India has kicked off a pilot to let consumers shop and pay directly through AI chatbots, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT leading the rollout and integrations with Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude in development, as the South Asian nation becomes the next major market for global AI companies.
On Thursday, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the federal body behind the country’s widely used Unified Payments Interface (UPI), partnered with OpenAI and fintech firm Razorpay to enable consumers to shop and pay directly through ChatGPT. Razorpay confirmed to TechCrunch that the pilot is being rolled out nationwide and will become widely available in the coming months.
The experience is built on UPI Reserve Pay — a new NPCI protocol that allows users to block a specific amount of funds for future debits to designated merchants — and UPI Circle, a solution that delegates UPI authentication, enabling payments to be completed directly within ChatGPT without switching to external apps or websites. Razorpay has developed the merchant integration layer that allows businesses to transact through AI chatbots.
Tata Group-owned online grocer BigBasket and telecom operator Vi are the initial merchant partners for the new pilot, allowing customers to shop for groceries or purchase mobile recharge plans directly through ChatGPT. Additionally, Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are powering the banking layer.
