RBI developing AI-led digital payments platforms to boost user experience

The Reserve Bank is developing more digital public infrastructure and payments intelligence platforms by leveraging artificial intelligence and application programming interfaces to enhance customer experience and strengthen the payments ecosystem, according to a senior central bank official.

"We are also creating more and more DPIs. We are talking about the use of AI to create all those DPIs and APIs. Of course, AI and APIs are going to be the future of all these DPIs and for all your online activities," P Vasudevan, executive director of RBI, said while addressing at MPAI Merchant's Day 2026.

He said the central bank is considering deploying artificial intelligence to enhance customer journeys and automate grievance handling as digital transaction volumes continue to increase.

 

"For example, let us say I make a UPI transaction and I have an issue, the transaction doesn't get completed. It automatically picks up this as a grievance and tries to complete the journey. That's what UPI Help is also expected to learn from itself and then try to provide solutions that are going to be useful to the individual," he said.

Vasudevan said such systems can help institutions save time and resources by resolving issues without manual intervention, especially as payment volumes expand rapidly.

"When the volumes are increasing, definitely the friction points will also increase. It's time for us to look at some of those things to help the user journeys happen much better," he said.

The official emphasised that interoperability across systems will be critical in building seamless customer experiences, noting that the central bank wants multiple databases and platforms to interact to deliver a holistic service to users.

"If you can interoperate or make these multiple disparate systems come together and then try to give a customer the holistic experience, maybe going forward we'll have startups coming in and saying that yes, I've created something like this for a seamless user journey," he said.