Flagship AI engines and current AI applications: L&T Finance’s chief AI officer highlights the need for India to embrace AI | Image: Republic
At AI Summit and Awards 2026, Dr. Devarag Banerjee (Chief AI and Data Officer, L&T Finance) took to the stage to speak on ‘For India’s Credit: AI in Lending’. While busting the myth that AI is about to replace the human workforce, he particularly highlighted how India needs to openly embrace, adapt and take advantage of the AI revolution.
L&T Finance’s flagship AI engine
Banerjee talks about their flagship AI engine called Cyclops. The engine has been running for over a year and uses a variety of data sources, including bank statements, payment history, and location data, to predict the probability of loan default. This was achieved by segmenting customers and offering preferential pricing, significantly reducing initial default metrics.
He also mentioned another tool called Nostradamus, which monitors customer behavior after a loan is disbursed to identify potential financial stress or improvements, allowing for timely intervention.
Finally, let’s talk about Helios. Helios helps human insurers by quickly analyzing a wide range of documents, such as bureau reports and bank records, providing insights to accelerate decision-making and alerting to anomalies.
All these tools are a good reflection of the efficiencies that India can gain with AI, as they have revolutionized finance, lending, and related applications.
Current AI applications
Banerjee highlighted that AI is being adapted to process image-based data in tasks such as evaluating tractors in rural areas and assessing the richness of urban neighborhoods based on Google Earth data. He also highlighted how AI agents can now be used for collection calls, have natural conversations in multiple Indian languages, and introduced Kai, a multimodal AI chatbot for customer service.
Kolkata vs Bengaluru: A tale of two cities
Banerjee focused on integrating AI into workflows and not ignoring it because it’s too expensive, causes unemployment, or doesn’t make good decisions. He dismisses all this as a myth. In fact, he uses a comparative analysis of two Indian cities to warn against overly restrictive AI regulations.
A good example he gave was Kolkata, which was an intellectual and productive hub with many Nobel laureates and science graduates. However, the Kolkata government became cautious about introducing computers in banks and other sectors, effectively putting the brakes on the upcoming IT revolution. In contrast, Bangalore emerged open to innovation and application. It wasn’t one of the big changes brought about by the IT revolution that turned this small industrial city into India’s Silicon Valley.
Who is Debarag Banerjee?
Dr. Debarag Banerjee is Chief AI & Data Officer at L&T Finance. A Stanford University-trained AI expert, he has extensive global experience across fintech and technology sectors, leading strategic AI innovations to modernize financial services and expand inclusive lending. Through these efforts, Republic Media Network honored L&T Finance as the Best Leader in Innovation in NBFC.
It is precisely these insights from his own experiences that Dr. Debarag Banerjee brings to the AI Summit and Awards 2026.
