Building Human-Centric Futures: How the Anudip–DBS DeepTech Initiative Redefines CX Through Inclusive Digital Empowerment
When was the last time a corporate social initiative truly changed lives — not just through donations, but by building capabilities that last? For most CX leaders, “impact” usually evokes metrics like CSAT or NPS. Yet, in an economy powered by digital inclusion, impact now extends beyond customer touchpoints; it reaches into communities, shaping future workforces and redefining how organizations perceive both experience and empathy.
The recent inauguration of the Anudip Foundation–DBS Bank India DeepTech Training Centre in Airoli, Maharashtra, brings this vision to life. The initiative isn’t just a CSR milestone — it’s a model for how human-centric design and experience-led transformation can drive sustainable business and societal value.
CX as a Force for Inclusion
Modern CX isn’t just about software; it’s about shared progress. The Airoli project demonstrates how institutions can align customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and community experience (ComX) into a single continuum of impact.
According to Anudip Foundation, the new DeepTech Centre aims to empower 2,400 underserved youth from Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, and Chennai by 2027. The focus extends beyond coding to holistic digital readiness — AI tool fluency, business communication, and career resilience. With an impressive target placement rate of 70% and projected starting salaries of ₹22,000–₹25,000, the program transforms capability into confidence.
Monisha Banerjee, CEO of Anudip Foundation, captured the essence best: “At Anudip, we believe success begins with access.” That statement stands as a powerful call to CX leaders everywhere — inclusion is no longer a branding exercise; it’s the foundation of experience equity.
The Experience Gap in India’s Digital Economy
India’s digital economy is on an explosive trajectory, projected to reach over $1 trillion by 2030. However, beneath this growth lies a structural paradox: a deep digital skills divide threatens to marginalize millions from the job market.
Studies indicate that nearly 75% of Indian employers struggle to find digitally skilled workers. While urban youth in metros adapt faster to digital roles, underserved communities often face systemic barriers — outdated curricula, lack of mentorship, and minimal employer linkage.
This is where social innovation becomes business-critical. When private institutions like DBS invest not just in digital transformation but in human transformation, they address experience at its most fundamental level — access, trust, and empowerment.
DeepTech Meets Deep Impact
Supported by DBS Bank India, the Airoli centre integrates AI-powered learning, gamification, and a Moodle-based LMS to create immersive skill journeys. Assessments by Mettl ensure standardisation and job readiness, mimicking how customer journeys in a banking ecosystem must be personalised yet measurable.
Nekzaad Vakil, Executive Director, Group Strategic Marketing & Communications, DBS Bank India, reflected this alignment: “We believe that addressing critical skills gaps can create pathways to sustainable careers. By supporting the development of advanced technological capabilities among the next generation, we aim to contribute to creating economic opportunities and building resilient communities.”
From a CX lens, this echoes an important truth: resilience fuels loyalty. Whether in customers or communities, the capacity to thrive amid disruption defines lasting value. DBS understands this at its core — with its mantra, “Live more, Bank less,” the bank translates simplicity, trust, and empowerment into everyday experiences. Its partnership with Anudip extends that ethos beyond the branch — into the lives of those who will shape tomorrow’s workforce.
Linking EX, CSR, and CX into One Ecosystem
Employee experience (EX) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have long been viewed as parallel tracks. But in experience-oriented enterprises, these lines blur into one continuum. DBS exemplifies this shift through the DBS Foundation, which nurtures both employees and communities with programmes that reinforce empathy, innovation, and purpose.
For DBS Bank India, engagement doesn’t end at customer feedback — it begins with employee advocacy and extends to community enablement. Each participant in the Airoli initiative embodies that brand promise. The students’ showcased projects during the inauguration are living examples of how digital fluency and self-belief merge when opportunity meets mentorship.
For EX strategists, this synergy offers a roadmap: when employees see their organization create tangible change, engagement deepens, trust strengthens, and CX naturally improves. The bank’s consistency — being recognised as the “Safest Bank in Asia” for 17 consecutive years and as India’s Best Digital Bank for SMEs in 2025 — underscores how customer trust aligns seamlessly with ethical leadership.
Experience Innovation Through Skill Empowerment
In CX transformation frameworks, human capability often emerges as the silent differentiator. Technologies can scale, but empathy must be taught. This is what makes the DeepTech Training Centre remarkable — it teaches employable digital literacy while modelling how experiential learning mirrors customer journey design.
Let’s explore three pillars that make this initiative a blueprint for experience innovation:
- Accessibility as Design Philosophy: Training content leverages AI-driven personalization to adapt pacing and content complexity to each learner’s progress. This mirrors modern CX practices, where dynamic personalization ensures inclusivity and relevance.
- Feedback-Driven Adaptation: Third-party assessments function as continuous listening loops — much like customer feedback analytics. This system not only measures learning outcomes but also refines the training experience in real time.
- Purpose-Led Partnerships: DBS’s investment goes beyond CSR optics. It creates a multi-year skilling pipeline that aligns the bank’s business ecosystems with social value creation. Purpose informs design; design drives loyalty.
Together, these principles show what CX leaders often strive for: sustainable engagement built on human insight, not transactional interaction.
From Service to Stewardship: Reimagining Brand Experience
A new era of CX is emerging — one where brand trust is measured not just in service consistency but in social stewardship. Customers increasingly choose brands that act responsibly and demonstrate shared values.
A 2024 IBM Institute study revealed that over 70% of global consumers prefer brands contributing actively to social good. For DBS, such findings aren’t just data points; they’re strategic imperatives. By integrating sustainability, inclusion, and impact-led innovation, the bank transforms its brand from service provider to societal enabler.
For non-profit partners like Anudip, this partnership model sets a new benchmark for corporate collaboration — one that balances outcome metrics (placement rates, salary thresholds) with human stories of transformation.
Consider the ripple effect:
- A learner trained in Airoli gains stable employment.
- Their family’s financial resilience increases.
- Their community witnesses upward mobility.
- Their employer gains an engaged, digitally fluent professional.
CX professionals could learn profoundly from this chain — each node represents experience compounding in motion.
Lessons for CX and EX Leaders
This partnership offers several actionable takeaways for those leading CX and EX initiatives:
- Design for inclusion, not assumption. Community-led insights reshape how experiences should be built, tested, and scaled.
- Embed empowerment into your brand identity. Customers resonate with brands that uplift, not just transact.
- Invest in continuous learning ecosystems. The future workforce defines future experiences — train them with empathy and excellence.
- Build community impact into KPIs. When impact becomes measurable, experience becomes meaningful.
- Humanize digital journeys. AI and automation can’t replace belonging — design for dignity alongside efficiency.
Turning Impact into an Experience Strategy
The DeepTech initiative highlights an often-overlooked principle in CX transformation — experience equity. Inclusion, education, and empowerment aren’t peripheral strategies; they’re central pillars of how modern organizations earn trust and loyalty.
As India’s youth workforce becomes increasingly digital, bridging the experiential divide between the “tech-privileged” and the “tech-marginalized” will define both economic progress and experience innovation. Initiatives like Anudip and DBS’s partnership remind us that true digital transformation begins with human transformation.
In the end, CX leaders must ask not only, “How do we serve better?”. But also, “Whom are we empowering?”. Because in an experience-driven world, empowerment is the experience.
