BharatPe has launched an agentic AI assistant powered by Google Cloud's Gemini to help 1.7 crore merchants manage festive demand. This move aims to streamline customer support, loan product suggestions, and chargeback processes across 60 internal systems. The automation is designed to handle increased transaction traffic during India's peak shopping season.
BharatPe has introduced an agentic AI assistant integrated into its business application to handle the high volume of merchant queries during the festive season. The tool, built on Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, is designed to perform complex operational tasks rather than just providing static information. By automating support and merchant operations, the fintech company aims to reduce friction during one of its busiest periods of the year.
The AI assistant operates through voice and text commands and supports English, Hindi, and Hinglish. It connects with over 60 internal systems, allowing it to perform functions such as managing disputes, tracking chargebacks, and navigating loan or point-of-sale product services. This level of automation replaces traditional interactive voice response systems, which often require merchants to navigate long menus to resolve issues.
From a business perspective, the integration is intended to do more than just assist with support tickets. It analyzes user interaction history and screen activity to suggest relevant financial products, such as loans and Credit-on-UPI, directly to the merchant. For a company that processes over 450 million UPI transactions monthly and handles a volume of ₹12,000 crore, managing these support interactions efficiently is important for maintaining margins and improving user experience.
In the competitive digital payments sector, fintech companies face constant pressure to reduce the cost of serving millions of small merchants. By shifting front-end operations to AI, BharatPe is attempting to handle scale without proportionately increasing human customer support costs. This approach also allows the company to push its credit products more effectively based on real-time business needs identified by the AI.
However, the adoption of AI in financial services brings its own set of monitorables. As fintechs increasingly rely on automated systems to handle data and suggest financial products, they face heightened regulatory oversight. The Reserve Bank of India and other regulators have maintained a strong focus on data privacy, algorithmic transparency, and consumer protection. Investors and stakeholders will likely monitor how effectively the AI manages complex merchant issues without errors, as missteps in dispute resolution or loan product advice can lead to merchant dissatisfaction or compliance risks.
Additionally, the competitive landscape in digital payments remains intense, with players like Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay vying for the same merchant base. BharatPe’s focus on using technology to improve product cross-selling will be tested by how well it can maintain trust and service quality during this period of high transaction volume. The next important update to follow will be the adoption rate of these AI features among its 1.7 crore registered merchants and any impact on the conversion rates for its financial products.