India expands digital payments with AI‑enabled UPI and frictionless card checkout

Cashfree Payments outlined new checkout features aimed at reducing friction for card users. Its Cardlink technology displays a saved card from apps such as CRED, Samsung Pay or Google Pay, allowing a tap‑and‑pay experience without entering a number, CVV or OTP. For first‑time shoppers, the company introduced a native OTP that captures the code on the checkout page and a Visa/Mastercard passkey that replaces OTPs for future purchases, enabling face‑scan or fingerprint authentication in under a second.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is developing a Unified Agent Protocol (UAP) that will let certified AI agents conduct small financial transactions on the UPI network with user permission. The protocol will register and verify AI agents, enforce security rules, and operate alongside the existing UPI infrastructure, allowing automatic bill payments, subscription renewals and online purchases while preserving user consent and data safety.