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Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth
India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has grown to over 750 million daily transactions, with a target of one billion. Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), said at Mumbai Tech Week 2026 that AI will drive the next wave of UPI, focusing on user growth, fraud prevention, and credit distribution. He emphasized AI’s role in onboarding via voice and multilingual solutions, though voice adoption remains early; NPCI launched a voice assistant in 2023 but uptake is limited. For AI in finance, Asbe stressed the need for robust regulations and user protection, citing NPCI’s demos with Razorpay on agentic commerce. He also highlighted opportunities for Indian companies to build small, deterministic language models using India’s rich datasets, noting NPCI’s FIMI model for dispute resolution now serves over a million users. On competition, Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay hold over 80% of UPI market share. A regulator plan to cap app market share at 30% is set for December 31, 2026, unless deferred. Asbe noted low switching costs but said viable commercial models are needed for new entrants. NPCI spun off its BHIM UPI app in 2024 to improve competitiveness, but its share is around 1%; Asbe views BHIM as a sovereign, secure alternative without a specific market target. The regulatory landscape will influence global investment in India’s digital economy, aiming to foster competition.