With artificial intelligence (AI) rollout gaining traction across organisations, a majority of Indian enterprises are prioritizing domestic, industry-specific guidelines and regulatory compliance over global frameworks, finds the ET-Cisco AI Readiness & Adoption survey. They foresee implementing stronger controls around ethics, identity management and privacy in step with the wider deployment of agentic AI.
While the sectoral and regulatory expectations are the immediate focus, industry officials believe they are broadly aligned with the global framework. For instance, Ratan Kumar Kesh, chief operating officer at Bandhan Bank, considers Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of AI (FREE-AI) as a starting point for a responsible, comprehensive, scalable and ethical deployment.
"While the possibilities of AI are vast, we are being extra careful to ensure that we do not take undue risks related to customer protection or risk management. Moreover, we are investing in an AI governance layer to ensure that in a scaled AI scenario we don’t lose sight of these essential guardrails. Cyber security and data protection are paramount at all times," Kesh said.
The Bank has already deployed or is in the process of deploying applications with embedded AI capabilities including digital collection system, onboarding deposit accounts, wealth management, gold loan, integrated underwriting rule engines, and fraud and transaction monitoring solutions, among others, he added.
Aligned with global benchmarks
Local frameworks like DPDP or RBI regulations are structurally aligned with global benchmarks like NIST, ISO and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Europe's landmark privacy law, Sandeep Agarwal, chief technology officer - security at Cisco India and South Asia said.
"While the nomenclature may differ on the surface, the underlying controls largely remain the same. For enterprises, the challenge is less about rebuilding infrastructure and more about ensuring the right visibility, security, policy enforcement, and governance capabilities are in place," Agarwal said.
The global standards such as AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) created by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the IEC 42001 brought out by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) inform life insurance firm Aviva India's AI framework, but it remains anchored in the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India's (IRDAI) consumer-protection mandates, said Gaurav Banka, chief risk officer at Aviva India.
