Banking sector fintec major Zafin eyes $5bn market with early AI product launch in Middle East

Zafin’s move is seen as highly strategic as it wants to be an early bird in the region to garner a sizeable pie of the estimated $100 billion market for the AI-driven ‘pricing and promotion’ functions on banks globally.

The Middle East is estimated to account for about five percent of the $100 billion market opportunity.

“We will be announcing a couple of our AI-based products at Sibos – the annual global financial services event – at Toronto next month [September]. The Middle East will be among our focus markets for implementing these products,” Anugopal Venugopalan, Global COO of Zafin, told Arabian Business.

“At Zafin, we firmly believe that AI is at an inflection point and has kicked off the next re-imagining of how we do work and how work gets done [in the banking sector], he said, adding that “we believe the AI opportunity ahead for our customers – the banking industry – to be in the magnitude of $1 trillion or greater as we look ahead at the next few years”.

Venugopalan said this opportunity is composed of a spectrum of internal productivity and efficiency gains, as well as added revenue and better risk management, covering all functions of the banking blueprint.

Marketing, sales to account for majority of the $1 trn AI opportunity in banking

Venugopalan said marketing and sales functions will account for the majority – over 60 percent – of the projected $1 trillion AI-driven opportunity for banks.

“And within this, a sub-function that is near-and-dear to our hearts is “pricing and promotion”, which we see as representing around $100 billion as an opportunity space for banks [globally] in the coming years,” he said.

Venugopalan last week told Arabian Business that Zafin was zeroing in on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as its new focus market for its next round of growth plans globally, and was looking at setting up its third global operational centre in Dubai, besides upgrading its existing office in the city to be its regional headquarter for the MENA region as part of this.

“We’re focused on meeting our [existing and prospective] customers where they are today and where they are headed with their AI adoption roadmap, and are invested in being a part of their AI strategy, and success story, as they look to partners that are aligned with seizing on this opportunity,” he said.

A McKinsey report on ‘Building the AI bank of future’ showed nearly 60 percent of financial-services sector respondents in its global AI survey said their companies have embedded at least one AI capability already.

ChatBox and ‘virtual assistance’ are some of the new tech-driven programmes run by banks, including in the Middle East, for quick and improved customer relations functions currently.

Industry insiders, however, said an increasing number of banks in the region are taking a comprehensive approach to deploying advanced AI, and embedding it across the full lifecycle – from the front- to the back-office.