Banking's New Battle: Why Simple Tech Beats Sophisticated Scammers

"We can't expect the customer to have the tech savviness of the fraudster or the banker. The responsibility is on us to make systems simple and secure," Kasturi said on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit organised by Google.

With the rise of AI-enabled scams and digital impersonation, he warned that banks face an increasingly complex threat landscape. Criminals no longer rely solely on direct financial theft; instead, they exploit sensitive data to pose as legitimate institutions.

"Scamsters and fraudsters are using bank data to pose as a bank and then do the fraud, which leads to reputational damage," he noted, underscoring how digital deception has become a pressing challenge for banks.

Kasturi pointed out that banks have always been lucrative targets, but the shift toward data-driven fraud has created a new level of vulnerability.

"There are more impostors in today's world than ever before," he said, adding that this requires a redesign of processes and customer interactions. According to him, the common man should not have to bear the burden of navigating complex security layers. Instead, banks must create environments where systems themselves intelligently manage risk, keeping users safe by default.

This focus on simplification does not exist in isolation. Kasturi believes it must tie into a broader ecosystem approach involving government, regulators, and businesses. He observed that discussions at the summit highlighted a growing shared concern: how to leverage data responsibly without compromising individuals' rights and interests.

"It has to be a win-win situation. It can't be a one-way street," he said, calling for synergy between innovation and privacy. Safeguarding individual interest, he stressed, must remain paramount even as technology advances rapidly.

Kasturi also offered a striking perspective on the evolving nature of data itself. Moving beyond familiar analogies, he argued that "data is the new plastic"--persistent, indestructible, and far more enduring than human life. This permanence, he warned, makes responsible use non-negotiable. As AI becomes central to economic growth, he believes transparency and awareness are crucial. Referring to large-scale AI investments such as Google's in Andhra Pradesh, he remarked, "This is not charity. This is business--and business must grow responsibly."

In a world where data shapes decisions, risks, and opportunities, Kasturi's message was clear: the future of trusted finance depends on simplifying complexity, strengthening responsibility, and building systems that work for everyone.

On the sidelines of the same event, Evan Kotsovinos, Vice President - Privacy, Safety & Security, Google, told ANI in an exclusive interview that, with the government of India, Google is endeavouring to educate people about the better use of AI and to regulate it to prevent its misuse by fraudsters. The aim is to safeguard people, especially children, from online scams and misuse of AI. The government of India is cooperating with us. We are also making investments in IIT Madras in this regard.

As India looks to harness AI to supercharge its economic momentum, a safe AI ecosystem is the necessary foundation for achieving this. In other words, safety is the infrastructure for transformational AI, not an add-on. As more Indians come online each month, our ability to realise the multiplicative power of AI depends entirely on how safe each user feels while using the internet.

Monisha Vardana, Privacy Safety Engineer at Google, also said that Google is working to protect the data and privacy of its users in India and around the world. India is one of the largest markets in the world for Google.

- ANI