Indian payments chief sees AI driving next digital payment growth phase
Original: Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth
Why This Matters
AI adoption in payments infrastructure could accelerate financial inclusion in India's 1.4 billion-person market and establish regulatory precedent for emerging markets.
Dilip Asbe, CEO of India's National Payments Corporation of India, stated AI will be crucial for reaching over a billion daily UPI transactions. NPCI currently processes over 750 million daily transactions and aims to add half a billion more users through AI-driven fraud detection, credit distribution, and voice interfaces.
During an interview at Mumbai Tech Week 2026, Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), outlined AI's role in the next phase of India's digital payment growth. India's Unified Payment Interface (UPI) currently handles over 750 million daily transactions, with NPCI targeting over a billion daily transactions. Asbe stated that AI will be heavily involved across multiple areas: reaching new users, fraud prevention and detecting money mule operations, providing credit to users and merchants with digital footprints, and implementing voice and multilingual solutions for simpler onboarding. Asbe noted that voice-based payment interfaces remain in early stages, as voice models require improved accuracy. NPCI launched a voice assistant-based system in 2023, but adoption has not yet taken off significantly. Regarding agentic AI in finance, Asbe emphasized the need for robust regulations and user protection frameworks. He referenced NPCI's demonstrations with Razorpay on agentic commerce but noted wider rollouts have not materialized. Asbe highlighted an opportunity for Indian companies to develop small language models tailored to India's financial ecosystem, stating these models could be sharper and more specific than general alternatives. He noted that data availability and model differentiation will be key competitive factors for Indian banks, fintech companies, and the broader ecosystem.