Face value: Bajaj Finance bets on AI-powered cameras for personalized offers

Published 30 July 2026 · tech

Bajaj Finance is betting that artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras, not sales staff, will become the first point of contact with customers as they walk into

Bajaj Finance is betting that artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras, not sales staff, will become the first point of contact with customers as they walk into its stores. The non-bank financier plans to expand an AI-backed facial recognition system from 544 stores to 3,000 by March 2027, using cameras to identify existing customers in real time and trigger personalized offers. The rollout comes as Bajaj Finance steps up investments in AI to improve customer conversion, reduce turnaround times and curb fraud. Rajeev Jain, vice-chairman and managing director of Bajaj Finance Ltd, told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday that the infrastructure is already operational in more than 500 stores, although the underlying visual detection technology is still being refined. Over the past four months, the company has captured close to 10 million images, identifying 3.2 million existing customers, Jain said. “A lot of us travel by plane, go through airports. We have Digi Yatra but if you recall, (for) Digi Yatra, you stand in a yellow area and your image gets captured.

Images that we get in stores are side faces, customers-wearing helmets, and low light,” said Jain. Bajaj Finance wants to recognize customers as soon as they enter a branch or store and immediately present them with personalized offers. According to Jain, achieving that consistently remains difficult because of inconsistent face captures, blind spots inside stores and look-alike false positives. “We’re doing various things, but to simplify, clustered our existing customers into city, pin code, store, for instant face match. Multi-images capture infrastructure is being created, optimized for high-traffic entry zones, using more cameras, or placing cameras in rightful places, light exposure normalization,” said Jain. The lender has repositioned cameras to cover high-traffic entry points and introduced more balanced lighting to improve image quality. Jain said these upgrades are expected to raise customer identification rates to 70% by March 2027 from about 40% currently. This would reduce customer deflection, or the share of customers who ultimately buy competing products, he said.

“Face, logically, should become an identity, reducing fraud detection, and will become a primary identity verification check to enable real-time, and be able to identify customers in five seconds' time as we move forward,” said Jain. AI at the core The facial recognition initiative is part of Bajaj Finance's broader AI strategy aimed at improving operational efficiency, accelerating customer onboarding and increasing the conversion of leads into sales. In April, Jain had told analysts that the benefits of the company's investments in artificial intelligence would become visible to employees and customers during the current financial year. On Thursday, the lender reported a consolidated net profit of ₹6,081 crore, up 28% from a year earlier. Assets under management (AUM) stood at ₹5.5 trillion as of 30 June, up 24% year-on-year. At the shareholder meeting, Jain said the financial sector's expansion continues to mirror the growth of the Indian economy. India's domestic credit has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the past 21 years to ₹235 trillion, he said.