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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIndia is testing whether people can discover products, place orders and pay through AI assistants instead of moving between shopping apps and payment screens. The experiment began as an October 2025 pilot involving NPCI, Razorpay and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It uses India’s UPI infrastructure, including UPI Reserve Pay, to place controls around payments rather than giving an AI unrestricted access to a bank account.
ChatGPT led the original public pilot. Claude later received a formally announced Razorpay integration, while Gemini appeared in demonstrations and stated plans. These are not necessarily identical, universally available shopping services, and the companies’ product claims should not be confused with independent evidence of consumer savings or better checkout performance.
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What India’s AI-commerce pilot actually is
The October 2025 initiative brought together NPCI, the organization behind UPI; OpenAI, through ChatGPT; and Razorpay, which provides the payment and merchant-integration layer. Razorpay described the project as a pilot designed to support product discovery, catalog selection, order creation, payment authorization and merchant fulfillment.
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The key distinction is between an AI assistant that recommends products and one that can securely orchestrate a transaction. The intended pilot flow goes further than search: it connects conversational product discovery to a merchant order and an authorized payment.
How shopping inside a chatbot could work
A simplified example would look like this:
- The user asks for a product or service, such as groceries or a mobile recharge.
- The assistant presents products, quantities, prices and the relevant merchant.
- The user reviews and confirms the basket, delivery details and spending authorization.
- The payment layer initiates an eligible debit under the user’s approved rules.
- The merchant accepts and fulfills the order.
- The merchant generally remains responsible for delivery, cancellation, refunds and customer support.
“Order my usual groceries” is a useful demonstration of the concept, but consumers should not assume that every assistant automatically remembers purchase history, chooses the correct quantity or tracks every delivery. The live merchant catalog should remain authoritative for inventory, pricing and availability.
The UPI mechanism behind the experience
UPI Reserve Pay
The main payment concept is UPI Reserve Pay, which works like a controlled fund block. A user authorizes a defined amount, and an eligible merchant or authorized system can initiate subsequent debits against that block within the applicable limits.
NPCI’s circular specifies a maximum block of up to ₹10,000 and a maximum duration of up to 90 days, subject to the rules and implementation of the participating bank, merchant and UPI service. The circular also says:
- A successful debit response is required before the merchant treats a payment as completed.
- A blocked amount is not automatically proof that the transaction succeeded.
- Timeouts are treated as declines and reversed in real time.
- Users should be able to view the remaining balance, expiry and transaction history, and revoke or modify the authorization where supported.
- The initial focus is on online-verified merchants and low-value, high-frequency transactions.
This is why “AI can pay on your behalf” is an incomplete description. The intended model is constrained authorization, not a blank cheque for a chatbot.
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UPI Circle is different
UPI Circle is a separate delegation mechanism. It is designed to let a primary user authorize another person—or, depending on the implementation, a delegated system—to make payments within defined limits.
UPI Reserve Pay concerns a block of funds and controlled debits. UPI Circle concerns delegated authority. They should not be treated as interchangeable. NPCI’s BHIM announcement describes spending limits and monitoring for delegated payments, but Razorpay’s current product page labels UPI Circle “Coming soon.” Availability therefore depends on the specific provider and date.
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ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude: what is actually confirmed?
| Assistant | What the evidence shows | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Led the original October 2025 pilot with NPCI and Razorpay. | The initial experience was described as a pilot or private beta, not a universal shopping service. |
| Gemini | Razorpay said proof-of-concept work had been completed and later positioned its agentic-payments offering across ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. | The evidence does not establish that Gemini had identical, broadly available consumer functionality. |
| Claude | Razorpay announced Agentic Payments on Claude in February 2026, with examples involving Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto. | A formally announced integration still does not mean every merchant or user has the same access. |
The timeline matters:
- September 29, 2025: OpenAI separately announced Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol, initially aimed at U.S. users and merchants such as Etsy, with planned Shopify expansion. See OpenAI’s announcement.
- October 9, 2025: Razorpay, NPCI and OpenAI announced the ChatGPT-led Indian pilot. Razorpay said Gemini and Claude integrations were being developed.
- February 17, 2026: Cashfree announced Cashfree Here, a payments extension for AI applications supporting in-chat UPI payments and passkey-based biometric card authentication inside ChatGPT and Claude, with Mastercard and Swiggy.
- February 20, 2026: Razorpay announced Agentic Payments on Claude, citing Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto use cases.
As of the latest information in this report, India is an early test market for AI-mediated commerce—not proof that all three assistants offer identical shopping and payment capabilities to all Indian users.
Which merchants are involved?
The original reported partners were:
- BigBasket: grocery shopping.
- Vi: mobile recharges.
- Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank: banking-layer participation reported for the original pilot.
Later announcements expanded the examples. Razorpay cited Zomato, Swiggy and Zepto for its Claude integration. Cashfree announced Cashfree Here with Mastercard and Swiggy. “Pilot partner,” “demonstrated with” and “supported by the platform” are different claims: none automatically means nationwide public availability.
Who controls the transaction?
| Part of the transaction | Likely responsible party |
|---|---|
| Conversation and product discovery | AI assistant and its application ecosystem |
| Catalog, price and inventory | Merchant, subject to how its data is integrated |
| Payment authorization and processing | Payment aggregator, bank and UPI participants |
| Order acceptance and fulfillment | Merchant |
| Delivery, cancellation and refunds | Usually the merchant, although the assistant may provide an interface |
| Disputes and payment complaints | Depends on the transaction structure and should be stated clearly at checkout |
This division is important for personal finance. If an AI selects the wrong product, the assistant may have caused the error, but the merchant may still control the refund. If funds are blocked but the debit fails, the payment provider and bank may control the release of the hold. Users need a clear record of what they authorized and where to complain.
Privacy and payment-data claims
TechCrunch reported Razorpay’s Harshil Mathur as saying that AI companies would not receive payment data and that users would pre-authorize transactions through two-factor authentication. That is a statement from a participant in the project, not independent proof that every future integration will use exactly the same data flows.
OpenAI’s separate commerce announcement says that only information required to complete an order is shared with the merchant with user permission, and that payment tokens are authorized for specific merchants and amounts. Consumers should still ask:
- Which company stores the authorization?
- Does the AI provider see the product basket, payment status or order history?
- Can the user revoke the authorization immediately?
- Are notifications sent for every debit?
- Can the assistant retry a failed payment?
- Which party handles a refund or dispute?
Potential benefits for consumers
If implemented well, conversational commerce could reduce app switching and make routine transactions easier. Potential benefits include natural-language search, faster repeat purchases, easier product comparisons, delegated low-value payments and improved accessibility for people who find conventional app interfaces difficult.
These are potential benefits, not measured results. The available sources do not prove that the pilot reduces checkout abandonment, produces lower prices or consistently improves purchase decisions.
The main risks
Wrong products and quantities
“Get some milk” does not specify brand, size or quantity. A safe system needs a readable basket, total price and explicit confirmation before payment.
Stale prices or inventory
An assistant could display outdated discounts or unavailable products. Merchant systems—not the language model—must remain the source of truth.
Unwanted repeat purchases
Routine ordering is convenient, but a remembered “usual” order may no longer be appropriate. Users should check the basket every time unless they have deliberately set a narrow recurring authorization.
Overspending
Small, repeated payments can be easy to overlook. Merchant-specific limits, visible remaining balances, transaction alerts and simple revocation are more important than conversational convenience.
Fraud and prompt injection
An agent that reads product pages or other third-party content could encounter malicious instructions. Untrusted text must not be allowed to override the user’s payment authorization or payment rules.
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A chatbot saying an order is “processing” does not necessarily mean payment succeeded. Under NPCI’s Reserve Pay rules, a successful debit response is required for the merchant to treat the transaction as paid.
Merchant discoverability
If AI assistants become shopping gateways, merchants may depend on ranking and recommendation systems they do not control. OpenAI says its initial product results are organic and unsponsored, but that policy is platform-specific and should not be assumed for Gemini, Claude or future services.
Language and accessibility gaps
India’s linguistic diversity creates an opportunity for voice and multilingual shopping. However, the reviewed sources do not provide independent, language-by-language evidence about accuracy, catalog translation or error rates.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why payment companies are competing here
For merchants, AI assistants could become a new product-discovery channel. For payment aggregators, the opportunity is larger: they could become the infrastructure beneath conversations involving catalogs, consent, authentication and settlement.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Razorpay describes Agentic Payments as supporting businesses that want products surfaced and purchased through AI assistants. Cashfree’s Agentic Payments and Cashfree Here show that another major Indian payments company is pursuing a similar role. Neither reviewed source provides a complete public rate card, so merchants should confirm transaction fees, eligibility, onboarding requirements, data responsibilities and production availability directly.
For smaller businesses, this model may be worthwhile only if they already have accurate product feeds, reliable fulfillment and a process for handling refunds and support. A chatbot storefront cannot compensate for poor inventory data or unresolved payment disputes.
What this pilot is—and is not
- It is an early test of conversational shopping and UPI-based agentic payments.
- It is not a universal replacement for shopping apps.
- It is not unrestricted autonomous access to a bank account.
- It is not evidence that ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude have identical live capabilities in India.
- It is an attempt to place explicit limits and authorization rules around AI-mediated transactions.
What would make AI payments safe enough for mainstream use?
Before relying on an assistant for routine purchases, consumers and merchants should look for:
- A clear merchant, basket, quantity, delivery charge and final total.
- Explicit confirmation before each purchase or a narrowly defined recurring rule.
- Merchant-specific spending limits and immediate revocation.
- Real-time payment notifications and a complete transaction history.
- A clear distinction between a blocked amount and a successful debit.
- Simple cancellation, refund and complaint routes.
- Protection against prompt injection and unauthorized payment retries.
- Transparent ranking, advertising and merchant-discovery policies.
- Reliable live inventory and support for relevant Indian languages.
The commercial test is equally important: agentic checkout must create incremental value rather than merely move traffic from one interface to another. Merchants will need sustainable economics, control over customer relationships and confidence that AI-generated orders can be fulfilled and refunded correctly.
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Bottom line
India’s pilot is a significant payments experiment, but it is still an implementation-specific ecosystem rather than a mature national shopping platform. ChatGPT was the initial public entry point, Claude later received a formal Razorpay announcement, and Gemini appeared in demonstrations and planned integrations. UPI Reserve Pay provides the crucial guardrail: a defined, time-limited authorization for controlled debits—not unrestricted access for an AI model.
For consumers, the right question is not whether an AI can place an order. It is whether the user can see exactly what will be bought, how much can be debited, which company holds responsibility, and how quickly an incorrect transaction can be reversed.
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