Bajaj Finance Limited is on a mission to transform every customer’s first touchpoint in its retail network. By March 2027, the lender plans to equip 3,000 of its stores with an AI‑driven facial‑recognition system, up from the 544 locations that currently run the technology.

The system replaces the customary hand‑shake with a camera‑capture. When a customer walks through a store’s entry, cameras scan the face in real time, trigger a personalized offer, and authenticate the visitor within five seconds. According to Vice‑Chairman and Managing Director Rajeev Jain, the infrastructure is already running in more than 500 stores, although the visual‑detection engine is still being fine‑tuned.

Over the past four months, Bajaj Finance has amassed nearly 10 million images and successfully identified 3.2 million existing customers. Jain explained that store photographs differ markedly from the high‑resolution, frontal images collected for the Digi Yatra program. In the retail environment, customers often appear in side‑profiles, wear helmets, or are photographed in dim lighting—conditions that challenge consistent face capture.

To boost accuracy, the company has repositioned cameras to key entry points and installed balanced lighting solutions. Jain said these upgrades should lift identification rates from roughly 40 % today to an ambitious 70 % by the end of 2026, a figure that would cut customer deflection and improve real‑time identity verification.

The rollout is a cornerstone of Bajaj Finance’s broader AI agenda, which the firm said will become visible to employees and customers during the current financial year. In the same shareholder meeting, the lender announced a consolidated net profit of ₹6,081 crore, a 28 % jump from the previous year, and assets under management (AUM) of ₹5.5 trillion as of 30 June.

Jain highlighted India’s domestic credit market, noting a 15 % compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the past 21 years that has pushed the sector to ₹235 trillion. He projected that even with a 12 % annual expansion, domestic credit could reach ₹729 trillion by FY36. Bajaj Finance’s own AUM has grown at a 34 % CAGR since inception, reaching ₹5.1 trillion in FY26. At a 23 % CAGR over the next decade, the company estimates its AUM could hit ₹40 trillion by FY36, giving it roughly 5 % of India’s total credit.

Profitability forecasts also accompany the expansion. At a 23 % CAGR over ten years, Bajaj Finance could achieve a pre‑tax profit of ₹2.05 trillion by FY36.

Chairman Sanjiv Bajaj underscored the importance of financial access for India’s burgeoning middle class, small businesses, self‑employed professionals, farmers, and first‑generation entrepreneurs. He said the next wave of development will be powered not only by large corporations but also by millions of small enterprises across urban and rural landscapes.

While the facial‑recognition system promises smoother customer interactions and tighter fraud controls, it also raises privacy and data‑protection questions. The project’s success hinges on continued improvements in image quality, algorithmic precision, and regulatory compliance.

In short, Bajaj Finance is scaling its AI‑powered facial‑recognition technology to 3,000 stores by March 2027, aiming to identify 70 % of customers at entry and deliver tailored offers. The initiative dovetails with the company’s broader AI strategy and its robust financial trajectory, highlighted by a 28 % rise in net profit and a 24 % increase in AUM in FY26. The next steps involve further camera repositioning, lighting enhancements, and algorithm refinement, while regulatory developments and evolving consumer privacy expectations will shape the deployment of facial‑recognition technology across India’s retail finance sector.