Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has said that the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on jobs is unavoidable. Speaking at an AI-focused event in New Delhi, he mentioned that companies will soon start using AI like an employee — maybe even as a Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Sharma explained that AI will eventually handle many tasks that humans do today. However, he also believes that this change will create new kinds of jobs. He encouraged businesses to focus on building core products and not fear AI.
He also shared a bigger vision for Paytm — the company wants to move beyond just financial services and become an AI-first company.
Layoffs at Paytm
These comments come during a time when Paytm’s parent company, One97 Communications, has been cutting jobs. In the March 2024 quarter, around 3,500 sales team members left, bringing the company’s total employee count to 36,521. This was mainly due to restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India on Paytm Payments Bank.
Company Performance
In terms of financials, Paytm reported a loss of ₹540 crore for the March 2024 quarter. This is slightly better than the ₹550 crore loss during the same period last year.
In June 2024, Paytm ranked third in the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) space, with 1.27 billion transactions worth ₹1.34 lakh crore. It had 6.9% of the total UPI transactions by volume and 5.6% by value. PhonePe continued to lead with 8.55 billion transactions worth ₹11.99 lakh crore.
Read more: UPI Transactions Soar Past 18 Billion Monthly, Dramatically Reducing Cash Usage in India: IMF Report
AI-Powered Innovations
Sharma also announced a fun upcoming feature: a new passbook that will turn your monthly expenses into a rap song using Paytm’s data and AI. The launch date hasn’t been shared yet.
Earlier, Paytm also partnered with a US-based AI startup, Perplexity, to add AI-powered search inside the Paytm app.
Also See: How Microsoft Blocked OpenAI’s $3 Billion Deal with WindSurf — And Made Google the Big Winner
