After Pioneering QR Code Payments, Vijay Shekhar Sharma Wants AI To Become Every Shopkeeper’s CFO

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, is looking to bring AI technology to small businesses in India. After pioneering QR code payments, Sharma now wants AI to become every shopkeeper's CFO. Paytm has begun offering its AI platform to enterprise merchants and plans to expand this to smaller shops. For smaller shops, customers will be charged a subscription fee plus a transaction fee.

Sharma believes that AI can do the job of a chief financial officer and manage cash flow, invoicing, inventory, and payments for these small businesses. He says that Paytm's AI-powered technology has allowed it to serve these businesses profitably. Paytm's payments network gives it the distribution to sell these tools. Sharma says that the company's AI platform is now being used to acquire new merchants and retain existing ones.

The revenue from distribution of financial services has also grown significantly. Sharma expects the AI business to show up in the numbers by the same quarter next year. Paytm's AI platform is already being used to decide which merchants to sign up and which to retain. The company's group CFO, Madhur Deora, says that they can now deploy the AI in a matter of days rather than weeks.

Sharma believes that AI is accelerating Paytm's growth and credits it for the gap between revenue and costs. Analysts are also closely watching the AI opportunity. Morgan Stanley, JM Financial, and Nomura have all noted the potential for AI monetisation in marketing services. Sharma believes that Paytm has changed the cost of serving small businesses into a profit.