As the Global Fintech Festival 2026 brought together the financial services and technology ecosystem in Mumbai, conversations around fintech increasingly moved beyond disruption to focus on how technology is being embedded into banking, customer engagement and financial services at scale.

That shift was reflected in the conversations at the Karix presents CNBC-TV18 Fintech Studio, held at the Karix hub during GFF 2026 from September 8 to 11. Across interviews with senior banking and financial services leaders, discussions touched on AI-led customer experiences, fintech-bank collaboration, conversational banking, digital access, consent and trust, as well as emerging engines of growth.

For Karix, the central theme of the engagement at GFF was Impact at Every Interaction, with customer engagement, AI and trust forming the backdrop to several of the conversations.

Deepak Goyal, Executive Director, Tanla Platforms and CEO, Karix, pointed to the scale of the opportunity emerging around digital customer engagement, particularly through messaging platforms. He said the shift towards digital engagement was also gaining momentum among public-sector banks, with Karix working closely with some of the country’s largest lenders. “We have built so many use cases on WhatsApp and RCS and it's going to explode,” he said. He noted that the growing adoption of WhatsApp-based engagement was also helping banks reach customers more directly, including in smaller cities and rural areas.

That evolution formed one of the broader threads running through the studio conversations — how fintech and technology are moving from being external disruptors to becoming increasingly integrated into the way financial institutions operate and serve customers.

From fintech disruption to collaboration

The relationship between fintech companies and banks has evolved significantly, with collaboration increasingly becoming part of the growth model. Amitabh Chaudhry, MD & CEO, Axis Bank, framed the central question driving fintech innovation around customer outcomes.

“Every fintech or any person who has an idea around fintech is looking at the institutions who are involved in this business and asking a simple question. Can I improve customer experiences?” Amitabh Chaudhry........

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