Artificial Intelligence, Business Constraints, and Economic Barriers to Financial Inclusion among Rural Women in Bangladesh: A Review

Abstract

The financial inclusion has been important in the poverty reduction, empowerment of women, and rural business growth in Bangladesh. Farmers, livestock farmers, seamstresses, food processors, practitioners of home-based businesses and informal service providers are the main occupations of rural women and numerous women lack easy access to formal finance. AI can help with being inclusive by offering alternative credit scoring, fraud identification, digital identity verification, customer support and enhancing the design of products. However, AI alone is not enough to eliminate exclusions. Its impact is reliant on data quality, fair models, services that are affordable, digital literacy, trust and consumer protections. The present review explores the potential of AI-powered finance for the benefit of rural women in Bangladesh as well as constraints and economic barriers to what AI could offer. The paper proposes to highlight the factors excluding rural women: its low income, absence of collateral, poor records, high service fees, inaccessibility of phones, social norms, dependency on agents, risk of fraud and data poverty. Therefore, in order to make full use of AI, it is important to adopt it as a part of broader gender-inclusive financial inclusion policy.