The Latest Payments Battle Point: AI Agents For Merchants
by Ankush Das · Inc42SUMMARY
- Payments giants are moving AI agents from assistants to operators, giving them control over merchant workflows while raising a bigger question: how much autonomy is enough?
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Almost every Indian payments giant delivered a similar pitch at the Global Fintech Fest 2026 organised last week: merchants no longer need to inspect settlements, chase failed transactions and untangle disputes. An AI agent will do it instead.
Five of the country’s largest B2B payments platforms introduced agents that can recover lost sales, reconcile chargebacks, pursue refunds and execute transactions, turning AI from an assistant into a protagonist in the payments chain.
For starters, BharatPe, a merchant payments platform, launched an Agentic AI assistant built on Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise that works across more than 60 systems to resolve complaints and chargebacks, while also recommending products such as credit cards on UPI and loans.
Similarly, digital payments provider PayU launched Agent HQ, a store where merchants deploy one agent per job. Cashfree also rolled out an agent for payment operations, Relay. Razorpay put an AI account manager named RAY on WhatsApp with IndusInd Bank. Meanwhile, Pine Labs went a step ahead, allowing an agent to complete the purchase itself.
Pine Labs is now powering an agentic marketplace for L&T Finance. Cashfree’s Relay is live for all its merchants. PayU’s Agent HQ and Razorpay’s Agent Studio stay in early access.
Together, these launches suggest that AI is moving beyond assistance. The questions are: who needs them, what work they can take on, and how much control businesses are willing to give them.