OpenAI deepens India push with Pine Labs fintech partnership

[ad_1] 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 permit corporations plug AI into their current programs — inside its funds and commerce infrastructure, the businesses mentioned 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, certainly one of its fastest-growing markets, because it appears to be like to maneuver past being recognized primarily because the maker of ChatGPT and embed its expertise into schooling, enterprise, and infrastructure. Earlier this week, OpenAI partnered with main Indian engineering, medical, and design establishments to convey AI instruments into larger schooling, betting that India’s massive developer base and greater than a billion web customers will play a central function within the subsequent section 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 every day settlements from hours to minutes, in keeping with Chief govt B Amrish Rau. The Noida-based firm beforehand relied on guide 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 programs, he mentioned in an interview.

For Pine Labs, the partnership is meant to increase these AI-driven efficiencies past inside operations to retailers and company shoppers, beginning with business-to-business use circumstances comparable to bill processing, settlements and funds orchestration, Rau informed TechCrunch. He famous the corporate sees sooner 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 discuss retail AI, however the larger impression of all of that is actually effectivity enchancment, particularly in B2B,” Rau mentioned. “When you 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 sooner.”

The rollout of extra autonomous, agent-led cost workflows will transfer sooner in abroad markets the place laws already permit such transactions, Rau mentioned, whereas India is more likely to see a extra gradual adoption centered on AI-assisted commerce relatively than absolutely agent-initiated funds. He mentioned 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 affords a route deeper into India’s funds and enterprise ecosystem because it appears to be like to maneuver past consumer-facing instruments and embed its fashions into high-volume, regulated workflows. Rau mentioned the collaboration is aimed toward rising service provider stickiness and increasing Pine Labs’ function 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 international locations, 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 mentioned 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 utterly impartial of one another — something associated to cost and cost companies, we'll get the advantage of it, and something associated to OpenAI revenues will go to them,” he mentioned.

The association, Rau added, can be non-exclusive. He in contrast it to OpenAI’s partnership with Stripe within the U.S. and mentioned Pine Labs stays open to working with different AI suppliers.

Rau mentioned 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 programs. He mentioned 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 invoice cost experiences utilizing chatbots together with ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Individually, India additionally started piloting shopper funds straight via 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 purposes aimed toward large-scale deployment throughout sectors comparable to finance, healthcare, and schooling.