Bajaj Finance rolls out AI face recognition to 3,000 stores by 2027

Bajaj Finance is expanding an AI-powered facial recognition system from 544 stores to 3,000 by March 2027, betting that cameras can identify existing customers in real time and trigger personalized offers. The non-bank financier's vice-chairman and managing director, Rajeev Jain, told shareholders at the annual general meeting Thursday that the infrastructure is already operational in more than 500 stores, though 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.

The challenges are considerable, Jain said. The company wants to recognize customers as soon as they enter a branch or store and immediately present personalized offers. Achieving that consistently remains difficult because of inconsistent face captures and blind spots inside stores. False positives from look-alike customers are also a problem.

"We're doing various things, but to simplify, clustered our existing customers into city and pin code 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," Jain said.

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.

"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.

The facial recognition initiative is part of a broader AI strategy aimed at improving operational efficiency and accelerating customer onboarding. In April, Jain told analysts that benefits of the company's AI investments 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 stood at ₹5.5 trillion as of June 30, up 24% year-on-year.

At the shareholder meeting, Jain said India's domestic credit has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 15% over the past 21 years to ₹235 trillion. Even if domestic credit expands at 12% annually, it could reach ₹729 trillion by FY36.

"Bajaj Finance's assets under management has grown by 34% CAGR since inception to ₹5.1 trillion in FY26. Even if we compound at our current growth rate of 23% for next 10 years, our AUM will be ₹40 trillion by FY36, giving us a market share of about 5% of India's total credit," said Jain.

On profitability, Jain said that if Bajaj Finance compounds at its current growth rate of 23% over the next decade, its pre-tax profit could reach ₹2.05 trillion by FY36.

Sanjiv Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Finance, said India is witnessing the rise of a confident middle class, accelerating digital adoption, expanding entrepreneurship and a vibrant start-up ecosystem.

"The next phase of India's development will be driven not only by large corporations, but also by millions of small businesses, self-employed professionals, farmers, and first-generation entrepreneurs across both urban and rural India. Access to finance will be critical in converting these aspirations into achievement," said Bajaj.