56% of fintech leaders see agentic payments as the most disruptive trend in the Indian payments landscape: PwC survey

Bengaluru, 10 September, 2026 – India’s digital payments ecosystem is entering a new phase defined by “digital depth” rather than sheer adoption, according to PwC India’s report titled “The Indian Payments Handbook: 2026–31.” The seventh edition of the report, backed by a survey of senior leaders across the fintech and payments industry, finds that 56% of respondents identify agentic payments and autonomous commerce as the most disruptive trend expected to reshape the sector over the next five years. Credit cards and convenience credit emerged as the ecosystem’s “second growth engine,” with transaction volumes projected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 24% through FY31, increasingly driven by frequency of use and varied use cases for adoption and disbursement of credit.

Digital payment transaction volumes in India, which stood at approximately 266 billion in FY26 valued at ₹362 trillion, are projected to reach around 702 billion transactions worth over ₹1,086 trillion by FY31 – a 2.5x increase in volume and a 3x increase in value over five years. The report attributes this growth to deeper merchant penetration and varied use cases, the rise of credit-linked use cases, evolving payment economics, and the growing embedding of AI across the payments value chain.

Rajan Pental, Partner and Leader – Financial Services, PwC India said, “India’s payments industry is moving from AI experimentation to embedding AI and the technology is no longer just enhancing the payments experience — it’s beginning to reshape how transactions are initiated, secured, and trusted. The real opportunity now lies in scaling this intelligently, with the right guardrails around governance, consent, and risk.”

UPI continues to anchor India’s digital payments story, having processed 241.6 billion transactions worth ₹314.2 trillion in FY26 – a milestone year marking a decade since its launch. Person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions accounted for 63% of UPI volume in FY26 and are projected to rise to 72% by FY31, even as person-to-person (P2P) transactions continue to dominate value, expected to account for 62% of transaction value by FY31. Growth going forward is expected to be shaped by deeper merchant penetration and credit-on-UPI adoption. On survey findings, 31% of industry leaders point to cross-border payment corridors and merchant transactions, while 23% cite credit-led UPI propositions such as BNPL and EMI financing, as key drivers of the next phase of UPI adoption.

Commenting on the findings, Mihir Gandhi, Partner and Leader – Payments Transformation and FinTech, PwC India, said, “India’s next chapter in payments will be defined by digital depth rather than digital adoption — one that is expanding from scale to everyday relevance, from individual payment rails to an interconnected ecosystem, and from convenience-led growth to trusted, intelligent, and sustainable payments. The opportunity through FY31 is to convert India’s payments scale into impact, by building systems that are trusted enough to sustain adoption, connected enough to reduce friction, global enough to extend India’s capabilities across borders, and inclusive enough to broaden access to finance.”

The report identifies several themes shaping the future of digital payments in India:

• Credit becomes the second growth engine: Credit card transaction volumes are projected to grow from 6 billion in FY26 to 17.9 billion by FY31, with the number of outstanding cards rising from 118.6 million to 204 million over the same period. 27% of industry leaders believe credit cards and credit will become increasingly embedded within digital ecosystems, while 23% see co-branded card offerings as a key growth avenue, and 19% expect the next wave of innovation to be driven by virtual cards and agentic AI-powered payments.
• Debit cards settle into a secondary role: Debit cards in circulation are projected to grow modestly from over 1.04 billion in FY26 to approximately 1.13 billion by FY31, continuing to serve as a key access instrument linked to savings and current accounts. However, transaction activity on debit cards is expected to moderate over the same period, reflecting their evolving role as an access and authentication tool rather than a primary payment mode, as consumers increasingly turn to UPI and credit cards for everyday transactions.
• AI becomes core infrastructure across payments: 90% of Indian financial institutions count AI/GenAI among their core technology priorities, and around 21% of regulated entities have already deployed AI, with a further 67% exploring additional use cases. On the impact of AI specifically within payments, 44% of respondents expect its primary role to be enhancing customer experience, while 28% believe AI/ML-based behavioural analytics will be the most critical technology for fraud prevention going forward.
• Merchant acquiring evolves into a broader services ecosystem: 33% of industry leaders anticipate that future merchant-acquiring revenues will be driven by a combination of value-added services, including lending, advertising, and SaaS offerings, together with a gradual return of direct payment monetisation models.