New Delhi: With the introduction of voice transactions driven by AI, India is revolutionizing its digital payments environment. This cutting-edge technology enables smooth payments with voice commands, simplifying and improving the user experience. AI-powered voice transactions are expected to change the way that digital payments are made in India in the future with the potential to revolutionize the payments sector.
Since UPI was launched in 2016, digital transactions have taken off: about 350mn people now use UPI to pay for goods and services or to transfer money instantly. The system recorded almost 10bn transactions in July, more than 50 per cent higher than the same month last year.
To address the gap in India’s rural areas, the Reserve Bank of India this month announced a plan for “conversational” payments. UPI users will be able to make verbal transfer instructions on their phones which will be processed using AI-based speech recognition to initiate transactions.
The service will use open-source AI language tools developed by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. It will be initially available in English and Hindi before being broadened to other languages.
Users will also be able to make transactions without the internet by using “near field communication” technology, a system widespread in contactless card transactions that uses a connection between two close-by phones. This will “enable retail digital payments in situations where internet [or] telecom connectivity is weak or not available”, the RBI said.
