India Pioneers AI-Driven E-Commerce with ChatGPT Integration

India pilots AI chatbot-led e-commerce with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude in the mix | TechCrunch

India has kicked off a pilot to let consumers shop and pay directly through AI chatbots, with OpenAI's ChatGPT leading the rollout and integrations with Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude in development, as the South Asian nation becomes the next major market for global AI companies. On Thursday, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the federal body behind the country's widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI), partnered with OpenAI and fintech firm Razorpay to enable consumers to shop and pay directly through ChatGPT. Razorpay confirmed to TechCrunch that the pilot is being rolled out nationwide and will become widely available in the coming months. The experience is built on UPI Reserve Pay -- a new NPCI protocol that allows users to block a specific amount of funds for future debits to designated merchants -- and UPI Circle, a solution that delegates UPI authentication, enabling payments to be completed directly within ChatGPT without switching to external apps or websites. Razorpay has developed the merchant integration layer that allows businesses to transact through AI chatbots. Tata Group-owned online grocer Bigbasket and telecom operator Vi are the initial merchant partners for the new pilot, allowing customers to shop for groceries or purchase mobile recharge plans directly through ChatGPT. Additionally, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are powering the banking layer. India, the world's most populous nation and home to over a billion internet subscribers, is already one of OpenAI's top markets for ChatGPT. OpenAI has been looking to grow its footprint in the country, launching a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go plan in August to attract more subscribers. The commerce pilot is part of its broader push to deepen engagement and tap into India's rapidly expanding digital economy. "It's not just a payment experience," said Razorpay co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur, in an interview. "It's a whole new discovery and commerce experience." UPI is already a massive success in India, powering over 20 billion transactions each month and serving as the country's leading digital payments channel. Still, the new AI-led experience could help NPCI drive further adoption by embedding UPI into everyday commerce if consumers embrace chatbots as a new interface for shopping. Mathur told TechCrunch that the company has also completed a proof-of-concept for the new agentic payment experience with Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude. These integrations will go live for consumers in a few weeks, he said. Razorpay is also in talks with merchants other than Bigbasket and Vi and is expecting a broader rollout in the next couple of months, Mathur said. Like OpenAI, both Google and Anthropic are seeing a surge of new users from India. While Google already has a deep local presence -- with mass-market products like Android, Search, and YouTube -- OpenAI and Anthropic are now taking steps to establish a footprint in the country as they work to localize their AI offerings for Indian users. India's current plan with agentic payments does not involve any specific revenue-sharing model for partners involved. However, the move would help AI companies including OpenAI achieve greater user retention. Mathur confirmed to TechCrunch that AI companies will not get access to the payment data under the new setup, and users will pre-authorize the amount transacted through chatbots through two-factor authentication. Last month, OpenAI introduced an "Instant Checkout" experience and its Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with Stripe, to help businesses and merchants connect with consumers using AI agents. Similarly, Google launched its Agent Payments Protocol to enable AI agents to make transactions on behalf of users. "This is still an early, forward-looking concept, but one with tremendous potential. Its adoption will naturally grow in line with how fast shopping agents take off," Reeju Datta, co-founder of Cashfree Payments, told TechCrunch. In addition to Razorpay, online merchant payments startup Cashfree Payments has launched its Agentic Payments MCP that can help merchants enable payments directly through their shopping agents. Cashfree's solution supports all major payment methods including cards and UPI. However, in the case of Cashfree, merchants need to develop shopping agents on their own to integrate them with MCP. The startup demonstrated the experience through a video showing a chatbot enabling users to buy an iPhone. Datta declined to name the initial merchants working on the agentic shopping experience, saying only, "we are exploring this with a few large enterprise merchants across categories like e-commerce and lending."

India rolls out pilot for e-commerce payments via ChatGPT

Oct 9 (Reuters) - India's payments authority National Payments Corporation of India and fintech firm Razorpay have collaborated with Microsoft-backed (MSFT.O), opens new tab OpenAI to launch AI-driven payments on ChatGPT, the companies said on Thursday. The initiative, currently in the pilot stage, will allow users to make purchases on ChatGPT, facilitated by India's homegrown payments network Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The pilot will evaluate how the service can be expanded across verticals and how UPI can be used to enable AI agents with payment credentials "to autonomously complete transactions on behalf of users in a safe, secure, and user-controlled manner," the companies said in a statement. Axis Bank (AXBK.NS), opens new tab and Airtel Payments Bank are the banking partners for the pilot, and Tata Group-owned e-commerce platform Bigbasket is among the first platforms to allow customers to shop through ChatGPT. "We're excited to work with NPCI and explore how we can 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," Oliver Jay, managing director of international strategy at OpenAI said. UPI, India's leading fast payments network, processes over 20 billion transactions every month. Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan in Mumbai and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Mrigank Dhaniwala Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Razorpay, NPCI, and OpenAI Launch Agentic Payments to Bring AI-Driven Commerce to India | AIM

The service allows users to discover, compare, and purchase products seamlessly within conversational AI. Razorpay, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and OpenAI have teamed up to launch Agentic Payments on ChatGPT, a pilot initiative aimed at integrating AI into India's digital commerce ecosystem. The service allows users to discover, compare, and purchase products seamlessly within conversational AI, bringing a new level of intelligence and convenience to digital payments. The initiative combines Razorpay's digital finance expertise, NPCI's UPI infrastructure that handles over 20 billion transactions monthly, and OpenAI's AI models to enable smarter, more intuitive shopping experiences. Powered by Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank, and built on UPI innovations such as UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay, Agentic Payments enables real-time, secure transactions. BigBasket is among the first merchants to allow AI-powered shopping on ChatGPT. For example, users can ask ChatGPT, "Help me order ingredients for a Thai-style vegetable curry for 4 people from BigBasket." The AI agent then checks BigBasket's catalogue, presents options, and completes the order via Razorpay's payments stack with a single confirmation. Users maintain full control through real-time tracking and instant revocation. Harshil Mathur, CEO & co-founder of Razorpay, said, "Agentic Payments transforms AI assistants from discovery tools into full-fledged shopping agents. For the first time in India, every buyer can have a personal assistant that finds the best product and completes the purchase seamlessly." Sohini Rajola, ED - growth at NPCI, added, "Agentic Payments is a key step in India's digital payments journey, merging AI and UPI to make transactions intuitive, intelligent, and inclusive." Oliver Jay, managing director of international strategy at OpenAI, said, "AI is evolving from helping people find products to actually helping them buy them, while enabling sellers to reach millions. Working with NPCI, we aim to combine advanced AI with one of the world's most trusted payment networks to unlock effortless and secure commerce." The partners plan to explore further AI-based payment use cases, including conversational shopping, personalised checkout experiences, and agentic transactions where AI could autonomously complete payments with user con

Razorpay Partners OpenAI, NPCI to Launch Agentic Payments at GFF 2025

* ChatGPT will use Razorpay's payment stack * OpenAI recently announced Instant Checkout * Users can sign up for early access now Razorpay will soon allow users to buy groceries and other products on ChatGPT, the company announced on Thursday at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2025. Users can place orders across platforms like BigBasket, with a single click using Razorpay's payment stack. The company has partnered with OpenAI and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This comes weeks after OpenAI, added a new ChatGPT Instant Checkout feature to its AI chatbot, allowing customers to buy products without leaving the chat window. Razorpay Brings Agentic Commerce to India With ChatGPT As part of the collaboration, Razorpay will introduce AI-enabled purchases in India with the help of OpenAI's ChatGPT and NPCI. The new functionality is currently at the pilot stage, and users can register for early access. The company that users will be able to pay for goods and services with the help of AI agents, and these transactions will be executed using Razorpay's payments technology. Razorpay says agentic payments will let users complete transactions when buying products or shopping online. They can do so with the help of AI chatbots, without leaving the same browser tab. Agentic payments in chatbots will be powered by Razorpay's banking partners, like Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank. Moreover, the tech firm said that the initiative will be built on top of unified payments interface (UPI) features like UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay for seamless transactions. Additionally, the company has onboarded Big Basket as one of the first merchants that will allow buyers to shop through ChatGPT. Users will be able to ask the AI chatbot to order ingredients of a specific dish from BigBasket, and ChatGPT will display several options, after checking the quick commerce company's catalogue. People can proceed to make the payment after confirming their order. They can then track their order in real-time. Interestingly, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI recently announced that it is introducing AI agentic shopping functionality to its chatbot with Instant Checkout. Presently, it is only available in the US and ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and free users can access the feature. For now, the company has partnered with Etsy merchants to enable the same, and it also plans to onboard Shopify sellers, like Glossier, Skims, and Spanx, in the future.

Razorpay, NPCI and OpenAI Test Agentic Payments in India | PYMNTS.com

This Agentic Payments experience is now operating in a private beta launch, Razorpay said in a blog post. Agentic Payments will enable ChatGPT users in India to find products through that AI chatbot and instantly purchase them with UPI, according to the post. "Imagine this: You tell your AI assistant, 'Order my usual groceries,' and it simply does it," the post said. "No stopping to open the right grocery app, no typing a UPI PIN, no entering an OTP. AI just handles the payment, securely, on your behalf." Agentic Payments turns the AI assistant into a shopping agent by leveraging NPCI's UPI Circle, which enables UPI users to allow another individual to transact from their UPI account, and UPI Reserve Pay, which allows UPI users to manage credit limits for specific purposes, according to the post. With these capabilities, Agentic Payments allows users to pre-authorize an AI agent to make purchases with defined spending limits, per the post. "From groceries to mobile recharges, the possibilities are vast," Razorpay said in its post. "This private beta is just the first step. Over the coming months, Razorpay, NPCI and OpenAI will work together to move this innovation from a proof-of-concept into full production." The PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa collaboration "The Prompt Economy: How AI Agents Turns Conversation Into Commerce" found that there is a move toward agentic AI in which prompts replace buy buttons. Visa announced Sept. 4 that it will open access to its production Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so developers can plug AI agents directly into Visa Intelligent Commerce application programming interfaces (APIs) and that it is piloting an Acceptance Agent Toolkit that lets nontechnical teams generate invoices, create payment links and run analytics using plain prompts. These moves aim to support the development of functioning, payment-enabled agents while keeping every transaction tied to Visa's security framework. "The goal is to extend the trust of the Visa brand into the future of agentic commerce," Visa Senior Vice President and Global Head of Growth Rubail Birwadker told PYMNTS at the time. "An MCP layer removes friction for developers and drives standardization at scale."

Razorpay, NPCI, and OpenAI partner to launch AI-powered UPI payments on ChatGPT

Razorpay, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and OpenAI have announced a partnership to pilot "Agentic Payments" on ChatGPT. The initiative aims to integrate AI-driven commerce with the UPI payment system in India, allowing users to complete transactions within the ChatGPT interface. The project is currently in a pilot stage. The new feature is designed to allow users to manage the entire shopping process, from product discovery and price comparison to final payment, through a conversational flow with an AI assistant. This integration combines Razorpay's payment infrastructure, NPCI's UPI network, and OpenAI's language models. For the pilot, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are serving as banking partners, utilizing UPI innovations such as UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay. BigBasket is one of the first merchants to participate, enabling customers to shop through the AI-powered experience on ChatGPT. As an example of its functionality, a user could ask ChatGPT to order ingredients for a specific recipe from BigBasket for a certain number of people. The AI agent would then access BigBasket's catalog, display product options, and place the order through Razorpay's payment system upon user confirmation. The system is designed to give users control over the process with features like real-time tracking and the ability to cancel transactions. The collaboration will also explore other AI-based payment applications, including personalized conversational shopping and checkout experiences. A long-term goal is to evaluate the expansion of these features to other commerce verticals and to develop use cases where AI agents could potentially complete transactions autonomously on behalf of users, with an emphasis on security and user control. Commenting on the launch, Harshil Mathur, CEO & Co-Founder, Razorpay, said: With Agentic Payments, we are transforming AI assistants from simple discovery tools into full-fledged shopping agents. For the first time in India, every buyer can have a personal shopping assistant that not only finds the best product at the perfect price but also completes the entire purchase journey seamlessly. This is India's very own UPI-integrated conversational payment experience, powered by Razorpay and built on innovations like UPI Circle and UPI Reserve Pay, bringing world-class AI capabilities to Indian consumers in a truly first-of-its-kind experience in the country. Sohini Rajola, ED - Growth, NPCI, said: Agentic Payments marks an important step in India's digital payments journey, where AI and UPI converge to make transactions more intuitive, intelligent, and inclusive. By enabling user-authorized AI agents to initiate secure payments, we are moving closer to a future where technology anticipates needs and simplifies experiences. At NPCI, our focus remains on driving innovation that makes digital payments accessible, trusted, and effortless for every Indian. Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy, OpenAI, added:

India's NPCI and Razorpay team up with OpenAI for ChatGPT payments By Investing.com

Investing.com -- India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and fintech company Razorpay have partnered with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to introduce AI-driven payments on ChatGPT in India, the companies announced Thursday. The initiative is currently in a pilot phase and will enable users to make purchases directly through ChatGPT using India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment network. During this pilot stage, the companies will assess how the service can expand across different business sectors and explore ways UPI can empower AI agents with payment credentials "to autonomously complete transactions on behalf of users in a safe, secure, and user-controlled manner," according to their joint statement. Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are serving as banking partners for the pilot program. Tata Group-owned e-commerce platform Bigbasket is among the first platforms that will allow customers to shop through ChatGPT. "We're excited to work with NPCI and explore how we can 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," said Oliver Jay, managing director of international strategy at OpenAI. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

ChatGPT now lets you pay via UPI and shop in-chat, but there's a catch

NPCI is also rolling out AI-based UPI Help, IoT-enabled payments, and UPI Reserve Pay for smarter digital transactions. OpenAI has joined hands with India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and fintech firm Razorpay to pilot a programme allowing users to make UPI transactions right from ChatGPT. Interestingly, this is the first attempt to integrate the real time payments with the conversational AI interface, enabling users to complete purchases seamlessly within a chat. The pilot is testing how AI agents can handle payments autonomously while maintaining user control, safety, and security. According to the statement, if the trials are successful, the programme will look into expanding AI-driven payments across multiple sectors. With this, the users can shop directly from select platforms via ChatGPT with Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank acting as participating banking partners. However, the service will initially be available to a limited set of users and platforms, allowing the partners to monitor transaction reliability, user experience, and security protocols. Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, said, "We're excited to work with NPCI and explore how advanced AI, combined with one of the world's most trusted real-time payment networks, can unlock a new era of effortless and secure commerce." UPI is one of the most popular payment infrastructure, with over 20 billion transactions per month, and by combining it with an AI chatbot, the authorities hope to simplify digital transactions for customers. It should be noted that the feature is still in the early stages of development and may take longer to implement a more conversational and context-driven approach to digital payments in India, potentially changing the way people interact with AI tools and complete online transactions. The announcement comes along with NPCI's wider fintech initiatives unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest 2025, including AI-based UPI Help powered by its Small Language Model (SLM), IoT-enabled UPI payments for connected devices, and UPI Reserve Pay, which allows users to set and manage transaction-specific credit limits.