By leveraging artificial intelligence and hyperlocal outreach, Piramal Finance is expanding its efforts to provide financial services to India’s underbanked population, according to Arvind Iyer, the company’s head of marketing. “We look at intentions more than documents,” said Iyer, describing the company’s campaigns aimed at potential borrowers who may lack traditional paperwork. The initiative reflects a broader industry shift toward alternative credit assessment methods, including AI-based profiling.
The company has expanded to over 500 branches serving more than half of India’s postal codes, adopting what Iyer calls a “phygital” approach – combining physical presence with digital services. This strategy has yielded significant results, with the company’s digital engagement growing sixfold in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Iyer noted several key trends reshaping India’s financial services landscape, including the rise of embedded finance in e-commerce platforms and an increasing focus on vernacular content for tier-two and tier-three cities. “India’s diversity came alive as brands created more hyperlocal content and solutions,” he said.
Looking ahead to 2025, Iyer emphasized customer experience as a primary focus, particularly through AI-enhanced services. He also highlighted the need to demystify financial concepts for the general public, suggesting that financial brands have a role to play in improving financial literacy across India.
2024 Trends that stood out
The AI Marketing Revolution
Once a novelty, generative AI has become marketers’ secret weapon for scaling global reach. From multilingual content creation to campaign optimization, businesses large and small have leveraged AI to deliver personalized experiences that would have been unthinkable just years ago. Platforms are increasingly tailoring their solutions for the short-form content boom, recognizing audiences’ shrinking attention spans.
The Commerce-Content Fusion
Gone are the days of aggressive sales pitches. 2024 saw the lines between shopping and entertainment blur dramatically, with brands embracing their role as content creators. This shift toward “commerce-tainment” has transformed social media feeds into seamless shopping experiences, where entertainment value often trumps traditional sales messaging.
Print Media’s Surprising Comeback
In an unexpected twist, traditional newspapers demonstrated their enduring relevance in the digital age. Flipkart’s “magic ink” newspaper advertisement became a viral sensation, proving that innovative print campaigns can still capture public imagination and drive online conversations.
AI-Powered Financial Services
The financial sector underwent a quiet revolution as AI-based credit profiling systems brought unprecedented speed and accuracy to loan underwriting. These sophisticated algorithms have transformed the lending landscape, making credit more accessible while potentially reducing risk for lenders.
The Democratization of Marketing
AI has leveled the playing field, allowing smaller brands to compete with industry giants. Access to sophisticated AI tools means that creative, compelling campaigns are no longer the exclusive domain of companies with massive marketing budgets.
AI as Creative Co-Pilot
Marketing teams have embraced AI as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement. By handling routine tasks and generating initial creative concepts, AI has freed human marketers to focus on strategy and storytelling, making digital marketing more focused and potentially more impactful.
The Evolution of Customer Service
While chatbots aren’t new, AI has transformed them into sophisticated virtual assistants capable of near-human interactions across multiple languages. Despite impressive advances, challenges remain in perfecting responses across India’s diverse linguistic landscape, suggesting that the evolution of AI customer service is far from complete.
Disruptive trends to watch in 2025
AI-Enhanced Customer Experience (CX)
Artificial intelligence-driven CX, powered by chatbots and virtual assistants, continues to thrive. In 2025, expect these technologies to advance even further, with a heightened level of emotional intelligence and more human-like interactions.
Financial Literacy Empowerment
The democratization of marketing isn’t the only trend gaining traction. The push to make financial knowledge more accessible is set to accelerate. While content creators have already done much to simplify complex financial concepts, brands are poised to play a key role in further bridging the knowledge gap. Embedded finance — the integration of financial services into non-financial platforms — will also expand, especially across e-commerce and direct-to-consumer channels.
Phygital Customer Experiences
Companies with a physical presence in urban centers are merging technology with in-person engagement to create seamless “phygital” (physical + digital) experiences. The goal: delivering a richer, more integrated experience that blends the best of both worlds.