Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth
Indian payments chief thinks AI will be heavily involved in next era of digital payment growth
印度支付主管认为人工智能将在数字支付增长的下一个时代发挥重要作用
India’s digital payment share has increased over the years, with the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) growing to over 750 million daily transactions. With an aim to reach over a billion daily transactions, Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India, which oversees UPI, thinks AI would be heavily involved in the next phase for user growth, fraud prevention, and credit distribution. 多年来，印度的数字支付份额不断增加，统一支付接口（UPI）的日交易量已超过 7.5 亿笔。印度国家支付公司（NPCI，负责监管 UPI）董事总经理兼首席执行官 Dilip Asbe 的目标是实现日交易量超过 10 亿笔。他认为，在用户增长、欺诈预防和信贷分配的下一阶段，人工智能将发挥重要作用。
During an interview with TechCrunch at Mumbai Tech Week (MTW) 2026 last month, Asbe said AI could drive the next half a billion users with NPCI, India’s central bank, and the government working together. “AI will be used very effectively when we look at the next wave of UPI, and that includes all aspects, including reaching new users. We must use AI effectively to protect our current citizens, to find fraud, and to find mules. AI must also be used to provide credit to all the users and merchants who have digital footprints,” he said. “We must use AI to look at the voice and multilingual solutions to make onboarding simpler.” 在上个月孟买科技周（MTW）2026 期间接受 TechCrunch 采访时，Asbe 表示，在 NPCI、印度央行和政府的共同努力下，人工智能有望推动未来 5 亿用户的增长。“当我们展望 UPI 的下一波浪潮时，人工智能将被非常有效地利用，这涵盖了所有方面，包括触达新用户。我们必须有效利用人工智能来保护现有公民、发现欺诈行为并识别洗钱账户（mules）。人工智能还必须用于为所有拥有数字足迹的用户和商户提供信贷，”他说。“我们必须利用人工智能来研究语音和多语言解决方案，以简化用户入门流程。”
Many companies have talked about voice as an interface being important in India for chatting with companies or systems. Asbe believes that it is early days for that, as voice models will need to be more accurate. NPCI launched a voice assistant-based interactive system in 2023. Asbe noted that adoption for that yet to take off, and with the right use case, voice can become a critical component in the payment ecosystem. 许多公司都提到，语音作为一种交互界面在印度与公司或系统沟通方面非常重要。Asbe 认为现在还处于早期阶段，因为语音模型需要更加精准。NPCI 在 2023 年推出了基于语音助手的交互系统。Asbe 指出，该系统的普及率尚未起飞，但只要有合适的应用场景，语音可以成为支付生态系统中的关键组成部分。
AI in finance and regulations
金融与监管中的人工智能
In the U.S., startups and public companies are racing to add AI to finance. Coinbase and Robinhood now allow agents to trade on users’ behalf, and OpenAI lets you load personal account data into ChatGPT to get financial advice. NPCI has shown some demos around agentic commerce and payments with Razorpay last year. However, there hasn’t been a wider rollout of some of these capabilities. 在美国，初创公司和上市公司正竞相将人工智能引入金融领域。Coinbase 和 Robinhood 现在允许智能代理代表用户进行交易，OpenAI 则允许用户将个人账户数据加载到 ChatGPT 中以获取财务建议。NPCI 去年曾与 Razorpay 展示了一些关于代理商业和支付的演示。然而，其中一些功能尚未得到更广泛的推广。
NPCI’s CEO thinks that with robust regulations and a framework, India can also adopt AI-powered finance. He said that there should be enough protection for users and mitigation for risk — and in case something goes wrong, the system should be able to look at the instructions and consent given by the user to an agent. NPCI 首席执行官认为，通过健全的法规和框架，印度也可以采用人工智能驱动的金融服务。他表示，应该为用户提供足够的保护并降低风险——如果出现问题，系统应该能够回溯用户向代理发出的指令和授权。
Besides the usage of models, Asbe thinks that the Indian finance ecosystem has an opportunity to build small language models. “We believe that the models will differentiate from each other based on the data sets that are made available to them,” he said. “We have a very rich data set in our ecosystem. I think there is a big opportunity for Indian companies — the banks, FinTechs, and the ecosystem — to create small language models which are sharp, specific, and as deterministic as possible.” 除了模型的使用，Asbe 认为印度金融生态系统有机会构建小型语言模型。“我们相信，模型之间的差异将取决于提供给它们的数据集，”他说。“我们的生态系统中拥有非常丰富的数据集。我认为印度公司——银行、金融科技公司和整个生态系统——有一个巨大的机会，可以创建精准、具体且尽可能确定的小型语言模型。”
Last year, NPCI launched a model called FIMI to solve user disputes. Asbe noted that it is serving over a million users to cancel mandates and resolve issues, and is scaling fast. 去年，NPCI 推出了一个名为 FIMI 的模型来解决用户纠纷。Asbe 指出，该模型目前已服务超过 100 万用户，用于取消授权和解决问题，并且正在快速扩展。
UPI competition
UPI 的竞争
NPCI has long sought healthy competition between UPI apps, but data suggests that Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay have over 80% of the market share. The regulator’s plan to cap an app’s market share at 30% is set to take effect on December 31, 2026, unless it defers the deadline date again. NPCI 长期以来一直寻求 UPI 应用程序之间的良性竞争，但数据显示，沃尔玛旗下的 PhonePe 和 Google Pay 占据了超过 80% 的市场份额。监管机构计划将单个应用程序的市场份额限制在 30%，该规定定于 2026 年 12 月 31 日生效，除非再次推迟截止日期。
During the conversation, Asbe said that UPI apps have very low switching costs and most core features are shared. He noted that PhonePe and Google have poured millions into their apps to attain their market position. He said that if new apps find viable business models within the fintech ecosystem, their share will rise. “I believe that there are multiple issues why we see this concentration risk exist, and one of the important reasons is the availability of a viable commercial model. The moment we see the commercial model being available to the ecosystem, I believe newer players will start investing very heavily,” Asbe said. 在谈话中，Asbe 表示 UPI 应用程序的转换成本非常低，且大多数核心功能是共享的。他指出，PhonePe 和 Google 投入了数百万美元才获得目前的市场地位。他表示，如果新的应用程序能在金融科技生态系统中找到可行的商业模式，它们的份额就会上升。“我相信导致这种集中风险存在的原因有很多，其中一个重要原因是缺乏可行的商业模式。一旦我们看到生态系统中有可行的商业模式，我相信新的参与者将开始进行大规模投资，”Asbe 说。
In 2024, the payment body spun off its BHIM UPI app to make it more competitive and grow its usage. While its transaction volume has grown, its overall market share is around 1%. Asbe said that with BHIM, there is no particular target market share NPCI is eyeing. But it wants to make it a sovereign and secure alternative to other apps, Asbe said. 2024 年，该支付机构分拆了其 BHIM UPI 应用程序，以提高其竞争力并增加使用量。虽然其交易量有所增长，但总体市场份额约为 1%。Asbe 表示，对于 BHIM，NPCI 并没有设定特定的市场份额目标。但 Asbe 表示，他们希望将其打造成为其他应用程序的自主且安全的替代方案。
India is one of the biggest digital economies, and investors around the world will be looking at the regulatory landscape to put money into newer fintech solutions and make the market more competitive. 印度是最大的数字经济体之一，全球投资者将密切关注其监管环境，以便向更新的金融科技解决方案投入资金，并使市场更具竞争力。