India has already brought out ways of making voice-based and offline digital payments with an aim to expand the country’s fast-growing digital infrastructure and reduce the yawning divide between rural and urban areas. The growth of the Universal Payments Interface (UPI), a digital payments system, is a significant part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitions to build India’s digital infrastructure and bring the world’s most populous country online. 

The Reserve Bank of India has decided to include Artificial Intelligence in digital payments, emphasising the use of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the name of Conversational Payments. The idea ushers in a novel and intuitive method of conducting business. This new feature enables payment requests straight into the form of chat or message discussions, which makes daily interactions and fast money transfers possible.  

The potential of voice assistants in financial transactions 

The voice assistants possess immense potential uses as they can be implemented virtually across industries. Nowadays, banks and other financial institutions have started researching the feasibility of using voice technology in their financial transactions. Tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Apple produce AI-powered gadgets with conversational voice interfaces, which helps to boost the consumer’s interest in voice assistants in all the markets. As per the prediction of PWC, the use of cashless payments is expected to increase by 80% between 2020 and 2025 and nearly triple by 2030.  

Current voice digital payment technologies  

PayPal was the first payment service to enable voice-activated technology for transaction processes in 2016. Another one is the voice chatbot built for the Eyowo payment platform using Rasberry Pri and Amazon Lex Service. Voice pay is another voice-activated digital payment system which simplifies the conventional digital payment processes. The DashCam system developed by Tymoszek is a face and voice-activated payment system that helps move vehicles.  

The challenges  

One of the significant challenges with voice assistants is their inability to grasp other dialects immediately. They need help with dialects other than the standard American dialect. People who are well-versed in the American accent may find it easy to harness this technology, while others will need some sort of help to benefit from the service.  

Similarly, integration of speech-activated technologies at the point-of-service level is inevitable for the increased adoption of voice payments worldwide. Nevertheless, retailers encounter a hike in price tag because of the complexity and expense of connecting with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled products. 

The impact of voice assistants in future 

The influence of Artificial Intelligence in our daily lives has also benefited speech applications like IoT speakers and voice assistants and its growth. However, these voice assistants must enhance their understanding of speakers with different accents. For example, the Google Hands-Free app users don’t have to take their phones or wallets to complete the payment process. Android Pay, Google’s mobile payment system, is integrated into the app. Google says more than a million retailers are using Android Pay worldwide.  

If an Android user goes to pay with Google, technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, phone sensors and in-store cameras will communicate the payment information to the retailer’s point-of-sale system. The cashier then will be able to analyse the customer’s photo that was uploaded before, and the transaction will be authorised after the user’s identification has been verified.  

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was implemented in 2016 to usher in a new era of digital payments. Though the payment processes were sluggish initially, now these transactions account for 4.5 times debit and credit activity. Each and every small business and vendor nowadays accepts UPI customer payments, understanding the flexibility. Since many advancements have been happening in the payment industry, experts believe that the payment sector is entering a new era of payments 4.0, where voice will be the leading player. These voice-integrated payment systems are reshaping the fintech sector, which is going to overthrow traditional payment methods in the near future.  

• https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/can-ai-powered-voice-payments-for-upi-transactions-impact-indias-digital-payments-11534951.html
• Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash