Pine Labs will embed OpenAI’s API capabilities into its AI-native infrastructure and global merchant ecosystem to enhance how merchants manage payments and operational workflows.

The collaboration comes as India’s digital payments market continues to scale, with annual volumes exceeding 180 billion transactions.

The country operates the world’s largest real-time payment system, and its fintech sector is projected to reach US$1.5 trillion by 2026.

Pine Labs said the integration marks a shift from deterministic, rule-based systems toward technology that can interpret context and support more complex financial decision-making.

The company described this as adding a reasoning layer to its commerce stack, enabling systems to weigh probabilities rather than rely solely on fixed instructions.

AI-driven processes will operate within Pine Labs’ existing enterprise security framework, including data isolation, encryption, audited controls and human oversight where required.

B Amrish Rau, CEO of Pine Labs, said,

“For decades, commerce has been built on passive systems that simply follow instructions. At Pine Labs, we are moving beyond that era to build an active, intelligent layer for business.

Our work with OpenAI ensures that our infrastructure is no longer just a participant in a trade, but a driver of efficiency and growth. We are building the first agentic stack for the next generation of the global economy.”

“The next phase of AI is about moving from information to action.

By combining our advanced reasoning capabilities with Pine Labs’ deep merchant infrastructure, we are helping to create a powerful engine for innovation that turns complex financial workflows into seamless, agentic experiences at scale.”

said Oliver Jay, Managing Director, International, OpenAI.

Pine Labs also plans to extend elements of the AI stack to its developer ecosystem, allowing third parties to build applications on its platform.

The company said the initiative is intended to support merchants from SMEs to global businesses as they adopt more advanced digital tools for payments and financial management.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by rawintanpin via Freepik