India’s next digital decade will be less about making transactions and services faster and more about using digital intelligence to improve access to credit, personalise consumer experiences and build trust. The next phase at digital platforms evolve from transaction-enabling infrastructure into intelligent, open networks spanning commerce, finance and consumer services.
Sajith Sivanandan, CEO and Managing Director, Tata Digital, said the rapid evolution of quick commerce demonstrated how dramatically consumer expectations had changed. But he cautioned against assuming that 10-minute delivery would remain the universal benchmark.
“Pricing, convenience, speed and quality” would continue to matter, but the model of quick commerce would have to evolve as companies expand beyond the top metropolitan markets, said Sivanandan at the Global Fintech Fest on Friday.
Need for speed
In smaller cities, lower population density and different consumption patterns could lead to a different version of quick commerce, with consumers accepting slightly longer delivery times. He also flagged concerns around the pressure placed on delivery riders by the race to deliver within minutes.
Instant gratification, shorter attention spans and demand for authenticity are reshaping customer expectations across sectors. These expectations are increasingly spilling over into banking, with customers expecting services such as home loans to be processed within hours rather than days.
The bigger opportunity, however, lies in using digital payment data to expand credit access to small businesses that remain outside the formal financial system.
Ashwini Kumar Tewari, MD, State Bank of India (SBI)
| Photo Credit: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS
Helping lenders
Ashwini Kumar Tewari, Managing Director (CB&S), SBI, said UPI transaction data could help lenders understand the cash flows and sales behaviour of small businesses, including those that are not registered under GST. The combination of UPI data, the Account Aggregator framework and the Unified Lending Interface could eventually enable lenders to process business loans much faster, he said.
The shift could mark a fundamental move from traditional balance sheet-based lending towards cash flow-based financing, although digitally visible cash flows would remain important. The challenge is particularly significant for micro businesses that lack formal financial statements. Alternative data, including payment behaviour and telecom data, subject to customer consent, could help lenders build credit profiles for such borrowers, said Tewari.
Voice-based, multilingual and AI-enabled interfaces could make digital finance more accessible to customers with limited digital literacy. However, security is emerging as a critical risk. Tiwari said cybersecurity and social-engineering fraud could undermine trust in digital finance, particularly among lower-income users.
The next decade, therefore, is unlikely to be defined by speed alone. While consumers will continue to demand faster services, Sivanandan said the differentiators would increasingly be convenience, quality, personalisation, trust and the ability to ensure that the benefits of digitalisation reach those still outside the formal financial system.