By:-Akash Sinha, CEO & Co-founder, Cashfree Payments

“2026 will be the year payments move from being fast to being intelligent.  India has already demonstrated that financial infrastructure can be inclusive, resilient, and globally relevant. The next phase of growth will not be driven by volumes alone, but by new payment behaviors such as conversational and agentic payments, biometric authentication, and intelligent cross-border flows that understand intent instead of reacting to transactions. AI will move from the background to the core, simplifying checkout journeys into intent-led confirmations while managing complexity invisibly.

Globally, India is emerging as the reference architecture for real-time payments. As UPI expands into new corridors and more countries adopt India’s blueprint, 2026 has the potential to mark the transition from cross-border payments being experimental to becoming truly mainstream. With conducive regulatory bridges and settlement frameworks, global payments can start to feel as seamless as domestic ones. At Cashfree, backed by the full PA-CB license for both imports and exports, we are building the rails for this next chapter by helping Indian exporters reach global buyers through international cards and Apple Pay, while enabling global SaaS and ecommerce companies to enter India with compliant, high-conversion payment experiences.

At the same time, the next chapter of inclusion must go far beyond urban, smartphone-native users. Tier 3 cities and beyond will drive the next wave of adoption through biometric identity, vernacular conversational interfaces, and trust-first onboarding. Growth will not come from adding more channels, but from designing payments around how people naturally speak, transact, and build confidence. If the world saw India lead the real-time payments revolution, 2026 will be the year India defines what intelligent, inclusive, and globally interoperable payments truly look like.”