We’re building in-house expertise in digital, cloud, and cybersecurity for IP ownership, business agility: Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju, CTO, Axis Mutual Fund

Digital transformation is shaking up almost every industry today including the Indian mutual fund sector which is adopting technology to remain competitive. In a recent discussion with TechCircle, Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Axis Mutual Fund, an asset management company that offers mutual fund schemes in India, highlights the need for agility and innovation in this process. Founded in 2009 as a joint venture between Axis Bank and Schroder Singapore Holdings Private Limited, Ithamraju discusses how the Mumbai-headquartered firm has successfully grown by using emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and cybersecurity to enhance customer experiences and streamline operations and is further developing in-house expertise for improved intellectual property (IP) management and business agility. Edited excerpt:

Which areas in technology will be your focus this year and why?

One of the areas we are actively evaluating is the ability to infuse natural language capabilities into data analytics for improved decision-making and operational efficiency, specifically enabling research analysts to efficiently process and query large volumes of unstructured data using Generative AI (GenAI) and natural language processing. The idea is to be able to consume large volumes of unstructured data and ask questions in natural language. Another area where we see economies of scope is private cloud consolidation for our digital environments.

What kind of innovation are you bringing with technologies such as AI, data analytics among others?

Our recent innovation centres on GenAI in Investment Research, leveraging internal knowledge bases to quickly process data and generate actionable insights. This includes assimilating large volumes of unstructured data like news, social media, and analyst reports to identify market trends and risks faster, freeing analysts to focus on insight generation. AI is also used for risk management, tapping into real-time market data and advanced algorithms to uncover hidden risks and correlations, allowing for quicker responses to market volatility. We've partnered with a credit rating agency for early anomaly detection.

What are current GenAI/agentic AI solutions providing a return on investment? What's the future?

GenAI and agentic AI solutions are already delivering value, but primarily around improving internal processes and automation. We are looking at moving the needle in terms of the AI value chain in terms of operational efficiencies. In the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, regulatory compliance and data protection remain non-negotiable elements. Given the sensitivity of PII and customer information, AI-powered agents such as chatbots haven’t been deployed at their full potential in customer-facing applications. As the regulatory frameworks evolve, we expect GenAI to become more widespread in both back-end and customer-facing processes. Having said that, we have a best-in-class Copilot feature built into our customer 360 platform that significantly enhances the way we engage with our customers. The platform allows for targeted interactions and better service delivery across our client base.

How much does your team contribute to tech innovation? What’s its size/composition?

Our approach has been to hire fewer but specialist-grade talent to handle strategic projects and proof of concepts to enhance our technology landscape. We also have a system of horizontal project tracking. A big part of our success comes from rewarding our teams for upskilling. We monitor and suggest upskilling paths for our team members to help them excel in their careers. We use project management tools like Azure dashboards to track projects and monitor progress efficiently. Additionally, our teams enjoy free access to learning platforms like Coursera. Our teams have professionals across digital engineering, product, data warehousing, analytics, cloud, and information security with a hybrid operating model of in-house resources and external partners.

Considering advanced cyber-attacks in BFSI and the mutual fund segment, what kind of measures has the company taken?

We've taken a multi-faceted approach to strengthen our security posture. We start with a data dictionary that maps out where Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is stored and how it moves across systems. This gives us better control over sensitive data. Before onboarding new systems, we perform a comprehensive risk assessment, applying 52 rigorous controls covering resilience, data residency, and attack surface management. Post-launch, we conduct a retrospective review to address any gaps that may have emerged. We’ve also implemented an air-gapping framework to isolate critical systems. Once systems move into the production environment, our cybersecurity program kicks in - with security operations centre (SOC) alerts, vulnerability assessments, and red teaming exercises to identify and mitigate threats. This is bolstered by a crisis management framework led by the CEO, ensuring top-down commitment to security. We also conduct multiple disaster recovery drills for preparedness towards any eventuality and reduce the blast surface.

Any recent technology initiative that has led to an increase in return of investment (RoI), customer experience or any other success?

Apart from the Customer 360 project that I've earlier mentioned, a recent success is our Cloud disaster recovery (DR) initiative which made our production and DR environments interoperable with each other. This gives us industry-leading Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) performance - two of the most important parameters of a disaster recovery or data protection plan. Additionally, we introduced multilingual natural language support within the customer relationship management (CRM), enabling the sales team to communicate more effectively with clients in their regional languages. This enhancement has not only improved sales team productivity but also boosted customer accessibility and satisfaction.

What is your tech roadmap for the next 2-3 years?

Our mantra is to “Build prototypes, fail fast, and scale quickly.” We’re committed to fostering rapid innovation by testing new ideas, iterating quickly, and scaling successful solutions for wider impact. One of our key initiatives includes enhancing contact centre capabilities by integrating sales and customer service platforms to gain comprehensive customer lifecycle insights and further boost Net Promoter Score (NPS), a metric used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. We're also evaluating use cases for Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as part of India Stack integration to enhance connectivity and broaden our reach in the digital investment ecosystem, as well as building in-house expertise in digital, cloud, and cybersecurity to ensure IP ownership and business agility.