Razorpay launched RAY, an AI account manager on WhatsApp, on 2 September 2026 in Bengaluru in partnership with IndusInd Bank. The service lets businesses check payments, track settlements, issue refunds and get support through simple text or voice messages without opening a dashboard. Bajaj Finance is among the first businesses to go live, and firms have already held more than 20,000 conversations with RAY.
What Is RAY and How Does It Work on WhatsApp?
RAY is short for Razorpay’s AI account manager, a conversational assistant that lives inside WhatsApp. An account manager in banking normally means a person who helps a business with its account, answers questions and solves problems. RAY does the same job with software. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), which is technology that understands everyday human language, to read a typed message or voice note and take the correct action.
The system runs on Razorpay’s AI Agent Platform. This is a single intelligent agent that can draw on different tools, data and memory as needed, instead of using separate chatbots for payments, refunds and settlements. When a business sends a message, RAY connects directly to Razorpay’s payments, risk and data systems. It finds the real time information, suggests the next step and then completes the task inside the same chat. For safe actions like refunds or settlement changes, RAY sends a secure verification link in the chat to confirm the user before proceeding.
What Can Enterprises Do Through a Simple Chat?
Enterprises can use RAY to manage the full daily cycle of online collections without logging into the Razorpay dashboard. A payment gateway is the technology that securely routes a customer’s online payment request to banks and card networks and returns the approval result. A payment aggregator is the regulated entity that collects that customer money and then transfers it to the business. Settlement is that final transfer of net money to the business bank account after deducting fees, taxes and refunds. RAY brings all these stages into chat.
A founder can ask for a payment summary for yesterday or ask for deeper analysis such as payment trends over the last two months and a sales projection for the next two months. RAY replies in plain language with numbers and insights. The same chat can also trigger action. A business can ask RAY to generate and send payment links to customers whose transactions failed, to initiate a refund while travelling, or to download last month’s settlement report. A payment link is a shareable web link that lets a customer pay a specific amount without visiting a website.
| Daily Task | Earlier Dashboard Method | New Method with RAY on WhatsApp |
|---|---|---|
| Performance check | Log in, set dates, export reports | Send a message asking for yesterday’s payment summary |
| Failed payments | Find failed orders and copy links manually | Ask RAY to send fresh payment links to those customers |
| Refunds | Open refund section and fill details | Ask RAY to issue the refund in chat after verification |
| Settlement query | Match bank credits with portal reports | Ask for settlement status and get instant answer |
From Reactive Support to Proactive Payment Intelligence
RAY does not only answer when asked. It also watches account health in the background and sends alerts before a problem grows. If it sees a drop in payment success, it can point to the likely cause such as a specific bank downtime, a card network issue or a checkout drop, and it can raise a high priority ticket or reroute the flow automatically. On cash flow, RAY can warn about holidays and timing. For example, it can send a message saying a settlement of ₹94,600 is due on Wednesday, Tuesday is a bank holiday, and ask if the business wants to settle early. This shift from reactive help to proactive nudges helps finance teams protect cash flow and improve success rates without constant monitoring.
Why WhatsApp and Why an AI Account Manager Now?
Large companies usually have a dedicated relationship manager they can call for payments help. Most small and growing businesses do not. At the same time, WhatsApp is the app that most Indian micro, small and medium enterprises already use every day to talk to customers and suppliers. By placing account management inside WhatsApp, Razorpay has removed the need to learn a new dashboard, remember logins or navigate multiple screens. Getting payments help becomes as simple as texting a contact.
This launch is the next step in the evolution of RAY. RAY started as an AI tool inside the Razorpay dashboard to answer information and support questions. In October 2025, Razorpay introduced an Agentic Dashboard powered by RAY, where merchants could type questions like when is my next settlement due and get answers with one click action. Early use showed about a 40 percent reduction in time spent on common tasks. The new move takes the same conversational model outside the dashboard and onto WhatsApp, where it can also act on its own across Razorpay’s systems. It fits a wider trend in India where banks such as State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank already offer WhatsApp banking for balance checks, statements and service requests. RAY extends that idea from retail banking to full business payments management.
Who Are the Partners Behind the Launch?
Three distinct players come together in this launch, each with a clear role. Razorpay provides the payments technology and AI platform. IndusInd Bank is the banking partner that supports account management on a familiar channel. Bajaj Finance is the early enterprise user that has taken the live service into real business operations.
Razorpay was founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and is headquartered in Bengaluru. It started as a developer friendly payment gateway for startups and small firms and later grew into an omnichannel payments platform. It supports more than 100 payment modes including credit cards, debit cards, netbanking, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and wallets, and it allows international collections in more than 130 currencies from over 180 countries. Razorpay Payments Private Limited operates as a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) authorised Payment Aggregator and is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant, which is the highest global security standard for handling card data. Its business banking arm is called RazorpayX, which offers current accounts, payouts and payroll services.
IndusInd Bank was established in April 1994 and is headquartered in Mumbai. It was promoted by Srichand P. Hinduja and the Hinduja Group and its name draws inspiration from the Indus Valley Civilisation. The bank was formally inaugurated by then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and began with its first branch at Opera House in Mumbai. It is one of the private sector banks that received a licence in the first round of new bank licensing after liberalisation, and it offers consumer banking, commercial banking, credit cards and wealth management.
Bajaj Finance Limited is a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv Limited and is headquartered in Pune. It was first incorporated on 25 March 1987 as Bajaj Auto Finance and was renamed Bajaj Finance on 6 September 2010. It is registered with the RBI as a deposit taking Non Banking Financial Company (NBFC) classified as an NBFC Investment and Credit Company (NBFC ICC), and since 30 September 2022 it has been placed in the Upper Layer (NBFC UL) under the RBI’s scale based regulation. It serves more than 115 million customers across loans, deposits, payments and investments, which makes it a strong test case for handling high volume enterprise transactions through RAY.
Significance for Digital Payments and Small Businesses
The biggest impact is on access. Small businesses often lose time and money because they cannot track settlements closely or act fast on failed payments. The standard domestic settlement cycle in India is T plus 2 working days, where T is the day the payment is captured, so money reaches the bank account two working days later. A delay around a weekend or bank holiday can strain working capital. By giving settlement alerts, early settlement options and instant refund tools in chat, RAY helps owners manage cash flow without a finance team. This matters because India now accounts for a very large share of global real time payments, driven by UPI, and millions of small sellers depend on smooth daily settlements.
The service also shows how AI in banking and finance is moving from simple chatbots to agents that complete work. Earlier bots only answered common questions. RAY analyses payment method failure rates, gateway performance and customer drop points, then recommends action and executes it after verification. For the payments industry, this raises the bar for enterprise service. Razorpay competes with other Indian gateways and aggregators such as Cashfree, PayU, BillDesk, PhonePe Payment Gateway and global players such as Stripe and PayPal. A chat based AI manager that cuts dashboard time and support tickets can become a key differentiator on service quality, not just on transaction charges.
Security and trust will decide long term success. Managing money on a messaging app needs strong safeguards. RAY uses in chat authentication through a tap to open verification link before sensitive actions, so refunds and account changes stay protected without breaking the conversation. Businesses will still need to follow basic hygiene such as verifying payment status on the server side, matching settlement reports with bank credits, and tracking refunds to the original payment method. If adoption holds, conversational AI managers could make enterprise grade payments support available to every founder, regardless of business size.
Key Takeaways
- RAY, Razorpay’s AI account manager on WhatsApp, was launched on 2 September 2026 in partnership with IndusInd Bank.
- Businesses have already held more than 20,000 conversations with RAY for payments, settlements and support.
- RAY can generate payment links, initiate refunds and share settlement summaries through text or voice messages.
- Razorpay was founded in 2014 in Bengaluru and operates as an RBI authorised Payment Aggregator.
- IndusInd Bank was established in April 1994 in Mumbai and was promoted by the Hinduja Group.
- Bajaj Finance, an NBFC Upper Layer entity since 2022, is among the first businesses live on RAY.
