengthen the overall customer experience.
Trust is another important consideration as financial services journeys become increasingly automated. The report recommends building trust into these journeys through clear customer permissions, explainable decisions, human accountability, escalation mechanisms and recovery processes.
These measures are intended to ensure that greater automation does not come at the cost of transparency, responsibility or customer confidence.
Dentsu Leadership Highlights the Need for Connected Growth
Commenting on the report, Harsha Razdan, CEO, South Asia, dentsu, said the BFSI sector has made considerable progress in digital and data, while AI is increasing the importance of making clear strategic choices.
Razdan noted that institutions likely to create the most value will be those that identify where they want to grow and organise their businesses around those priorities. He added that Rewire for Growth brings together dentsu’s perspective on connecting demand generation with fulfilment and long-term customer value.
He also described this shift as an increasingly important leadership conversation for the BFSI sector.
Narayan Devanathan, President and Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia, dentsu, said that growth challenges often emerge in the gaps between teams, between an initial customer signal and actual fulfilment, or between acquisition and long-term value.
Devanathan explained that individual functions may achieve their targets while the overall business outcome remains weak because the gaps between these stages are not visible in their respective performance measures.
He emphasised the need to make the complete customer journey measurable, track what happens beyond acquisition and establish clear ownership across the process. According to him, this is where digital and AI capabilities can begin to translate into stronger business growth.
Connecting Digital Investment with Measurable Results
The launch of Rewire for Growth highlights a broader shift in the BFSI sector’s growth agenda. As financial institutions continue to invest in digital platforms, data and AI, the focus is increasingly moving towards how these investments contribute to customer conversion, service fulfilment and lasting business value.
The report’s central argument is that growth depends not simply on adding more technology, but on connecting customer demand, organisational decisions and execution around shared objectives.
For BFSI businesses, this means aligning teams, performance measures and technology investments across the entire customer journey. By doing so, financial institutions can work towards turning digital and AI capabilities into more consistent and measurable growth outcomes.
-By Shivani Solanki
