Seamless Xtra’s Paula Hallentuch interviews Hardik Shah, Head of Product, Ooredoo Fintech, UK
AI, personalisation, and inclusion: inside Ooredoo Fintech’s vision for everyday finance
With more than 20 years of experience in product and digital innovation across finance, utilities, telecom, and aggregation, Hardik Shah brings a deep understanding of how technology and customer needs intersect. As Group Head of Product at Ooredoo Fintech, he is helping drive the next phase of fintech growth in the GCC.
1.With the rise of embedded finance, how is Ooredoo Fintech positioning itself to go beyond payments and become part of customers’ everyday financial lives?
At Ooredoo Fintech, our mission is to financially empower consumers and SMBs by providing a holistic financial ecosystem for everyday money management. Payments are at the core, but to truly empower consumers, we need to offer more complex products such as credit, savings, and investments. We’re actively forming strategic partnerships and leveraging technology to provide seamless access to these products both through our apps and within customers’ daily digital routines.
We’re taking a mobile-first, super app approach that enables consumers to access conventional financial products alongside new initiatives that foster real financial empowerment, such as asset tokenisation and financing. Throughout this journey, we remain fully compliant with regulations while keeping security and trust as our top priorities.
2. How are you using AI or machine learning in your product roadmap – beyond the hype?
The use of AI is still very much in its infancy, with plenty of scope for experimentation and refinement. Good use of technology must go beyond the hype and deliver real benefits. At Ooredoo Fintech, we’re focusing on three areas where AI can make a difference:
- Hyper-personalisation: From onboarding to cross-selling products, the experience must be tailored for each customer.
- Fraud detection and security: Implementing machine learning models to prevent fraud before it happens.
- Credit scoring and risk assessment: Ooredoo Fintech operates in markets with limited financial maturity. Without conventional risk-scoring, we need alternative methods to evaluate creditworthiness and enable financing for under-banked populations.
3. What is a recent product you launched that was driven by a specific user behaviour or trend, and what did you learn from it?
International remittance continues to require disruption. Many have focused on cost and speed, but the critical element of ensuring customers feel they are getting the best value has often been overlooked. In Qatar, we are among the first providers to introduce an international remittance marketplace, giving customers a single destination to compare offerings from multiple providers. Our goal is to launch a similar product across all our markets, wherever regulations allow.
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