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 utility programming interfaces — software program instruments that allow firms plug AI into their present techniques — inside its funds and commerce infrastructure, the businesses mentioned on Thursday, all with the goal of enabling AI-assisted settlement, reconciliation, and invoicing workflows.
The deal underscores OpenAI’s broader push to broaden its footprint in India, one in every 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 know-how into training, enterprise, and infrastructure. Earlier this week, OpenAI partnered with main Indian engineering, medical, and design establishments to deliver AI instruments into increased training, betting that India’s giant 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 elements of its settlement and reconciliation course of, slicing the time it takes to clear each day settlements from hours to minutes, in line 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 techniques, he mentioned in an interview.
For Pine Labs, the partnership is meant to increase these AI-driven efficiencies past inner operations to retailers and company purchasers, beginning with business-to-business use circumstances resembling bill processing, settlements and funds orchestration, Rau advised Trendster. He famous the corporate sees quicker adoption in B2B workflows, the place AI brokers can deal with giant volumes of repetitive monetary duties beneath predefined guidelines, earlier than comparable capabilities attain consumer-facing funds.
“Folks speak about retail AI, however the greater influence of all of that is actually effectivity enchancment, particularly in B2B,” Rau mentioned. “If you happen to take a look at invoicing and settlement, these are workflows the place brokers can truly 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 rules already permit such transactions, Rau mentioned, whereas India is more likely to see a extra gradual adoption centered on AI-assisted commerce fairly than absolutely agent-initiated funds. He mentioned that Pine Labs is already prototyping agent-driven funds in elements of the Center East and Southeast Asia, whilst Indian rules require tighter controls on how funds are licensed.
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For OpenAI, the partnership presents 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 geared toward rising service provider stickiness and increasing Pine Labs’ function from a funds processor to a broader commerce platform, with increased transaction volumes over time translating into incremental income.
Pine Labs says it really works with greater than 980,000 retailers, 716 client 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 printed final yr. The fintech operates throughout 20 international locations, together with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, elements 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 firms, with Pine Labs not taking a minimize if its retailers select to embed OpenAI’s instruments. “We’ve stored it fully unbiased of one another — something associated to fee and fee providers, we are going to get the good thing about it, and something associated to OpenAI revenues will go to them,” he mentioned.
The association, Rau added, can also 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 extra safety and compliance layers round AI-driven workflows to make sure that delicate service provider and client transaction information stays protected, as the corporate integrates AI extra deeply into its funds techniques. He mentioned the main focus is on guaranteeing transactions stay safe and compliant whilst extra workflows are automated by AI.
Pine Labs’ curiosity in AI-driven commerce builds on earlier work by way of 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 client funds instantly by way of AI chatbots final yr.
The brand new announcement comes as India hosts its AI Affect Summit in New Delhi, the place world AI firms together with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are showcasing their newest capabilities alongside Indian startups demonstrating AI functions geared toward large-scale deployment throughout sectors resembling finance, healthcare, and training.
