Razorpay taps into conversational commerce, pilots UPI in ChatGPT
Razorpay will now allow users to complete purchases directly within AI environments such as ChatGPT.
Razorpay, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and OpenAI have joined forces to launch Agentic Payments, a pilot initiative that aims to merge conversational artificial intelligence (AI) with UPI.
Razorpay will now allow users to complete purchases directly within AI environments such as ChatGPT. Under the pilot, a ChatGPT user could, for example, request, “Help me order ingredients for a Thai-style vegetable curry for 4 people from BigBasket.” The AI would then browse BigBasket’s catalogue, show options, and finalise the purchase through Razorpay’s payments stack—all without leaving the chat interface.
The system leverages Razorpay’s banking partners, Axis Bank, and Airtel Payments Bank, and draws on UPI innovations such as the extended authorisation tool, UPI Circle, and funds management feature, UPI Reserve Pay. BigBasket, a Tata enterprise, is among the first merchants to participate in the pilot.
Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder of Razorpay, said in a statement, “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.”
Sohini Rajola, Executive Director for Growth at NPCI, called the initiative “an important step in India’s digital payments journey, where AI and UPI converge to make transactions more intuitive, intelligent, and inclusive.” She added that user-authorised AI agents initiating payments could “move us closer to a future where technology anticipates needs and simplifies experiences.”
Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy at OpenAI, said the collaboration highlights how AI can evolve “from helping people find products to actually helping them buy them,” while also aiding sellers in reaching new customers. “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,” Jay said.
Edited by Kanishk Singh