NPCI Develops Unified Agent Protocol to Let AI Agents Transact Over UPI

NPCI is developing a Unified Agent Protocol (UAP) — in consultation with industry, per Business Standard (8 Jul 2026) — to register, verify, and authorise AI agents to make payments autonomously over UPI, building on UPI Circle's delegated-payments model; the protocol requires RBI approval before launch, and major payment players have chosen to back NPCI's standard rather than build a rival one. Builders shipping agentic commerce, AI assistants, or merchant apps need to track UAP's draft specs closely, because the trust-and-authorisation layer NPCI designs will define what your agent can spend, on whose behalf, and what recourse exists when it goes wrong.

Source: Business Standard ↗