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 might assist speed up AI-led commerce in India.
The partnership will see Pine Labs embed OpenAI’s software programming interfaces — software program instruments that permit corporations plug AI into their current methods — inside its funds and commerce infrastructure, the businesses stated on Thursday, all with the purpose of enabling AI-assisted settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing workflows.
The deal underscores OpenAI’s broader push to broaden its footprint in India, one in all its fastest-growing markets, because it appears to maneuver past being recognized primarily because the maker of ChatGPT and embed its expertise into training, enterprise, and infrastructure. Earlier this week, OpenAI partnered with main Indian engineering, medical, and design establishments to convey AI instruments into larger training, 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, slicing the time it takes to clear each day settlements from hours to minutes, in keeping with chief government B Amrish Rau. The Noida-based firm beforehand relied on handbook checks by dozens of staff 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 inner operations to retailers and company shoppers, beginning with business-to-business use instances reminiscent of bill processing, settlements, and funds orchestration, Rau informed TechCrunch. He famous the corporate sees quicker adoption in B2B workflows, the place AI brokers can deal with massive volumes of repetitive monetary duties below predefined guidelines, earlier than comparable capabilities attain consumer-facing funds.
“Individuals speak about retail AI, however the larger influence of all of that is actually effectivity enchancment, particularly in B2B,” Rau stated. “If you happen to have a look at invoicing and settlement, these are workflows the place brokers can really 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 laws already permit such transactions, Rau stated, whereas India is more likely to see a extra gradual adoption targeted on AI-assisted commerce quite 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 laws require tighter controls on how funds are licensed.
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For OpenAI, the partnership gives a route deeper into India’s funds and enterprise ecosystem because it appears to maneuver past consumer-facing instruments and embed its fashions into high-volume, regulated workflows. Rau stated the collaboration is aimed toward rising service provider stickiness and increasing Pine Labs’ position from a funds processor to a broader commerce platform, with larger transaction volumes over time translating into incremental income.
Pine Labs says it really works with greater than 980,000 retailers, 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 revealed final yr. 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 reduce if its retailers select to embed OpenAI’s instruments. “We’ve saved it fully unbiased of one another — something associated to fee and fee providers, we’ll get the good thing about 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 further 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 by its Setu unit, which has experimented with agent-led invoice fee experiences utilizing chatbots together with ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Individually, India additionally started piloting shopper funds immediately by AI chatbots final yr.
The brand new announcement comes as India hosts its AI Influence 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 functions aimed toward large-scale deployment throughout sectors reminiscent of finance, healthcare, and training.
