Summary of this article
Payments have become very fast through UPI. Now it’s about making it more useful for people, rewarding them for their transactions, and providing them financial products and other use cases.
AI could make payments simpler by handling transactions within limits set by users. For businesses, it could also help track expenses, enforce spending rules and reduce manual work.
Payments are getting quicker. More companies are going to compete to offer better rewards and security to the end consumer.
India has already solved one of the biggest problems in payments, making money move instantly, reliably and at scale. With Unified Payments Interface (UPI), paying has become almost invisible. A QR code, a mobile number or a few taps completes a transaction in seconds. But when something becomes this frictionless and ubiquitous, the next stage of innovation must go beyond the transaction itself.
From Payments To Experiences
Digital payments have largely been measured by transaction volumes, value and speed. These metrics matter, but the real opportunity lies in what happens around the payment.
Imagine booking a flight and receiving relevant rewards, financing options, and expense details as part of the same seamless experience. Imagine an employee completing a business payment where approvals, policy checks and expense reporting happen automatically in the background. Imagine an offer that is genuinely relevant to what you are buying at that moment, not a one-size-fits-all promotion, but a personalised benefit that adds real value precisely when and where you need it.
The payment may still take two seconds. The experience around it can create significantly more value.
Says Raj P Narayanam, founder and executive chairman, Zaggle: “UPI has created open, interoperable payments infrastructure on which banks, FinTechs and businesses can build. We are already seeing new use cases emerge, Credit on UPI, recurring payments and delegated payments. The next frontier is AI-powered payments, where intelligent systems execute transactions within rules set by the customer. This changes the fundamental question businesses need to ask. Instead of asking ‘how do we help customers pay?’ the right question is ‘how do we make the entire experience before, during and after payment better?’ That is where the next competitive advantage will be built.”
The Rise Of Embedded Finance
Financial services are increasingly becoming native to the platforms and experiences people already use. A travel company can offer financing or rewards without becoming a bank. A business software platform can manage expenses without becoming a traditional payments company. For consumers and enterprises alike, the financial layer is becoming invisible, embedded rather than bolted on.
For finance teams, the opportunity is particularly compelling. A chief finance officer (CFO) does not want another payment dashboard. He/she wants better control over spending, stronger compliance, lower leakage, and actionable insights. Employees, meanwhile, simply want to make legitimate business expenses without unnecessary friction.
Personalisation With Trust
Cashback and discounts have played an important role in driving digital payments adoption and they remain powerful when deployed well. The opportunity ahead is not to move away from rewards but to make them far more meaningful. A frequent traveller should receive travel-relevant benefits. An employee should receive benefits suited to their role and life stage. A customer making a large purchase should see a financing option that genuinely helps, not a generic offer that could have appeared anywhere.
Says Narayanam: “Technology makes this level of personalisation possible, but it must come with trust. Customers must know how their data is being used and retain meaningful control over it. The goal is not more offers. It is the better ones, at the right time, in the right context, and with the customer’s interests genuinely at the centre of the discussion.”
AI Will Redefine the Payment Experience
Today, people decide when and how to make a payment. In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) agents will help make those decisions within parameters set by the user. A customer could define spending limits, approved merchants, or transaction categories, while an AI agent could identify the right option and complete an authorised transaction seamlessly.
This could make commerce dramatically simpler. But convenience cannot come at the cost of trust. As payments become more intelligent and autonomous, security, consent, transparency and consumer protection become proportionately more important, not less.
The Enterprise Opportunity
For merchants, every transaction is a data point, revealing purchasing patterns, behavioural signals and preferences, provided data is used responsibly and with appropriate consent. This can power more relevant loyalty programmes, sharper customer engagement, and better business decisions. The payment becomes the starting point for a much deeper relationship with the customer.
“For enterprises, the opportunity is structural. Corporate spending spans travel, fuel, procurement, employee expenses and reimbursements, typically managed through disconnected tools. The future is not another tool for every category. It is one intelligent layer that connects these activities, identifies leakage, automates routine approvals, improves compliance and surfaces financial insights in real time,” says Narayanam.
The intelligence built around the payment becomes the real value delivered.
What Comes Next
UPI has made the transaction almost invisible. That creates a new challenge for banks, fintechs and payment companies: if everyone can enable a fast payment, how do you differentiate?
“The answer will increasingly be the experience, better rewards, stronger security, deeper personalisation, smarter financial insights and more meaningful service,” says Narayanam.
India has won the transaction. The next race is for the experience built around it.
