India is venturing into a new era of digital commerce with the launch of a pilot program enabling e-commerce payments directly through OpenAI’s conversational AI chatbot, ChatGPT. This groundbreaking initiative, termed “Agentic Payments”, is a collaborative effort between the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), fintech major Razorpay, and OpenAI, aiming to seamlessly integrate India’s robust Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with artificial intelligence.
In a move that could redefine online shopping, imagine simply telling a chatbot what you need, and having it not only find the product but also complete the purchase for you. That’s precisely the future India is building with its latest “Agentic Payments” pilot. No more switching apps, no more multiple clicks—just a conversation with AI leading to a completed transaction.
The AI-Powered Shopping Assistant Arrives
Announced on Thursday, October 9, 2025, this pilot program marks a significant leap in AI-driven commerce. The core idea is to empower AI agents, like ChatGPT, to autonomously manage the entire transactional flow, from product discovery to payment execution, all within a secure and user-controlled environment.
“With agentic payments, we are transforming AI assistants from simple discovery tools into full-fledged shopping agents,” stated Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder of Razorpay. This pilot explores how UPI can enable AI agents with payment credentials to autonomously complete transactions on behalf of users in a safe, secure, and user-controlled manner.
How the Magic Happens: UPI Meets ChatGPT
The integration leverages India’s homegrown UPI network, a testament to its flexibility and widespread adoption, which currently processes over 20 billion transactions monthly. Razorpay’s robust payment infrastructure acts as the backbone, channeling these AI-initiated transactions through its banking partners, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank.
The pilot also utilizes new UPI innovations such as ‘UPI Circle’ and ‘UPI Reserve Pay,’ which allow users to reserve funds for specific merchants and manage credit limits effectively, ensuring enhanced security and user control. For instance, a user could ask ChatGPT to “order ingredients for a Thai curry for four people from BigBasket.” The AI chatbot would then browse BigBasket’s catalogue, present options, and finalize the purchase through Razorpay’s payment stack after user confirmation. Tata Group-owned e-commerce platform BigBasket is among the first merchants to participate in this pioneering pilot.
Simplifying Digital Payments
This initiative is a critical step in India’s digital payments journey, where the convergence of AI and UPI promises to make transactions more intuitive, intelligent, and inclusive. India, with its massive digital consumer base and a strong digital public infrastructure like UPI, is an ideal ground for testing such advanced AI-driven commerce solutions. The project aims to understand how conversational AI can interact seamlessly with established payment systems to simplify digital transactions for consumers within chatbots.
A Glimpse into the Future of Commerce
This pilot transcends mere convenience; it’s a peek into a future where AI anticipates needs and simplifies experiences, potentially redefining how consumers interact with digital payments globally. Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, emphasized the excitement to “combine advanced AI with UPI, one of the world’s most trusted real-time payment networks, to unlock a new era of effortless and secure commerce.”
The learnings from this pilot will evaluate how these innovations can be expanded across new commerce verticals and agentic use cases. While currently in a testing phase with select users and platforms, the success of “Agentic Payments” could pave the way for a broader adoption of AI tools in online commerce, making payment interactions more conversational and context-driven.
In essence, India is not just embracing AI; it’s actively shaping its role in the future of economic transactions, one conversation at a time.
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