PhonePe AI Agent Cuts Payment Gateway Integration to Minutes

PhonePe launched an artificial intelligence agent that enables merchants to integrate the company’s payment gateway through a conversational interface.

With this new AI-powered integration layer, merchants can integrate the payment gateway in minutes, with no need for deep technical expertise, PhonePe said in a Wednesday (May 6) press release.

PhonePe expects this tool to be especially valuable for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with limited developer resources, according to the release.

“Integration has historically been one of the longest phases for any merchant going live with a PG [payment gateway],” PhonePe Chief Technology Officer and founder Rahul Chari said in the release. “We built the AI Integration Agent specifically to collapse that timeline from weeks to minutes.”

PhonePe now has more than 50 million registered merchants across India. The company announced April 28 that it surpassed that milestone and that its merchant network now covers more than 98% of India’s postal codes.

The company attributed the growth of its platform to a multiyear effort to simplify digital entry points for small businesses so they can more easily move away from cash-only operations. It highlighted PhonePe’s deployment of QR codes that lower the cost of adopting digital payments, the PhonePe Business app that helps merchants manage their payments and operations, and a sales network that provides local support.

“For many of our partners, the journey began with a simple QR code, but that relationship has since matured,” Yuvraj Singh Shekhawat, chief business officer, merchant business, at PhonePe, said in the release. “Today, digital payments serve as a gateway to a wider range of formal services, including credit. We remain committed to building the necessary infrastructure to ensure that we can achieve financial inclusion for the smallest of merchants, and they can participate in the nation’s digital growth.”

PhonePe said in March that it paused its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) due to geopolitical conflicts and market upheaval. The company said it aims to restart the IPO process when the market stabilizes.

PhonePe hoped to go public at a valuation of $9 billion to $10.5 billion.

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