Kyndryl to help Suryoday deploy agentic AI in bank

Kyndryl has agreed to work with Suryoday Small Finance Bank to deploy agentic AI across the bank, focusing on customer service, compliance and internal operations.

The arrangement includes the creation of an Agentic AI Centre of Excellence for Suryoday to identify where the technology can be applied and expand its use across the bank. The centre will support changes across both digital and physical channels.

Suryoday plans to use the system in a range of banking processes, including digitising and validating account-opening forms, adding voice-based support in mobile banking and handling legal enforcement requests. Other planned uses include investigating suspicious transactions and underwriting loans for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The move reflects growing interest among banks in using AI in tightly regulated areas such as customer onboarding, fraud monitoring and lending decisions. Financial institutions have been exploring how to automate repetitive tasks while maintaining oversight for compliance and risk management.

Suryoday is a small finance bank in India with operations across 16 states and union territories through 712 banking outlets. The lender began as a non-banking financial company before starting operations as a small finance bank, with a focus on serving unbanked and underbanked customers.

Kyndryl's framework is designed to move AI projects from isolated pilots into broader systems used across an organisation. For Suryoday, the bank expects the technology to shorten customer service response times and improve staff productivity by shifting some routine work to automated processes.

Use cases

Among the more sensitive applications are responses to legal enforcement requests and reviews of suspicious transactions, both areas where banks face close regulatory scrutiny. The inclusion of MSME loan underwriting also points to interest in using AI in credit processes that have traditionally depended on manual review of documents and borrower information.

The collaboration comes as Indian banks continue to invest in digital tools to widen access and reduce turnaround times for customers. Small finance banks in particular have sought to balance financial inclusion goals with the operational demands of serving dispersed customer bases across branch networks and mobile channels.

For Suryoday, the project is part of its effort to maintain a digital-first approach while keeping compliance controls in place. The changes are intended to improve onboarding and responsiveness while allowing employees to focus on work that requires more direct engagement.

"Suryoday Bank aims to deliver simple and trusted banking at scale by incorporating a digital-first approach, while maintaining the highest standards of compliance discipline," said Baskar Babu R, MD & CEO, Suryoday Small Finance Bank.

"By establishing an Agentic AI Centre of Excellence with Kyndryl, we are embedding intelligence across critical customer journeys and operational processes, helping us accelerate onboarding, improve responsiveness and enable our teams to focus on higher-value engagement. This collaboration strengthens our ability to serve customers more effectively today while building a resilient, future-ready operating model for the bank," said Babu.

Kyndryl is one of the larger global providers of IT infrastructure services and works with customers in more than 60 countries. Its consulting and design teams will be involved in aligning the bank's AI work with business priorities and operational requirements.

The partnership also underlines how technology suppliers are seeking deeper roles in banks' internal transformation programmes rather than acting only as software vendors. In these projects, service providers are increasingly expected to help with governance, implementation and scaling within existing operating models.

A Kyndryl executive said the bank's adoption of the framework could serve as an example for other lenders in the segment.

"We are moving towards a world where banks are becoming stewards and symbols of India's economic strength and investor confidence," said Hussain Zaidi, VP, client unit leader, Kyndryl India.

"By applying the Kyndryl Agentic AI Framework to embed agentic AI at the core of its operation, Suryoday Bank is setting the benchmark for how small finance banks can use AI to scale responsibly and deliver measurable business outcomes," said Zaidi.