Soon, you can order your mobile phone to make the payment for you

If you are using UPI for making payments for purchases at any store, soon you will be able to, literally, order your phone to do the job for you instead of typing the amount to be paid. This will be possible through the conversational payments being explored by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In its bi-monthly ‘Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies’, RBI today proposed to launch AI-enabled Conversational Payments on UPI. The feature will be initially made available in Hindi and English and introduced for both smartphones and feature phones.

“As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly integrated into the digital economy, conversational instructions hold immense potential in enhancing ease of use, and consequently reach, of the UPI system,” the RBI said.

“It is, therefore, proposed to launch an innovative payment mode viz., ‘Conversational Payments’ on UPI, that will enable users to engage in a conversation with an AI-powered system to initiate and complete transactions in a safe and secure environment,” it added.

According to the RBI statement, this channel will be made available in both smartphone and feature phones-based UPI channels, helping in deepening digital penetration in the country.

“The facility will, initially, be available in Hindi and English and will subsequently be made available in more Indian languages,” the central bank said.

The RBI will issue instructions to NPCI for the introduction of conversational payments on UPI soon.

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Increased Limit for Offline Payment

The RBI has also decided to increase the minimum amount per transaction through UPI in offline mode.

“To encourage wider adoption of this mode of payments and bring in more use cases into this mode, it is now proposed to increase the per transaction limit to Rs 500. The overall limit is, however, retained at Rs 2000 to contain the risks associated with relaxation of two-factor authentication,” RBI said.

The RBI has also proposed to facilitate offline UPI transactions using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. “This feature will not only enable retail digital payments in situations where internet/telecom connectivity is weak or not available, it will also ensure speed, with minimal transaction declines. Instructions to NPCI will be issued shortly,” the central bank said.