UPI's AI bet: why payment data beats fancy models

AI in digital payments is about to get a lot of attention, and I want to read past the headline before anyone in Colombo copies the wrong lesson. Dilip Asbe, MD and CEO of India's NPCI (the body that runs UPI), told TechCrunch that AI will be heavily involved in the next era of payment growth. You can read the original report here: TechCrunch — Indian payments chief on AI and UPI.

Here's my take: the interesting part isn't that a payments boss likes AI. Everyone says that. The interesting part is where he points it, and the quiet admission that the thing actually blocking competition is a business model, not a model checkpoint.

Before the AI talk, look at the scale Asbe is working with. These are the figures from the report:

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