Banks and financial institutions in Ireland and around the world are contending with a vastly increased regulatory burden while customers are demanding faster, more secure and ever more personalised service offerings. They are also encountering heightened competitive pressures from leaner, more agile and lower cost new market entrants.
Faced with these challenges, financial services organisations are turning to the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) and GenAI to help them adapt to market shifts, automate processes, deliver cost efficiencies, offer personalised services at scale, and restore their competitive edge.
However, financial services organisations must overcome the twin challenges of outdated IT infrastructure and poor quality, badly curated data before they can realise those benefits, according to Sudip Lahiri, executive vice president & head – Europe & UKI, Financial Services, HCLTech.
HCLTech is one of the world’s leading AI innovators with annual revenues of $13.8 billion and a workforce of over 220,000 people. Its Irish presence dates to 1991 and its customers include some of the country’s best-known banks, insurance companies, capital markets businesses, fintech firms, and regulatory compliance businesses. HCLTech currently employs several hundred IT professionals in Ireland, with an emphasis on expertise in AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and digital banking transformation.
“We have long-standing relationships with both Irish and European clients spanning applications, infrastructure, and digital transformation, alongside our reputation for financial services AI-led innovation,” says Lahiri. “Ireland is a key market for us, and we have made significant investments in local infrastructure to support our banking, insurance, fintech, and other financial services clients. Our vision is to drive transformation across the financial services sector in Ireland and Europe, leveraging AI, GenAI, and digital engineering to enable business growth and innovation.”
Lahiri joined HCLTech in 1996 and has been a driving force behind the company’s growth. In 2000, he took a pivotal role in establishing HCLTech’s Financial Services division, laying the foundation for what would become one of the company’s most successful industries. Reflecting on his journey, Lahiri says, “The last 25 years have been a transformative experience, not just for me, but for the entire financial services landscape. From being a nascent division to now accounting for 21% of HCLTech’s global revenues, the evolution has been nothing short of remarkable. Today, AI and GenAI are reshaping the financial sector, and we are at the forefront of helping institutions harness these technologies to drive innovation, enhance customer experiences, and streamline operations. As we look ahead, I am excited to see how we continue to empower financial services organizations to not just adapt to change but lead it.”
Over the past decade, the company has staked out a leadership position in the development of enterprise AI solutions with its flagship offerings—AI Force, AI Foundry, AI Labs, AI/GenAI Engineering, and Responsible AI.
“These offerings cover the entire spectrum of AI and GenAI evolution and are designed to support organizations at every step on their journey to AI adoption,” he says. “Our goal is to use technology as a value enabler for our customers and we constantly challenge our own thinking and ways of doing things in pursuit of that.”
“We’ve utilised GenAI to enhance risk analysis for a global bank, streamlining Trade Surveillance by reducing noise in communication data, summarizing news, and generating closure notes. This has significantly boosted the speed, accuracy, and consistency of compliance resolutions. Similarly, we helped another global bank optimise its customer service desk ticket resolution by leveraging GenAI-based automation. Using Azure Open AI services, we automated workflows for classification, summarisation, and follow-ups, leading to reduced operational costs and improved employee productivity and satisfaction,” Lahiri added.
While there is widespread acknowledgement of the transformative potential of AI, the rate of adoption in financial services has been sluggish, to say the least. “If you look at the AI journey, there are two distinct areas,” Lahiri explains. “It plays a major role in the engineering and operations side, and tools are widely used to improve productivity in that area. The second area is the business process. AI adoption in financial services is slow due to regulatory uncertainty, concerns around trust, privacy, security, and the need for responsible AI. Responsible AI is crucial to ensure ethical use of technology, safeguard customer data, and maintain regulatory compliance.”
HCLTech is also supporting customers with the deployment of agentic AI. “In financial services, institutions often struggle with handling complex, multi-step processes that require constant oversight, decision-making, and adaptability,” he notes. “These challenges lead to inefficiencies, slower decision-making, and increased operational costs.”
Agentic AI addresses these issues by autonomously managing workflows, making real-time decisions, and adapting to changing conditions without constant human intervention. “By streamlining tasks such as regulatory compliance, risk assessment, and fraud detection, Agentic AI improves operational efficiency, reduces human error, and enhances decision-making,” he adds.
However, there are still obstacles to overcome before AI, GenAI, and agentic AI can be adopted. “The biggest challenge relates to the quality of data and the data infrastructure and platforms in place within the business,” he says “Banks tend to suffer from technical debt and have a lot of legacy systems in use. In many cases the platforms are outdated and a lot of investment in upgrades is required. They need cloud enabled infrastructure and more computing power. Even highly virtualised datacentres may not be enough.”
Data quality is of paramount importance. “Organisations must establish robust data governance frameworks—this is not a one-time task, but an ongoing commitment. Additionally, as we transition into the era of AI and GenAI, cybersecurity and data privacy become even more critical. Security architecture and design must evolve to safeguard data within defined boundaries, especially as hackers become increasingly advanced and sophisticated. Financial services organisations must stay ahead of these threats to ensure data remains secure.”
The technology is still evolving, Lahiri points out. “AI still has to mature. There are challenges with hallucinations. Large language models and algorithms have to be trained with the right data and built to avoid bias. It’s not yet a plug-and-play technology. However, there are approaches to deal with these challenges. We help our customers to define their AI adoption journeys and migrate towards the right target framework while keeping their data safe and secure.”
Ireland is a key focus market for HCLTech, “It is emerging as a global financial services hub, and this has accelerated since Brexit. It is now the only English speaking country with a Common Law justice system in the Eurozone. We have seen a number of international banks and fintechs setting up operations in Ireland to take advantage of this as well as to access the country’s rich pool of financial services and STEM qualified talent,” he explains. We partner with Ireland’s largest banks driving measurable improvements across operations, technology, automation and AI.”
To conclude, HCLTech’s commitment to leveraging AI, GenAI, and agentic AI is driving significant transformation in the financial services sector in Ireland and beyond. By addressing challenges such as outdated IT infrastructure and data quality, HCLTech is enabling financial institutions to enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences, and maintain regulatory compliance. As the technology continues to evolve, HCLTech remains at the forefront, helping clients navigate their AI adoption journeys and achieve sustainable growth and innovation.
