India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and fintech company Razorpay have collaborated with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to launch a pilot project that will allow users to make payments on ChatGPT using the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The initiative, announced Thursday, aims to test how artificial intelligence can handle real-world payments, who will use it first, where it will operate and how securely it can complete transactions through conversational AI.
Turn ChatGPT into a shopping assistant and make payments
Interestingly enough, the pilot introduces agentic AIartificial intelligence that can perform tasks with minimal human assistance. This system allows users to chat, explore products and complete purchases directly from ChatGPT.
“Agent payments are the next big step in AI innovation,” said Harshil Mathur, CEO of Razorpay. “We're turning AI assistants from simple discovery tools into full-blown shopping tools.”
Powered by UPI's new 'Reserve Pay'
The service runs on the latest version of UPI Book Payment feature, which allows users to reserve funds for specific merchants before completing a purchase, adding an extra layer of security.
Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are the official banking partners for the pilot, while Tata-owned Bigbasket is one of the first e-commerce platforms to enable shopping via ChatGPT.
India's Growing AI Payments Race
Oliver Jay, OpenAI's Managing Director International Strategy, said the company was “excited to work with NPCI and explore how AI can be combined with one of the world's most trusted real-time payment systems.”
The pilot will explore how AI-driven UPI payments can be extended to more sectors in a secure, user-controlled manner.
Meanwhile, rival fintech company Cashfree also announced its own AI payments solution for merchants, showing that India's race to combine AI and payments is accelerating.
In other news, according to a recent report, OpenAI's chatbot could soon get a significant health-focused addition as well.
Previously, OpenAI highlighted GPT-5's improved health-related capabilities, and these features could soon be made more accessible via an upcoming 'Clinician Mode'.
Engineer Tibor Blaho from AI company AIPRM recently shared code snippets discovered in the ChatGPT web app, which contain references to this new mode. While details remain limited, 'Clinician Mode' could offer a special interface where users can seek preliminary medical advice before consulting a healthcare provider.
(With input from Reuters)
