UPI to get an upgrade as RBI announces new features including AI-powered transactions | Details

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced new features for the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on Thursday. The new changes have the potential to revolutionise the online payment method that will also allow transactions through a conversation with an artificial intelligence (AI) system.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced these measures while sharing the outcome of the central bank’s bi-monthly policy review. The central bank held the key repo rate steady at 6.5 per cent.

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UPI makeover: What are its new upcoming features?

RBI on Thursday announced three new features for offline UPI payments.

‘Conversational payments’ on UPI

RBI has proposed to enable ‘Conversational Payments’ on UPI by using AI-powered systems. Users will soon be able to ask an AI-powered system to make payments for them. However, further details on this functionality haven’t been disclosed yet. The feature will initially be available in Hindi and English.

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The feature will be available on both smartphones and feature phones-based UPI channels which will be made available in more Indian languages later. Introducing AI to UPI payments is a futuristic idea to incorporate developing technologies into existing technologies.

UPI Lite limit raised

The RBI has raised the transaction limit of UPI Lite to Rs 500 from Rs 200. Launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in September 2022, UPI Lite allows quick small-value transactions by optimising processing resources for banks, thereby reducing transaction failures.

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It allowed users to conduct transactions of up to Rs 200 a day without the need for a pin code, which reduced the transaction time. While the transaction limit has been raised to Rs 500 now, the UPI Lite balance ceiling has been left unchanged at Rs 2,000 to contain the risks associated with the relaxation of two-factor authentication.

UPI Lite is available on Paytm, BHIM App, GooglePay and other payment apps.

Offline UPI payments using NFC

Governor Shaktikanta Das also announced offline UPI payments using near-field communication (NFC) technology through UPI Lite. This will make payments easier, as users will only have to tap their smartphone on the point-of-sale (PoS) machine.

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“To promote the use of UPI-Lite, it is proposed to facilitate offline transactions using NFC technology. This feature will not only enable retail digital payments in situations where internet or telecom connectivity is weak or not available, but it will also ensure speed, with minimal transaction decline,” the MPC statement said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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