Vijay Shekhar Sharma Unveils Paytm’s AI-First Vision—And It’s Got Rhythm

Unknown Apr 02, 2026 1,000 Views

Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has stirred the fintech world with a vision of a big "AI-first" business, asserting that artificial intelligence will become a requirement—either as a hire or as a CFO—very soon. Addressing Shiprocket's Shivir: AI Commerce Edition in Delhi, Sharma described how Paytm is infusing AI at the heart of its business, marrying operational efficiency with fun, user-focused innovation.

Key Highlights:
AI as Central Workforce: Sharma said, "Eventually, we'll have to employ AI—as a worker—or even as a CFO," looking toward the day when AI takes care of repetitive and executive tasks, fueling smarter, quicker decisions.

Workforce Transformation: The firm recently laid off approximately 3,500 workers, primarily sales personnel, due to regulatory limits and now employs AI to fill operating gaps and gain new efficiencies.

AI-Powered Rap Passbook: Paytm is piloting a fresh and innovative feature—an AI-powered rap passbook that displays users' expenses for a month in the form of a rap song. The users have an option to select their preferred genre, so expense tracking will be fun and interesting. It is piloting and will be live soon.

Conversational AI Onboarding: Paytm has partnered with US-based AI company Perplexity to bring smart conversational search to its app, allowing users to inquire and get instant AI-driven responses. More AI capabilities will be released in subsequent months.

India as AI Use Case Capital: Sharma added that, due to very high barriers to building foundation AI models, India will be well-positioned to execute AI at scale, and the country will become the "use case capital" of AI rather than a producer of foundational technology.

Job Creation and Industry Revolution: In admitting that AI would replace many jobs, Sharma clarified that it would also generate new employment opportunities in technology and data science, following a pattern of global labor rebalancing.

Source:

Startup Pedia, Times of India, Economic Times, India Today, OfficeChai, Business Standard, The Head & Tale, Financial Express.

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