AI advancements pose cyber risk: NPCI chief Dilip Asbe urges strong mitigation

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) chief Dilip Asbe has sounded the alarm over the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and the escalating cyber risks it entails, calling for immediate action to address these threats.

"The speed of tech is concerning because we are building stacks, and the way AI is going forward, there is associated cyber risk," Asbe said during a chat at Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai.

He stressed the urgent need for robust cyber defenses, emphasizing, "We need to build strong mitigations on those."

100 billion target

Highlighting India’s potential in terms of expanding the digital payments ecosystem, Asbe confidently said, "100 billion (transactions per month) is an achievable number. It may take 10 years, but India has the potential."

The NPCI chief recently announced an ambitious revision of the nation’s payment vision with the new target of 100 billion transactions per month, up from the previous goal of one billion per day.

“0.5 Bn / day. Time to revise the India Vision from 1 Billion / day to 100 Bn / month,” Asbe had written on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) on August 6.

He emphasized that small-ticket and high-frequency credit will be crucial in reaching this target.