AI-led payments will need strong risk checks as trust remains critical: Amazon Pay India CEO

Mumbai: As artificial intelligence increasingly makes digital payments more contextual and automated, strong risk checks will remain critical to maintaining customer trust, Amazon Pay India CEO Vikas Bansal said.

Speaking to ANI, Bansal said AI could make transactions more personalised and convenient, but the use of the technology would not reduce the importance of security and risk management in payments.

"AI as a technology is really important to make transactions more contextual and more personalized," Bansal said.


"For us, it's not changing risk. Risk is very critical because trust is critical for payments," he added.

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Bansal said transactions on Amazon Pay currently go through multiple checks involving more than 1,000 parameters before being executed and such safeguards would continue as payment technology evolves.

"Today, for any transaction on Amazon Pay, [it] goes through multiple checks, 1,000 plus parameters before it is executed. And those will continue to be done in the future world," he said.

He said the aim should not only be to make payments smoother but also to strengthen security and safety as technology reduces friction in transactions.

"The idea is not only to remove friction, but the idea is to remove friction but add more trust through more security and safety for the customers," Bansal said.

On the broader financial services sector, Bansal said India now needs to make further progress in areas beyond digital payments, particularly credit, insurance, protection and savings.

"As a country, we need to make lot of progress in penetrating digital credit in India," he said.

Referring to a recently launched Digital Credit Inclusion Index, Bansal said Tier-2 cities were leading Tier-1 cities, highlighting the spread of digital financial services beyond the largest urban centres.

"Tier two cities are leading, which is surprising over tier one," he said.

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Bansal also said India's digital public infrastructure and cooperation between policymakers, the government and industry could support further economic growth.

"India is poised for significant growth because the digital public infrastructure and the capabilities we built and then the policymaker and the government and how we are working together as an industry is really useful and is going to be impetus, big impetus to growth," he said.

He added that Amazon Pay was expanding its focus beyond payments into credit, insurance and savings. The company recently announced a digital revolving credit offering for micro, small and medium enterprises in partnership with Kotak Mahindra Bank and also launched a health insurance product at the Global Fintech Fest.

Bansal said the company's broader approach was focused on solving customer problems rather than competing with individual players.

"I don't really wake up to compete, I wake up to solve customer problems," he said.