Mumbai: India is moving towards allowing artificial intelligence agents to make payments on behalf of users through the country's Unified Payments Interface, as the National Payments Corporation of India develops protocols to identify and authorise such agents.
NPCI Chairman Ajay Kumar Choudhary said on September 10 that the organisation is examining protocols that could allow digital AI agents to be identified and authorised within the UPI ecosystem. The move could bring more automated payments to one of the world's largest retail payment networks.
NPCI is also developing a registry to vet and monitor AI agents that make payments on behalf of users, according to people familiar with the discussions. The proposed registry would form part of NPCI's planned Unified Agentic Protocol.
The registry would initially focus on AI agents making payments through UPI. It could later cover cards, bill payments and other payment methods, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Under the proposed system, users could give AI agents limited authority to make certain payments without having to approve every transaction individually. Initial applications are expected to focus on small and frequent purchases, such as groceries.
A user could, for example, set rules allowing an AI agent to make certain purchases within a specified budget. The agent would then be expected to operate within the limits and conditions set by the user.
More advanced applications could eventually allow agents to buy products when discounts reach a specified level or make investments when prices cross set thresholds. These are possible future uses and are not confirmed features of the current system.
The proposed system raises important questions about security and responsibility. Banks and payment companies will need to know whether an AI agent is authorised to act for a particular customer and what limits have been placed on its activity.
State Bank of India Chairman CS Setty has called for a "know your agent" framework as AI begins to participate directly in financial transactions. Such a system, he said, would need identity checks, authentication, customer consent, transaction limits, audit trails and the ability to revoke an agent's access.
The issue is particularly important because of the huge scale of UPI. NPCI data shows that UPI processed about 24.51 billion transactions worth Rs 29.82 trillion in August 2026.
The scale of the network makes security and risk controls particularly important as AI agents are given greater authority to conduct transactions.
Questions about liability also remain unresolved. It is not yet clear who would be responsible if an AI agent makes a wrong payment, acts outside a user's instructions or is manipulated into making an unauthorised transaction.
The registry is still under development and should not be described as an operational nationwide system. NPCI has publicly confirmed that it is working on protocols to identify and authorise AI agents, but detailed rules for the registry, liability and the exact conditions for participation have not yet been fully announced.
The development comes during the Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, which runs from September 8 to 11. Agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum technology are among the main themes of the event.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who inaugurated the event on September 8, highlighted agentic AI and stressed the importance of cybersecurity, ethical data protection, consumer protection and effective regulation in fintech.
India's move comes as governments and payment companies in other countries also work on systems to identify and authenticate AI agents before they can make purchases on behalf of users.
China's Payment and Clearing Association has issued guidelines for AI agent payments covering identification, security and risk controls. Visa, Mastercard and Ant International also announced on September 10 that they were working on common standards to identify and verify AI agents involved in payments.
Private companies in India have also been developing agentic payment systems. Pine Labs has developed technology that allows AI agents to make payments on UPI and RuPay cards according to rules set by users.
The NPCI initiative could give agentic payments a wider role because UPI provides common payment infrastructure used by banks, payment applications and millions of customers.
The proposed move marks a change in how digital payments could work. Until now, most UPI transactions have required a person to initiate or approve the payment. Agentic payments could allow users to give AI agents limited authority to act on their behalf.
The proposed framework could make routine digital payments more automated, but questions over security, customer consent and responsibility for incorrect or unauthorised transactions will need to be resolved before agentic payments can operate at wider scale.