India has kicked off a pilot to let shoppers store and pay instantly by AI chatbots, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT main the rollout and integrations with Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude in growth, because the South Asian nation turns into the following main marketplace for international AI corporations.
On Thursday, the Nationwide Funds Company of India (NPCI), the federal physique behind the nation’s extensively used Unified Funds Interface (UPI), partnered with OpenAI and fintech agency Razorpay to allow shoppers to buy and pay instantly by ChatGPT. Razorpay confirmed to TechCrunch that the pilot is being rolled out nationwide and can turn out to be extensively accessible within the coming months.
The expertise is constructed on UPI Reserve Pay — a brand new NPCI protocol that enables customers to dam a certain quantity of funds for future debits to designated retailers — and UPI Circle, an answer that delegates UPI authentication, enabling funds to be accomplished instantly inside ChatGPT with out switching to exterior apps or web sites. Razorpay has developed the service provider integration layer that enables companies to transact by AI chatbots.
Tata Group-owned on-line grocer Bigbasket and telecom operator Vi are the preliminary service provider companions for the brand new pilot, permitting clients to buy groceries or buy cell recharge plans instantly by ChatGPT. Moreover, Axis Financial institution and Airtel Funds Financial institution are powering the banking layer.
India, the world’s most populous nation and residential to over a billion web subscribers, is already one in every of OpenAI’s prime markets for ChatGPT. OpenAI has been trying to develop its footprint within the nation, launching a sub-$5 ChatGPT Go plan in August to draw extra subscribers. The commerce pilot is a part of its broader push to deepen engagement and faucet into India’s quickly increasing digital financial system.
“It’s not just a payment experience,” stated Razorpay co-founder and CEO Harshil Mathur, in an interview. “It’s a whole new discovery and commerce experience.”
UPI is already a large success in India, powering over 20 billion transactions every month and serving because the nation’s main digital funds channel. Nonetheless, the brand new AI-led expertise may assist NPCI drive additional adoption by embedding UPI into on a regular basis commerce if shoppers embrace chatbots as a brand new interface for buying.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 27-29, 2025
Mathur instructed TechCrunch that the corporate has additionally accomplished a proof-of-concept for the brand new agentic fee expertise with Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. These integrations will go stay for shoppers in a number of weeks, he stated.
Razorpay can also be in talks with retailers apart from Bigbasket and Vi and is anticipating a broader rollout within the subsequent couple of months, Mathur stated.
Like OpenAI, each Google and Anthropic are seeing a surge of recent customers from India. Whereas Google already has a deep native presence — with mass-market merchandise like Android, Search, and YouTube — OpenAI and Anthropic are actually taking steps to determine a footprint within the nation as they work to localize their AI choices for Indian customers.
India’s present plan with agentic funds doesn’t contain any particular revenue-sharing mannequin for companions concerned. Nonetheless, the transfer would assist AI corporations together with OpenAI obtain higher consumer retention.
Mathur confirmed to TechCrunch that AI corporations is not going to get entry to the fee information below the brand new setup, and customers will pre-authorize the quantity transacted by chatbots by two-factor authentication.
Final month, OpenAI launched an “Instant Checkout” expertise and its Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed in partnership with Stripe, to assist companies and retailers join with shoppers utilizing AI brokers. Equally, Google launched its Agent Funds Protocol to allow AI brokers to make transactions on behalf of customers.
“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 Funds, instructed TechCrunch.
Along with Razorpay, on-line service provider funds startup Cashfree Funds has launched its Agentic Funds MCP that may assist retailers allow funds instantly by their buying brokers. Cashfree’s resolution helps all main fee strategies together with playing cards and UPI. Nonetheless, within the case of Cashfree, retailers have to develop buying brokers on their very own to combine them with MCP.
The startup demonstrated the expertise by a video displaying a chatbot enabling customers to purchase an iPhone.
Datta declined to call the preliminary retailers engaged on the agentic buying expertise, saying solely, “we are exploring this with a few large enterprise merchants across categories like e-commerce and lending.”
