As India pitches itself as a world hub for utilized synthetic intelligence, OpenAI has partnered with Pine Labs to combine AI-driven reasoning into the fintech agency’s funds stack, automating settlement and invoicing workflows in a transfer the businesses say may assist speed up AI-led commerce in India.
The partnership will see Pine Labs embed OpenAI’s software programming interfaces — software program instruments that allow corporations plug AI into their present methods — inside its funds and commerce infrastructure, the businesses stated on Thursday, all with the intention of enabling AI-assisted settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing workflows.
The deal underscores OpenAI’s broader push to broaden its footprint in India, one of its fastest-growing markets, because it seems to be to maneuver past being recognized primarily because the maker of ChatGPT and embed its know-how into training, enterprise, and infrastructure. Earlier this week, OpenAI partnered with main Indian engineering, medical, and design establishments to bring AI tools into higher education, betting that India’s massive developer base and greater than a billion web customers will play a central position within the subsequent part of AI adoption.
Pine Labs is already utilizing AI internally to automate components of its settlement and reconciliation course of, chopping the time it takes to clear every day settlements from hours to minutes, in response to Chief govt B Amrish Rau. The Noida-based firm beforehand relied on handbook checks by dozens of workers to course of funds from a number of banks earlier than markets opened every day, a workflow that’s now largely dealt with by AI-driven methods, he stated in an interview.
For Pine Labs, the partnership is meant to increase these AI-driven efficiencies past inside operations to retailers and company purchasers, beginning with business-to-business use instances equivalent to bill processing, settlements and funds orchestration, Rau advised TechCrunch. He famous the corporate sees quicker adoption in B2B workflows, the place AI brokers can deal with massive volumes of repetitive monetary duties underneath predefined guidelines, earlier than comparable capabilities attain consumer-facing funds.
“Folks discuss retail AI, however the larger affect of all of that is actually effectivity enchancment, particularly in B2B,” Rau stated. “For those who have a look at invoicing and settlement, these are workflows the place brokers can truly drive the method finish to finish, and that’s the place adoption can occur quicker.”
The rollout of extra autonomous, agent-led fee workflows will transfer quicker in abroad markets the place rules already permit such transactions, Rau stated, whereas India is prone to see a extra gradual adoption centered on AI-assisted commerce moderately than totally agent-initiated funds. He stated that Pine Labs is already prototyping agent-driven funds in components of the Center East and Southeast Asia, at the same time as Indian rules require tighter controls on how funds are licensed.
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For OpenAI, the partnership provides a route deeper into India’s funds and enterprise ecosystem because it seems to be to maneuver past consumer-facing instruments and embed its fashions into high-volume, regulated workflows. Rau stated the collaboration is aimed toward growing service provider stickiness and increasing Pine Labs’ position from a funds processor to a broader commerce platform, with increased transaction volumes over time translating into incremental income.
Pine Labs says it works with more than 980,000 merchants, 716 shopper manufacturers, and 177 monetary establishments, and has processed over 6 billion cumulative transactions valued at over ₹11.4 trillion (about $126 billion), per its prospectus printed final 12 months. The fintech operates throughout 20 nations, together with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, components of Africa, the UAE, and the U.S., giving the OpenAI partnership attain throughout each Indian and worldwide markets.
Rau stated the partnership doesn’t contain income sharing between the 2 corporations, with Pine Labs not taking a minimize if its retailers select to embed OpenAI’s instruments. “We’ve saved it fully unbiased of one another — something associated to fee and fee companies, we’ll get the advantage of it, and something associated to OpenAI revenues will go to them,” he stated.
The association, Rau added, can be non-exclusive. He in contrast it to OpenAI’s partnership with Stripe within the U.S. and stated Pine Labs stays open to working with different AI suppliers.
Rau stated Pine Labs is constructing extra safety and compliance layers round AI-driven workflows to make sure that delicate service provider and shopper transaction knowledge stays protected, as the corporate integrates AI extra deeply into its funds methods. He stated the main target is on making certain transactions stay safe and compliant at the same time as extra workflows are automated by AI.
Pine Labs’ curiosity in AI-driven commerce builds on earlier work via its Setu unit, which has experimented with agent-led bill payment experiences utilizing chatbots together with ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Individually, India additionally started piloting consumer payments directly through AI chatbots final 12 months.
The brand new announcement comes as India hosts its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, the place international AI corporations together with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are showcasing their newest capabilities alongside Indian startups demonstrating AI purposes aimed toward large-scale deployment throughout sectors equivalent to finance, healthcare, and training.
