Paytm Intelligence: Vijay Shekhar Sharma's Plan To Turn Payments Scale Into An AI Business

Paytm is expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities to banks, lenders, and insurers through a new enterprise service called Paytm Intelligence, or Pi. This service was unveiled at the Global Fintech Fest in September. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm's founder and CEO, plans to leverage Paytm's massive scale in payments to establish an AI business.

Initially targeting clients in India and the UAE, Pi's AI agents handle various tasks such as sales, customer service, and operations, including customer needs assessment, campaign management, customer acquisition, retention, and cross-selling. Paytm has already begun deploying Pi to some of its customers, utilizing the same agents it currently employs for its internal business operations, including merchant sales, loan collection, consumer acquisition, and retention.

At the heart of Pi is a financial services AI model that Paytm has been developing for approximately two years. This model leverages the vast amount of transaction data and customer behavior insights gathered over the years, enabling it to predict fraud, creditworthiness, and claim credibility. Sharma first announced the concept of AI products during last year's Global Fintech Fest, emphasizing the distinction between Paytm, which is primarily known for payments, and Pi, the new AI-driven enterprise service.

At the company's 26th Annual General Meeting (AGM) days later, Sharma revealed that Pi would be named Paytm Intelligence.

Sharma views Pi as a strategic move to capitalize on the future trend where organizations and businesses will increasingly adopt AI agents, similar to how websites and apps became ubiquitous in the early days of the internet and mobile internet. This year's AGM coincided with the unveiling of Pi, reinforcing Paytm's commitment to developing AI solutions for others.

The service caters to the larger enterprise market, while Paytm has also introduced its AI Soundbox at the small enterprise level, offering AI assistance in 11 local languages to merchants using Paytm's payment devices. Sharma believes that AI can accelerate small business growth and enhance the efficiency and intelligence of large enterprises, noting that Paytm's extensive experience in understanding India's payment landscape will be invaluable to others leveraging Pi.