India, June 1 -- For decades, banking evolved from paper-heavy operations to digital interfaces. A data-heavy industry, where we have seen banks are still trying to figure out the unstructured data, a bank that could solve for an AI-first banking experience with all the data they're sitting on could be the winner.

In a fireside chat at Inc42's AI Summit 2026 in Bengaluru, IDFC FIRST Bank MD and CEO V Vaidyanathan agreed to the notion. "The next phase will be defined by AI capable of understanding, predicting, and acting before customers even raise a request," he said.

For context, IDFC FIRST Bank seems to have a good growth curve, where customer deposits stood at Rs.2.84 Lakh Cr in FY26, up from nearly Rs.38,400 Cr in FY20. Vaidyanathan...