PayU launches Agent HQ to help SMBs build AI-powered commerce journeys

MUMBAI: PayU is giving small and mid-sized businesses a new AI-powered workforce, without the hassle of building one from scratch. The fintech company has launched Agent HQ, an AI agent store designed to help Indian SMB merchants improve their discoverability, drive sales and automate everyday commerce operations.

Built into the PayU merchant dashboard, Agent HQ allows merchants to select and deploy AI agents for different jobs across the commerce journey. These include making products discoverable to AI shopping agents, supporting sales growth, managing payment-related operations and creating custom conversational AI assistants.

The launch comes as AI increasingly changes how consumers search for products and make purchasing decisions. PayU cited industry research suggesting that around 50 per cent of search traffic is shifting towards AI agents, while shoppers referred through AI can convert at up to three times higher rates.

For SMBs, which may not have the resources to build dedicated AI systems, PayU is positioning Agent HQ as a way to participate in this emerging commerce ecosystem without having to start from scratch.

The platform draws on more than a decade of commerce intelligence generated through PayU’s ecosystem, which powers more than 4.5 lakh merchants and supports the journeys of more than 700 million shoppers. The company said its platform has processed transaction volumes of Rs 7,800 billion.

“By putting a personalised team of AI agents to work across the business, from improving discoverability and driving growth to managing chargebacks, reconciliations, refunds and settlements, we want to put control back in merchants’ hands, enabling them to focus on their growth,” said PayU & Wibmo chief product officer Manas Mishra.

Agent HQ is built around two broad outcomes. Merchants can use the platform to build an AI-ready growth engine, run their operations more efficiently, or combine both.

On the growth side, PayU merchants can make their products, services and businesses discoverable and transactable across AI platforms such as Claude and ChatGPT, as well as channels such as WhatsApp.

Merchants can also create their own conversational AI assistants without coding. These assistants can work across websites, apps and customer journeys, providing real-time help to shoppers and handling post-purchase queries.

The idea is to move AI from being simply a discovery tool to becoming part of the actual buying journey.

The second side of Agent HQ focuses on making everyday business operations less labour-intensive.

Merchants can select AI agents to automate tasks such as transaction follow-ups, chargeback reconciliation, refund escalations and settlement-related processes.

The agents can also draw on merchant transaction data, including payment success and failure patterns, chargeback histories, settlement cycles and shopper behaviour. This allows them to identify opportunities and suggest targeted campaigns across sales, marketing and other business functions.

PayU said this can help merchants manage fraud and disputes more proactively, reduce operational workloads and protect revenue.

One of the key selling points of Agent HQ is that merchants do not need to build complex integrations or connect multiple data sources before deploying an agent.

The AI agent storefront is integrated into the PayU merchant dashboard, allowing merchants to select an agent in a few clicks, decide how frequently it should run and monitor its activity from the dashboard.

Outputs can be delivered through email and WhatsApp, giving merchants a way to receive updates without constantly checking another platform.

PayU also said the agents operate within boundaries and limits defined by merchants, with no agent acting beyond those parameters.

Several PayU merchants, including Policybazaar, DailyObjects and Pinq Polka, are already using Agent HQ.

The company sees the platform as an extension of its role beyond payment processing, using its merchant and transaction intelligence to build AI-led tools that address different parts of the commerce lifecycle.

As AI agents increasingly become a new front door for product discovery and shopping, PayU’s bet is that SMB merchants will need more than a payment gateway to keep up. Agent HQ aims to put that AI toolkit directly inside the merchant dashboard, turning agents from an emerging technology into an everyday business utility.