India's financial services landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. With over 500 million internet users, a rapidly expanding middle class, and growing awareness around credit health, the demand for accessible, transparent, and personalized financial products has never been higher. Yet for millions of consumers, navigating loan options, credit cards, and eligibility criteria remains a confusing and friction-filled experience. AI, machine learning, and data-driven personalization are now changing that equation, enabling platforms to move beyond simple comparison tools toward intelligent financial guidance at scale.
In an exclusive interview, Analytics Insight spoke with BankBazaar Co-founder and CEO Adhil Shetty to understand how the company is shaping this shift and what the future of consumer financial decision-making looks like in India. Here are the excerpts from the interview:
Can you tell us about the company, its specialization and the services that your company offers.
At BankBazaar, we’ve built a digital platform that simplifies how consumers access financial products. The idea is to act as a single interface where users can compare and apply for credit cards, loans, and other products across multiple banks and NBFCs, without paperwork and unnecessary friction. Our core specialisation lies in combining data with technology to make financial decision-making more intuitive.
A large part of our user base engages with us to track their credit score, and from there, we guide them with personalised recommendations based on their financial profile and eligibility. We see our role as going beyond access, towards enabling more informed financial decisions.
With what mission and objectives was the company set up? Tell us about your journey since inception.
We started with a simple but important mission to bring transparency and accessibility to financial services. At the time, applying for financial products was largely offline, documentation-heavy, and lacked clarity for consumers. Over the years, our journey has been about removing friction at every stage.
We moved from comparison to full digital enablement, and now towards personalisation powered by AI. While the approach has evolved, the objective has remained consistent: to empower consumers with the right tools and information to make confident financial decisions.
What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?
Our biggest differentiator is the combination of neutrality and personalisation. We are not tied to any one financial institution, which allows us to recommend products purely based on what suits the consumer best. At the same time, our platform leverages data to tailor recommendations based on individual credit profiles and financial behaviour. This ensures that users are not just comparing options, but seeing options that are relevant to them.
That shift from generic comparison to contextual recommendation is where we see meaningful value.
Please brief us about your products/services and how customers derive value from them.
Our offerings are designed to support the entire financial decision-making journey, from free credit score tracking to credit cards, loans, and tools that help users understand and improve their credit health. The value for customers lies in both convenience and insight. They can compare multiple options in one place, access products suited to their eligibility, and complete the process digitally.
At the same time, they gain a clearer understanding of their financial profile and how to improve it over time. Insights from our annual report, the BankBazaar Aspiration Index 2025–26, also indicate a growing shift among Indian consumers toward goal-based financial planning and awareness, which aligns closely with how we design our user experience.
How are disruptive technologies like AI, Machine Learning, and Cloud impacting innovation today?
We are now seeing a shift where AI is not just improving operational efficiency but fundamentally changing how financial services are delivered. It is now possible to deliver highly personalised financial insights and recommendations at scale, something that was not feasible earlier.
AI enables real-time analysis of user data, while cloud infrastructure ensures the scalability needed to deliver these experiences seamlessly. This combination is moving the industry from standardised offerings to more individualised financial experiences.
What are some of the challenges faced by your company today?
One of the key challenges is balancing rapid innovation with regulatory compliance. Financial services is a highly regulated space, and the adoption of AI brings additional responsibilities around transparency, explainability, and fairness.
Data privacy and security remain equally critical, given the sensitivity of financial information. Beyond this, improving financial literacy continues to be an ongoing challenge. Access to financial tools has improved significantly, but informed usage still needs to catch up.
How do you see the company and the industry evolving in the future?
We are moving into the next phase of digital financial services, where the focus shifts from access to intelligence. AI will increasingly power everything from onboarding and underwriting to advisory and customer engagement. This will make financial services more personalised, more seamless, and more inclusive.
At the same time, financial inclusion will evolve beyond access to accounts, towards enabling meaningful access to credit and financial guidance. For us, the opportunity lies in scaling personalised financial intelligence so that it reaches a much wider segment of users.