AI payments could become the new UPI in five years: Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur

Artificial intelligence (AI) could transform the way people shop and pay in the coming years, much like how UPI reshaped digital payments in India, said Harshil Mathur, co-founder and CEO of Razorpay, in an interview with CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Festival.

“This is a technological shift, like UPI was. It will take time for people to adopt it,” Mathur said, adding that Razorpay is not interested in the immediate revenue potential of AI-based payments but their long-term impact. “If I look at the next five years, will this become the primary way people consume commerce? I believe it will.”

The CEO of Razorpay believes that the next wave of digital commerce will be powered by AI-based interfaces capable of making payments and purchases autonomously. “You won’t be browsing websites looking for T-shirts; you’ll be asking an AI to find the best T-shirt in your style and buy it for you,” he said, describing how consumers could soon rely on AI for their purchases and transactions.

Razorpay plans to deploy new AI-powered payment solutions that enable transactions directly within apps or through conversational and agent interfaces. Mathur said India would be the first country after the United States to allow such payments. “This is not only a proud moment for us, but for the country itself. Making the technology available faster than anywhere else in the world is going to be huge,” he said. He also noted that 2026 will see strong momentum in cross-border payments, driven by regulatory easing and technological advancements. The company is looking to significantly increase its global payments volumes.

On the regulatory front, Mathur welcomed the Reserve Bank of India’s final guidelines on payments aggregators, calling them a step in the right direction. “The best part is that they create a level playing field by drawing clear boundaries,” he said, adding that the new framework has made the compliance process more uniform for fintech players.

Although the ban on real money gaming had an impact on some fintech companies, Mathur said the effect on Razorpay was negligible. “The overall payment volume for real money games was less than ₹500 crore per month. On our scale, this is negligible,” he said.

The company, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, is now on the verge of achieving overall profitability. “We’re almost breaking even now,” Mathur said. “By next year, we expect to start generating profits, which is in line with the filing and listing schedule.”

Razorpay’s public listing remains on track for FY27, once the company is fully profitable.

Watch the accompanying video for the full conversation.