Three stories shaped this week across software, markets, and fintech — here's what's worth understanding about each.
The build-vs-buy math for software just flipped
McKinsey's State of AI: Global Survey 2026 found that 32% of enterprises have decided against buying an off-the-shelf software product because AI coding agents could build the functionality internally. In the technology sector, that number climbs to 41%. Large enterprises are scaling fastest: companies over $1 billion in revenue jumped from 27% to 40% adoption of agents across functions in a single year.
The catch is that this shift hasn't translated to results yet. The share of organizations reporting AI actually contributed to their EBIT sat at 37%, unchanged from the year before. In plain terms: companies are building more in-house software with AI, but they aren't yet proving it's cheaper or better than what they used to buy. Worth watching whether that gap closes — or whether this is the first real test of a shift out of the SaaS-first decade.
A Fed decision lands into $100 oil and a holiday-shortened week
The Federal Reserve meets September 15 and 16 to decide on interest rates, against a backdrop of crude oil near $100 a barrel driven by the Iran conflict and stronger-than-expected US jobs data. For Indian markets, the setup is a familiar one: a hawkish Fed combined with high oil prices tends to trigger capital flight from emerging markets back into US Treasuries.
The data from earlier this week gives an early read on how that's playing out. On September 11, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold a net ₹931 crore of Indian equities, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought a net ₹1,968 crore — more than offsetting the outflow. That domestic buffer has been doing a lot of work lately, and whether it holds once the Fed's decision actually lands will say a lot about where Nifty and Sensex head next.
India's fintech infrastructure push, one announcement at a time
The Global Fintech Fest 2026 ran in Mumbai from September 8 to 11, opened by Prime Minister Modi, with quantum technology, agentic AI, and tokenization as headline themes. The announcements came fast: Bank of India unveiled 12 digital banking initiatives spanning payments, cards, digital currency, and compliance. Indian Bank launched AI-TARA, a conversational banking assistant that handles voice commands in 10 languages. And EbixCash became the first non-bank entity in India to receive RBI approval for trade remittances, opening access to clearing systems in the UK and EU through a partnership with Banking Circle.
Individually, these are product launches. Together, they point to a deliberate strategy — widening who can access banking through voice and regional languages, while widening what non-bank players are allowed to build in cross-border rails. That combination is usually how financial infrastructure actually shifts.
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