SaaS company dealing with Banks etc

Everyday Islamic Finance Business and Career Questions
#1

I work in Business Development at an AI-based SaaS company. I majorly deal with Sales, Account Management, Business Strategy etc. The company provides an AI search engine to enterprises, to search for data and information across their apps and documents etc., retrieve it and present it in a contextual manner, and further also provide comparative data analysis capabilities to aid decision making.

The thing is; Banks, Investment Banks NBFCs and Insurance companies are also part of our Target customers and in fact could turn out to contribute a large part of the revenue. But so could Legal companies, Consultancies etc.

The software is a general purpose software used to aid in decision making. In the future, there could be a little customisation done to the software to cater to each sector, but the core product would be the same.

Is my job halal?

#2

May Allah bless you

You said that the AI software is neutral and can be used for both halal and haram purposes. If you’re offering it to clients involved in haram activities, the key question is: will they be using the software for haram purposes?

If they are not using it for haram activities, then it should generally be acceptable as long as your involvement also adheres to Shariah principles (some scholars may differ on this).

If they are using it for haram activities, scholars are divided: one opinion says it’s impermissible for you to provide services to such clients, while another opinion says it’s permissible since the software itself is neutral.

And Allah knows best!