On this page
Razorpay's Vulcan weighs 3,000 signals in 29 ms as AI agents begin paying over UPI
Razorpay's Vulcan model weighs about 3,000 signals per transaction and decides within 29 milliseconds, as AI agents start paying over UPI, which handles 24.5 billion transactions a month. Banks and fintechs must verify in real time that agents are authorised.
Get the 07:30 IST India retail brief
One email each morning: the day’s top moves in Indian retail, why each matters and what to watch. Free. Stop any time.
Channel facts
Figures from Moneycontrol
| UPI monthly transaction value: | about Rs 30 lakh crore |
|---|---|
| UPI daily transactions: | nearly 791 million |
| Payments Vulcan was trained on: | nearly four billion |
| Indian leaders reporting rise in fraud attempts: | 90% |
| Leaders very concerned about fraud speed: | 95% |
What it means for online and offline
Fraud models trained on large proprietary payment datasets, like Vulcan's nearly four billion payments, are hard to replicate, so weigh partnering with or acquiring risk and agent-authentication capabilities against building them in-house.
Signals to track
- NPCI or RBI issues guidance on agent-initiated UPI payments
- A named rival launches an agent-specific fraud or risk product
- Razorpay discloses merchant adoption or approval-rate results for Vulcan
- A publicized fraud case involving an AI agent on UPI
- Major retailers or marketplaces announce pilots of agent checkout on UPI
Likely next moves
Our read of what comes next — analysis, not reported by the source.
- Razorpay is likely to package Vulcan's risk scoring as an agent-aware product for merchants, citing its training on nearly four billion payments and 29 ms decisions.
- Rival gateways and large banks may announce their own agent-ready fraud models or partnerships, reframing the race as one over trust infrastructure.
- NPCI and the RBI are likely to work toward rules on authorization, liability and identification of AI agents transacting on UPI, probably through consultation or circulars before formal mandates.
- Merchants, especially large online retailers, may ask for liability and chargeback clarity before enabling agent-initiated checkout, given that 95% of leaders are very concerned about fraud speed.
- Razorpay may publish more detail on Vulcan's false-positive and approval performance to answer scrutiny of real-time model decisions.
The source
First seen