Razorpay, NPCI, OpenAI launch Agentic Payments: What it means for AI-driven transactions

Razorpay, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and OpenAI have jointly announced the pilot of Agentic Payments, an initiative aimed at integrating conversational AI with digital payments on a national scale.

The platform is designed to enable users to discover, select, and complete purchases through AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, without leaving the AI environment.

The pilot leverages Razorpay’s payment infrastructure, NPCI’s UPI system, and OpenAI’s AI models to allow real-time transactions. Partner banks for the initiative include Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank.

The service also builds on UPI innovations like UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay, providing a framework for secure, user-authorized payments through AI interfaces.

Merchants including BigBasket are among the first to participate in the pilot. Users can, for instance, instruct the AI assistant to order products, which the assistant then selects, confirms, and processes payment for through the integrated UPI system.

Users retain control with options for real-time tracking and instant revocation of payments.

The collaboration aims to explore additional use cases for AI-driven commerce, including personalised shopping experiences and autonomous, user-controlled transactions. The project seeks to evaluate the scalability of AI agents across different commerce verticals while maintaining security and transparency in UPI-enabled payments.

Industry representatives highlighted the potential of the pilot. Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-Founder of Razorpay, noted that Agentic Payments could transform AI assistants from discovery tools into full-service shopping agents.

Sohini Rajola, Executive Director at NPCI, emphasised the convergence of AI and UPI to make digital payments more intuitive and inclusive. Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, said the initiative aims to combine advanced AI with India’s real-time payments infrastructure to simplify commerce for users.Read about our editorial guidelines and ethics policy