Ten years ago, India was trying to solve a relatively simple problem: how do you make digital payments as easy as handing over cash?

A decade later, that problem has largely been solved. The more consequential question now is – what happens after payments become invisible?

At Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, that question surfaced repeatedly in conversations with fintech leaders. The festival, held from September 8-11 on the theme ‘Potential to Impact: Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance’, placed agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum technologies at the centre of the next phase of financial innovation.

The timing is significant. In August 2026, UPI processed 24.51 billion transactions worth ₹29.82 trillion, according to NPCI data. The question is no longer whether Indians will adopt digital payments. It is how far the infrastructure can extend into credit, savings, commerce, cross-border transactions and eventually, transactions initiated by machines acting on behalf of people.

From payment button to financial interface

Girish Krishnan, Director – Payment Experience & Rewards at Amazon Pay India, sees UPI’s first decade as having created a powerful two-sided network effect. “It’s made payment so simple and frictionless that customers started asking for it,” he said.

That demand, he argued, pushed merchants to digitise as well, creating a flywheel in which consumers and businesses reinforced each other’s adoption. For Amazon, the effect went beyond payments – UPI helped turn the platform from a shopping destination into a broader utility for bill payments, travel and other services.

The next opportunity, however, may be less about adding another payment use case and more about connecting payments with the rest of a person’s financial life.

Neha Gupta Mahatme, Director, Amazon Pay India, described the shift succinctly – the next decade could move beyond simply enabling people to pay towards helping them “borrow, save, grow, and insure.” Financial inclusion, in that framing, becomes less about access to a payment rail and more about how effectively consumers can manage their entire financial journey.

That is an important evolution. A successful payment is an event. Financial well-being is a........

© Forbes India