India's UPI platform records massive growth as AI is positioned for next phase

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has expanded dramatically in India, rising from roughly 2 crore transactions in FY 2016‑17 to more than 24,162 crore in FY 2025‑26, according to NPCI data. Daily transaction volumes have reached over 750 million, with a target of surpassing one billion daily transactions.

NPCI Managing Director Dilip Asbe said AI will be central to the next growth wave, supporting new user onboarding, fraud detection, mule identification, and credit provision. He also highlighted potential for voice‑based, multilingual interfaces and the development of small, India‑specific language models. AI‑driven tools such as the FIMI model already handle over a million user disputes.

The market remains concentrated, with PhonePe and Google Pay accounting for about 80 % of UPI app usage. A regulator‑planned cap of 30 % market share per app is slated for end‑2026, aiming to foster competition and enable new entrants to grow.