AI payments could become the new UPI in five years: Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur

Artificial intelligence (AI) could transform the way people shop and pay over the next few years, much like how UPI reshaped digital payments in India, said Harshil Mathur, Co-Founder and CEO of Razorpay, in an interview to CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of Global Fintech Festival.

“This is a technological shift, like the way UPI was. It will take time for people to adopt it,” Mathur said, adding that Razorpay is not looking at the immediate revenue potential of AI-led payments but at their long-term impact. “If I look at the next five years, will this become a primary way people consume commerce? I believe so.”

The Razorpay CEO believes the next wave of digital commerce will be powered by AI-led interfaces that can make payments and purchases autonomously. “You won’t browse websites for T-shirts; you will tell an AI to find the best T-shirt in your style and buy it for you,” he said, describing how consumers could soon rely on AI for shopping and transactions.

Razorpay plans to roll out new AI-based payment solutions that allow transactions to be made directly within apps or through conversational and agentic interfaces. Mathur said India will be the first country after the US to enable such payments. “It’s not just a proud moment for us, but for the country itself. Making the technology available faster than anywhere else in the world is going to be massive,” he said.

He also noted that 2026 will see strong momentum in cross-border payments, driven by regulatory easing and technological progress. The company is looking to expand its global payment volumes significantly.

On the regulatory front, Mathur welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s final guidelines on payment aggregators, calling them a step in the right direction. “The best part is that they create a level playing field by drawing clear boundaries,” he said, adding that the new framework has made the compliance process more uniform for fintech players.

While the ban on real money gaming impacted some fintech firms, Mathur said the effect on Razorpay was negligible. “The overall payment volume for real money gaming was less than ₹500 crore a month. At our scale, that’s negligible,” he said.

The company, which turned ten this year, is now close to achieving overall profitability. “We are almost breaking even now,” Mathur said. “By next year, we expect to start generating profit, which aligns with the timeline for filing and listing.”

Razorpay’s public listing remains on track for FY27, once the company becomes fully profitable.

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