India-based digital payments firm Paytm has announced the launch of AI Cloud India, a platform designed to help developers, startups and small businesses create their own payment-related apps and services.
Paytm will use the cloud infrastructure of Alibaba, one of its largest shareholders, for the service while providing its own AI tools for prospective users.
The project echoes similar efforts in Europe, as a result of the Open Banking initiative, to use new technology such as cloud platforms, AI tools and open APIs to help non-banks and individual developers create new banking and payment tools.
AI Cloud India is designed exclusively for the Indian market, says Paytm. The company also stressed that any data held on the platform will be held within the borders of the country, thus remaining compliant with the central bank's call for all Indian payment providers to store their data locally and not within global data centres.