ChatGPT can now complete UPI payments and order groceries from BigBasket without leaving the chat

OpenAI has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Razorpay to bring agentic payment to ChatGPT. The company

​The AI startup says users are already discovering products and services, exploring options, comparing prices, and planning purchases through ChatGPT. The new initiative, which is in a pilot stage, aims to introduce Agentic Payment to ChatGPT to allow the chatbot to complete payment on behalf of the user without leaving the app.

​Axis Bank and Airtel Payments Bank are among the banking partners for the pilot. Meanwhile, Tata group owned quick commerce platform Bigbasket is among the first platforms to allow customers to shop using the new AI-powered experience on ChatGPT.

​In the example shared by the companies, a user would be able to ask ChatGPT questions like: “Help me order ingredients for a Thai-style vegetable curry for 4 people from BigBasket.”

​The chatbot would then subsequently check the Bigbasket catalog, present product options, and upon confirmation, place the order via Razorpay’s payments stack. OpenAI noted that users would retain full control over the experience with real-time tracking and instant revocation of the order.

​Under the agreement, Razorpay, NPCI, and OpenAI will also explore AI-based payment use cases by evaluating how to bring a personalized and secure AI shopping experience via UPI. They noted that in the future, AI agents could also be ‘enabled with payment credentials to autonomously complete transactions on behalf of users in a safe, secure, and user-controlled manner.’

​Oliver Jay, Managing Director of International Strategy, OpenAI, while reacting to the pilot feature in a release by the company said, “AI is evolving from helping people find products to actually helping them buy them, while also helping sellers reach millions of people. We’re excited to work with NPCI and explore how we can combine advanced AI with UPI, one of the world’s most trusted real-time payment networks, to unlock a new era of effortless and secure commerce.”

​The three companies did not give any hints on when the stable rollout of the feature would happen. It is also not clear yet, if and when the feature makes it to all users, then it will be available to all users or only to the paying ChatGPT members who have access to the company’s AI Agent.

​In other related news, NPCI had also recently introduced a new biometric authentication feature for UPI transactions, allowing users to ditch the traditional UPI Pin method in favour of completing the payment via their smartphone’s built-in security feature like fingerprint or face unlock.