Partners can bring AI without replacing customers' existing investments

Anil Chawla says Verint's hybrid AI approach combines sovereign cloud, regulatory compliance and AI-as-a-service, enabling partners to modernise customer experience environments while creating incremental services opportunities.

Replacing existing customer infrastructure should not be part of the AI conversation, according to Verint India. Instead, the company is positioning hybrid AI as a way for partners to add intelligence on top of existing customer environments while addressing compliance and data sovereignty requirements.

Speaking to CRN India, Verint India’s managing director, Anil Chawla, customer engagement solutions, said the company's hybrid AI approach allows partners to preserve customers' existing technology investments while introducing AI capabilities through a sovereign cloud model designed for regulated industries such as banking and financial services.

According to Chawla, the approach combines on-premises infrastructure with AI services delivered through Verint's sovereign cloud in India, allowing organisations to adopt AI while meeting regulatory and security requirements.

Chawla said the BFSI sector continues to present one of the most complex environments for AI adoption because of regulatory obligations, internal governance requirements and the need to protect customer information.

Rather than moving enterprise data entirely to the cloud, Verint's hybrid architecture allows organisations to retain personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive data on-premises while using the cloud only to deliver AI capabilities.

"The cloud is only used for AI as a service," Chawla said.

"The data is processed and the required outcomes are returned on-premises, ensuring that no sensitive data remains in the cloud while customers still benefit from AI capabilities."

He said Verint supports this model through its sovereign cloud offering in India while aligning its AI capabilities with the compliance requirements of regulated industries.

According to Chawla, this allows organisations to adopt AI without compromising security or regulatory obligations.

Existing investments remain at the centre of AI conversations

Chawla said one of the biggest advantages of the hybrid approach is that customers do not need to replace existing infrastructure before adopting AI.

Instead, organisations can continue leveraging their current investments while adding AI capabilities incrementally.

For partners, he said, this fundamentally changes customer conversations.

Rather than proposing large-scale infrastructure replacement projects, partners can help customers build on the technology they already own while introducing AI services where they deliver measurable business outcomes.

"This is not about replacing existing investments," Chawla said.

"It is about enabling customers to leverage what they already have while adding AI capabilities through a hybrid infrastructure."

According to Chawla, this approach also benefits partners because many of them originally implemented those customer environments and can now extend those deployments with AI-driven capabilities.

Compliance becomes part of the partner value proposition

Beyond technology deployment, Chawla believes regulatory compliance is becoming an important part of partner engagements.

He said partners have already been enabled on Verint's hybrid AI architecture, allowing them to explain how organisations can use AI while complying with RBI guidelines and other regulatory requirements.

The objective, he said, is to help customers understand that AI adoption does not have to come at the cost of data sovereignty or compliance.

By combining sovereign cloud capabilities with on-premises data protection, partners can position AI as an incremental business capability rather than a disruptive technology overhaul.

Chawla said the shift towards hybrid AI is also changing the role partners play in customer engagements.

Rather than focusing only on implementation, partners are expected to advise customers on AI adoption strategies, regulatory considerations and long-term technology roadmaps.

He said Verint has already enabled its partner ecosystem around these hybrid deployment models, allowing partners to have more meaningful conversations with customers around AI, compliance and business outcomes.

"The role of the partner is to help customers preserve their existing investments, adopt AI incrementally and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements," Chawla said.

According to Chawla, the combination of hybrid infrastructure, AI-as-a-service and sovereign cloud creates a practical path for enterprises looking to scale AI while reducing implementation risk.

For partners, he believes the opportunity lies not in replacing customer environments, but in helping organisations modernise them over time through AI-led innovation built on existing investments.