Now, use your language to make payments

In India, there is rapid progress in digital payments. Now, digital payments will become even easier. Essentially, you will have the option use your language to make payments.  In fact, around 30 crore people in India use feature phones that utilise Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) for digital payments, which involves several complexities. In this regard, AI4Bharat and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are working together to develop new options to simplify the process of digital payments. Through this, users will be able to make payments by speaking in their regional language, making the path for digital payments much easier.

Banking facilities in different languages
In India, various languages are spoken. According to different regional languages, AI4Bharat is now introducing language models in the country. Currently, smartphone users can scan a QR code and send money. However, for feature phone users, they only have the option to use IVRS. The new option will provide significant relief to users. It will offer them conveniences in their regional language. This will make banking services easier, accelerate digital payments, and provide a major improvement.

Users will benefit greatly
Experts say that feature phone users will benefit from this technology, similar to the innovation of UPI. Until now, selecting different languages throughout the country was required. For example, pressing one for Hindi and two for English. This means users had to press the buttons on their mobile phones multiple times for a single transaction. This also took more time. However, with this new option, you will find relief from all of this. It will not require users to have a third-party app or a stable internet connection to complete their transactions.

NPCI’s collaboration
NPCI is working with AI4Bharat for the operation of retail payment and settlement systems in India. AI4Bharat is an open-source language artificial intelligence (AI) center located at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, which provides voice-based merchant payment services. It is also working on making transactions easier in local languages.

However, no official statement has been released so far. RBI, NPCI, and AI4Bharat have not commented on this matter. Previously, it was reported that NPCI is testing a voice-based payment service for feature phone users in areas with low connectivity, and there is a possibility that this service will start on top of the interoperable UPI protocol.

What does the report say?
According to Grand View Research, a market research and consulting company based in India and the United States, the global voice-based payment market was valued at $5.89 billion in 2021, with an expected growth of 10.9% in 2022-23. The report states that several banks, such as Barclays and the Royal Bank of Canada, have started offering peer-to-peer payment services to their customers.”