At the 2026 Global Fintech Fest, India’s top payments firms unveiled AI agents designed to take over complex merchant tasks such as recovering lost sales, managing failed payments, and resolving disputes, reducing the need for manual oversight and boosting transaction success rates.
- AI agents recover lost sales and handle chargebacks autonomously.
- Small and mid-sized merchants benefit from reduced manual payments workload.
- Pine Labs enables agents to complete purchases based on dynamic customer conditions.
What happened
At the 2026 Global Fintech Fest in India, five major payments platforms launched AI-powered agents that autonomously manage merchant payment operations. These agents assist in recovering abandoned carts, retrying failed payments, confirming cash-on-delivery orders, and resolving complaints and chargebacks without human intervention.
Notably, BharatPe's AI assistant integrates with over 60 systems for seamless complaint resolution, while Pine Labs demonstrated agents able to complete customer purchases directly, exemplifying a shift from AI as a support tool to a proactive player in the payments ecosystem.
Why it matters
These AI agents are poised to significantly ease the operational burden on merchants, particularly small and mid-sized businesses that lack dedicated resources to manage complex payment tasks. By automating failed payment recovery, dispute resolution, and refund follow-ups, merchants can reduce revenue loss and improve customer satisfaction.
Additionally, the capability for agents to complete purchases based on price triggers introduces a novel channel for re-engaging dormant customers and increasing conversion rates, marking a new frontier in merchant automation and customer interaction.
What to watch next
The pace of adoption among diverse merchant segments will be critical to watch, especially how SMBs and D2C brands leverage these agents to streamline operations and boost recoveries. The gradual transition of AI from assisting merchants to fully executing business transactions warrants close observation.
Moreover, how much autonomy businesses grant these AI agents and the regulatory or security implications involved will shape the trajectory of AI in payments. Innovations like Pine Labs’ agentic marketplace may serve as early indicators of broader shifts toward agent-driven commerce.