But AI is everywhere beyond ROI.
Southeast Asia’s digital banks are pouring investment into artificial intelligence (AI) to drive profits, but industry leaders say real-world tests are proving that the spending actually pays off.
Patrick Sze, Chief Technology Officer, Green Link Digital Bankmentioned in. Asian Banking, Finance and Insurance Asia Summit in Singapore As banks build AI capabilities within their own infrastructure, customer data never leaves the controlled environment.
“We built all of our technology, including AI capabilities, once we had a proven business case and return on investment (ROI),” Sze said, adding that the bank has successfully deployed a number of AI use cases to date.
Green Link Digital Bank has been profitable since September 2024, making it one of the fastest digital banks to reach profitability in Asia, said Sze (Accomplishment Panel Moderator) Frank Liu, Kearney College Presidentsaid it lends credibility to the bank’s ROI claims.
Liu said the industry cannot treat spending on AI as a given. “AI is everywhere except for ROI,” he said, calling it a timely reminder that investments in AI should be measured against return.
Other panelists echoed the need to tie AI spending to clear business outcomes. Mr Philip Tan, Chief Financial Officer of ANEXT Bank, said: It states that ROI should be measured based on whether it can improve risk decision-making, drive monetization, and scale beyond one-time use cases.
He described ANEXT’s approach of acquiring through ecosystem partners and deepening relationships through banks, citing embedded lending as an example of technology combined with the right partnership model.
“Ultimately, the ROI has to be demonstrable to me,” Tan says.
Mr. Rai Pacey, CEO of GXS Banking GroupHe said AI is central to how the bank manages risks such as credit, fraud and anti-money laundering, as it allows the bank to scale as a digital bank without adding branches or relationship managers.
She said GXS Group has doubled its revenue and tripled its assets over the past year, while costs have declined over the same period, an achievement she attributed in part to a combination of AI-driven data capabilities and a purely digital operating model.
for Natalia Go, CEO of MalibankAI and data capabilities are increasingly treated as reusable underlying infrastructure rather than one-off product features, allowing banks to deploy new services faster and replicate them across markets.
