India’s National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and fintech firm Razorpay have partnered with Microsoft-backed OpenAI to launch a pilot project that enables users to make payments on ChatGPT using the country’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Announced on Thursday, the initiative aims to test how artificial intelligence can handle real payments, who will use it first, where it will operate, and how safely it can complete transactions through conversational AI.
Turning ChatGPT into a shopping assistant and making payments
Interestingly, the pilot introduces agentic AI, artificial intelligence that can perform tasks with minimal human help. With this system, users can chat, explore products, and complete purchases directly within ChatGPT.
“Agentic 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 shopping companions.”
Backed by UPI’s new ‘Reserve Pay’
The service runs on UPI’s latest Reserve Pay feature, which lets users reserve funds for specific merchants before completing a purchase, adding an extra layer of safety.
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 allow shopping through ChatGPT.
India’s growing AI payments race
Oliver Jay, OpenAI’s Managing Director for International Strategy, said the company was “excited to work with NPCI and explore how AI can combine with one of the world’s most trusted real-time payment systems.”
The pilot will study how AI-driven UPI payments can expand to more sectors in a secure, user-controlled way.
Meanwhile, rival fintech firm Cashfree also announced its own agentic AI payments solution for merchants, showing that India’s race to blend AI and payments is gaining pace.
In other news, according to a recent report, OpenAI’s chatbot may soon also receive a significant health-focused addition.
Previously, OpenAI highlighted GPT-5’s enhanced health-related capabilities, and these features could soon be made more accessible through a forthcoming ‘Clinician Mode’.
Engineer Tibor Blaho from AI firm AIPRM recently shared snippets of code discovered on the ChatGPT web app, which included references to this new mode. While details remain limited, ‘Clinician Mode’ could provide a dedicated interface where users might seek preliminary medical guidance prior to consulting a healthcare professional.
(With inputs from Reuters)
