UPI is changing from tomorrow: 5 things you must know before making payments
UPI's auto-payment system, which handles recurring payments like OTT subscriptions or EMIs, will now work only during non-peak hours — before 10 AM or after 9:30 PM. This is to avoid putting too much load on the system during the busiest times of the day.Limited retries for failed auto-debitsFor every auto-debit attempt, the system will allow just one main try and three retries. That means a total of four chances to complete a payment linked to a mandate. This new rule is to prevent unnecessary strain on the network if a transaction keeps failing.Banks and apps must follow rules or face actionNPCI has asked all payment service providers and banks to make sure these rules are in place by July 31. If any app or bank fails to follow the guidelines, they may face penalties. NPCI could also block their access to UPI APIs or stop them from adding new users.- Ends
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Time of India
36 minutes ago
- Time of India
Are AI advisors wise enough to manage your entire money journey, take your biggest investment decisions?
The Indian context Invest 60% in mutual funds and 40% in individual stocks. She invested in Zomato, Nykaa, and Paytm on its recommendation and suffered losses. Now uses AI tools only for basic research and always cross-verifies insights with a financial planner. Answer is not black and white Putting AI to the test Human touch matters Chatbots can go wrong Regularly uses AI chatbots to support her Provides detailed prompts and her own data rather than relying on AI to source information. Uses Ai mainly for analysing stocks and fundamentals, optimising strategies for slippages and market corrections. How does a Chatbot compare to a financial adviser? How experts use AI How industry is using AI Should you use it? Quiz: Are you ready to trust AI with your money? I know my monthly income and expenses in detail. I have an emergency fund that covers at least 6 months of expenses. I know my current asset allocation (equity, debt, gold, etc.). I understand the basics of SIPs, mutual funds, stocks, and insurance. I can explain my risk appetite (conservative, balanced, aggressive). I know how taxation works on different types of investments. I have defined short., medium., and financial goals. I know the approximate amount and timeline for each goal. I track my progress towards these goals at least once a year. I know how to frame detailed, specific prompts to get useful AI outputs. I always verify AI's suggestions with reliable sources before acting. I understand that free AI tools may not have market data. 'I had a terrible day. How do I make myself feel better?'That's the kind of question many Gen Zs are throwing at chatbots these days—using them as a stand-in for therapy, simply because therapy costs too much. From relationship rants to work woes, artificial intelligence is quietly becoming their go-to sounding it's not just for venting. Whether it's fixing an awkward email, sorting out daily tasks, or helping with big life decisions, AI is creeping into every corner of our lives. And money matters are no exception. Gen Z and millennials are also using AI to manage their finances.A 2024 Experian study found that 67% of Gen Z and 62% of millennials in the US turn to AI for personal finance advice. From saving and budgeting (60%) to investment planning (48%) and even improving credit scores (48%), generative AI (genAI) tools like ChatGPT are quietly becoming part of their financial home, the trend isn't too far behind. While a 2025 CFA Institute report states that 91% of Indians who have graduated in the last three years still place the most trust in human advisers, 83% also indicate that they trust AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, to guide them with their shift is inevitable. AI is affordable, accessible, and evolving fast. Deloitte Insights predicts that by 2027, GenAI tools will become the primary source of financial advice for retail investors, with usage projected to hit 80% by 2028The question is: should you use AI for money matters just because others do? Can you rely on a chatbot to understand your financial needs and give the right advice? Or does the good old human financial planner remain your best bet to steer your money in the right direction?New DelhiHow can I double my investment in five years, in is quick and sharp when it comes to analysing data, portfolios, and anything numbers-driven. But there's one thing it can't replicate—emotional intelligence. 'Clients value advisers who take the time to walk them through their goals and portfolio reviews. This kind of personalised, timeintensive work matters to them,' says Ravi Kumar T V, Co-founder, Gaining Ground Investment they also appreciate, he adds, is help in understanding the behavioural side of investing. 'Advisers play a key role during volatile phases by being emotionally present. When retail investors see a market dip, they often panic and pull out. That's where AI falls short. It can't hold their hand through the fear,' says Tivesh Shah, Founder, Tru-Worth Finsultants. Human advisers also take the time to understand the entire picture before recommending any action, something GenAI isn't yet equipped to understand this with the help of an example. We pitched a financial planner, Shilpa Bhaskar Gole, founder of NerdyBird Financial Wellness, against different AI chatbots – Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Grok AI. We presented a reader's query on his investments to the different AIs and then also to Bhasker of them were given any extra inputs. There was a vast difference between the responses from each AI. Among the three, ChatGPT gave the most balanced response. It provided flexibility in terms of SIP range and step-up, while also emphasising the importance of debt allocation. It also highlighted the need for periodic portfolio reviews and adjustments to account for market changes, inflation, and life the other hand, Grok commented on the surplus available, without understanding the reader's expenses. It also overlooked the need to set aside an emergency fund. Elsewhere, Perplexity overlooked the importance of debt allocation as the retirement goal gets closer, which is crucial for ensuring stability and capital preservation needed for the initial phase of retirement. Given these gaps, we decided to exclude the responses from Grok and Perplexity, keeping only ChatGPT's output for Gole offered advice that reflected a more profound understanding, arguably superior to ChatGPT's, factoring in the reader's situation and projecting returns more biggest difference? When given the same query, Gole asked follow-up questions to better understand the case, AI chatbots didn't. But for the sake of this exercise, we didn't offer her any extra details either. And that's where the gap lies. The advice may be reliable, but does your chatbot know enough about you to suggest the right product or strategy?Free versions also have limited access to real-time data. ChatGPT, in particular, may not always reflect recent developments. Others might, but the number of free queries is capped, after which you hit a paywall. That's a slippery slope, one that could lead to decisions that don't align with your Delhi-based Mitushi Bhatt, for instance. A private school teacher with limited investing knowledge, Bhatt isn't fond of discussing money matters, so ChatGPT felt like a safe space. In 2024, she had asked a simple question: 'How can I double my savings in five years?'At the time, the bot had recommended allocating 60% to equity mutual funds and 40% to individual stocks. It suggested One 97 Communications (Paytm), Eternal (Zomato), and FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa), citing their post-listing growth and role in India's booming digital sounded promising at first. But by year-end, Paytm had nosedived after regulatory action against its payments bank. Zomato rallied briefly but fell after poor quarterly results. 'I lost about Rs.40,000 back then,' Bhatt went wrong? Bhatt didn't realise that open-ended questions often lead to generic answers, ones that may sound logical but don't account for individual trader,GurugramNow, she uses AI tools just for basic research and always consults an adviser before taking action. 'I've learned the hard way that no chatbot can replace the value of someone who understands my situation,' she says.'Clients value advisers who take the time to walk them through their goals and portfolio reviews.'CO-FOUNDER, GAINING GROUND INVESTMENT SERVICESThat's not to say AI chatbots aren't helpful—they are, but mainly for those who already have some financial literacy. 'The output is only as good as the data fed into the prompt,' says Shah. Without a straightforward question, you're unlikely to get a helpful answer.I'm 51 years old with a net monthly income of Rs.2.25 lakh and an EMI of Rs.22,000. My son is in Class 9, and my daughter has completed her graduation and is preparing for an MBA. I've set aside Rs.35 lakh in mutual fund SIPs for their education. I have a life cover of Rs.1.5 crore and a health insurance plan of Rs.25 lakh. I want to build a retirement corpus of Rs.3 crore over the next 10 years. What's the best way to achieve this?To build a Rs.3 crore retirement corpus in 10 years, invest Rs.1.5-1.6 lakh monthly in equity mutual funds, targeting 10-11% returns. With a Rs.2.25 lakh salary and Rs.22,000 EMI, you can allocate this comfortably. Use diversified or index funds and raise investments by 5-10% annually. Keep 10-15% in debt funds for stability and an emergency corpus covering 6-9 months in liquid funds. With a Rs.35 lakh education fund, adequate insurance, and health cover already in place, you can now focus fully on retirement. Review and rebalance annually to stay on build a Rs.3 crore retirement corpus in 10 years, start an SIP of Rs.1.2-1.3 lakh per month in equity mutual funds, targeting 12% annual returns. Increase contributions by 5-10% yearly with salary growth. Nearing retirement, shift one-third to debt funds for stability while keeping the rest compounding in equity. Review your portfolio regularly for inflation, returns, and life changes, and secure protection via an emergency fund, health and life insurance. For a tailored strategy, consult a Sebi-registered investment response beats ChatGPT with a realistic 12% return, tailored Rs.1.2–1.3 lakh SIP, and phased debt shift, offering personalised review over generic Malhotra, a trader based in Gurugram, has been using AI chatbots for both trading and long-term investing. 'AI has been beneficial,' she says, but only because she knows exactly what to ask. 'I don't rely on it to collect data. I feed it my thought process and detailed prompts. That's when it works best.' According to her, tasks that took 6-8 months can now be done in 10-15 days. AI helps her with analysis, strategy optimisation for slippages, market correction calculations, and fundamental stock analysis. But forecasting and anticipating market behaviour is still on can't replace humans, she says, but it can complement them. A blend of expert insight and AI support works far better than relying on AI alone. Humans have certain limitations when it comes to computation, like having a bias towards a specific asset these limitations, the finance industry is already adopting AI to boost efficiency. "GenAI is transforming financial planning and wealth management by streamlining research, surfacing insights, portfolio management, compliance and risk management and enhancing decision-making. Microsoft Copilot is helping users track expenses, summarise financial statements, and explore budgeting scenarios," says Sonali Kulkarni, Country Head, BFSI, Microsoft India and South advisers, too, are using AI to offer more customised solutions. Earlier,advisers used to give recommendations based on what they knew. Now, they are able to cross-check their recommendations,h says Sadique Neelgund, Founder & CEO, Network FP. Uploading a client's financial history into tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity gives advisers a "360-degree approach to that client that took combing through spreadsheets or researching now done in a fraction of the time. AI tools also help manage client communication better, while making the research quicker and Management Companies (AMCs) and fund managers, on the other hand, are relying less on existing AIs and focusing on building customised bots for their operations. Nishant Pradhan, Chief AI Officer, Mirae Asset Investment Managers, says, 'With large language models and tools like ChatGPT, we can process a lot of unstructured content quickly and extract summaries about companies. We are also able to get new insights like sentiment score, which was difficult to quantify earlier.'The AMC is exploring genAI to identify emerging themes, analyse company revenues within those themes, and enhance the efficiency of thematic research and monitoring. 'Thanks to AI, fund managers can focus more on insights than spending time on routing data collection,' Pradhan Sharma, Fund Manager, Motilal Oswal AMC, says they are incorporating AI similarly, though they rely on different models of existing tools. 'Every model has its strengths. One model is good for rationalisation, another for calculations, another for quickly getting your financial data,' he says. However, he notes that AI is less useful for qualitative research.'The quantitative part of our work is where AI is helping us a lot. But when it comes to the qualitative, it is not that straightforward,' he adds. According to him, it still struggles with aspects such as assessing management quality or softer factors that are important in fundamental was among the first trading platforms to adopt AI, though it's still early days. Users can now install a Model Context Protocol (MCP) enabling them to interact with their trading accounts via simple queries instead of using the traditional interface. For instance, you can pull your account data, run various types of analysis, do a cash flow breakdown, figure out your net worth, or identify action points. However, Bhuvanesh R, VP, Business Analysis, Zerodha, cautions that it's not meant for advisory. 'Advice is one outcome of this. It is not an advisory tool or advisory product. If you ask for advice, it will give it, but it may or may not be reliable,' he says. Adoption is still too limited to assess its actual value depends. 'You need to have a basic grasp of financial concepts to ask the right questions. If you expect to outsource all your finances to AI, it may not work,' adds Bhuvanesh from Zerodha. If you are a beginner with no knowledge, at best you can take help to manage your household budget or behavioural aspects of your decision. The consensus among experts is clear: AI works best as an assistant, not a substitute. Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, or Grok can simplify tasks such as tracking expenses, analysing cash flows, pulling account performance, screening stocks, or summarising financial reports in seconds. AI is far superior to humans in processing vast amounts of data and quickly sourcing insights. You must first be clear about where you stand financially—your income, assets, liabilities, and goals, before turning to AI; otherwise, the advice can be short, retail investors can lean on AI for research, comparisons, and routine analysis, but the final call should remain firmly in human hands. AI can crunch numbers faster than any human, but it can't understand your fears, dreams, or unique goals. For now, the most astute investors are using AI as a tool, rather than a replacement for trusted financial one or more of the 12 points below that apply to you9-12 ticks You can use AI effectively as an assistant, with some human advice when needed.5-8 ticks Use AI only for simple tasks (like budgeting or tracking). Rely on a planner for investments.0-4 ticks Stick with a human adviser until you build more financial literacy.
Economic Times
an hour ago
- Economic Times
Listed fintechs cut marketing spends to boost fundamentals
ETtech Listed fintech startups undertook major cuts in marketing and promotional expenses in the past few quarters in a bid to achieve profitability in their core business or strengthen business fundamentals in a tough environment, showed stock exchange filings. While One 97 Communications, which runs Paytm, has been on a cost cutting spree, PB Fintech also reduced marketing spends in the past two quarters. It comes even as Paytm reported its first business-driven profitable quarter in June. While achieving revenue growth has been a major challenge in a tough macroeconomic environment, cutting costs at multiple business entities actually helped improve profit. Paytm reported less than Rs 100 crore in marketing spends for the June quarter, 55% less than Rs 221 crore a year ago.'The point is how much can costs be controlled without compromising growth, given competition is severe and consumer-facing platforms need to invest in brand building,' said a senior fintech executive, who did not wish to be Paytm reduced expenses 20% year-on-year in the June quarter, according to the regulatory filings. Its revenue increased 27% to Rs 1,917 crore from Rs 1,501 crore during this period. 'I do think there is always a corner where we are able to find some cost, but they will not be material. So it is not the agenda, so we are not actively pursuing cost cuts, while I'm definitely pursuing whatever (cost) is not necessary to drop it out of the window,' Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chief executive, Paytm, said in response to an analyst question on cost cuts after the June quarter results. Similarly, PB Fintech, which runs insurance marketplace Policybazaar, has reported a gradual reduction in its marketing and advertising expenses over the past two quarters. For October-December 2024, PB Fintech reported marketing expenses of Rs 289 crore, which went down to Rs 277 crore in the March 2025 quarter and further to Rs 253 crore in the June the company is investing heavily in building its new line of businesses, for the core operations the firm has tried to keep its costs to stock market analysts after FY25 results, Policybazaar CEO Sarbvir Singh called out employee costs among the major expense items and said that despite expanding teams through the year, the company kept the spending flat in the last quarter of 2024-25, which helped improve the contribution margin in the business. For Mobikwik, the challenge has also been to ensure revenue growth in the past one year. Its revenue fell almost 21% year-on-year in the June quarter while its overall expenses went down 9% year-on-year. While the Gurgaon-based payments firm does not offer a breakdown of its marketing costs, its broader 'other expenses' category, which includes this head, reduced to Rs 77 crore from Rs 82 crore a year ago. For payments firms, which mostly ride on banks' infrastructure to process digital payments, the rise in business volume comes with a corresponding jump in payment processing charges, one of their major cost lines. For instance, Mobikwik reported a jump in payment gateway costs to Rs 142 crore from Rs 127 crore a year ago. 'Promotional spends is one lever where the management has full control, but again too much reduction of these expenses can hurt business as well, so it will be interesting to see how growth and spends get balanced from here on,' a stock market analyst who tracks fintech startups said on condition of anonymity. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. The airport lounge war has begun — and DreamFolks is losing How Mukesh Ambani's risky bet has now become Reliance's superpower Indian IT firms never reveal the truth hiding behind 'strong' deal wins Did Meesho's Valmo really deliver a knockout punch to e-commerce logistics? Stock Radar: Strides Pharma stock hits fresh 52-week high in July; will the rally continue in August? Dividend yield: A most misunderstood parameter, both by traders & investors; 5 stocks with an upside potential of over 33% Time to buy may be good or bad, but business should be good: 5 mid-caps from different sectors with upside potential of up to 25% For investors who can think beyond Trump: 5 large-cap stocks with an upside potential of up to 36%
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Listed fintechs cut marketing spends to boost fundamentals
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Listed fintech startups undertook major cuts in marketing and promotional expenses in the past few quarters in a bid to achieve profitability in their core business or strengthen business fundamentals in a tough environment, showed stock exchange One 97 Communications , which runs Paytm , has been on a cost cutting spree, PB Fintech also reduced marketing spends in the past two comes even as Paytm reported its first business-driven profitable quarter in June . While achieving revenue growth has been a major challenge in a tough macroeconomic environment, cutting costs at multiple business entities actually helped improve reported less than Rs 100 crore in marketing spends for the June quarter, 55% less than Rs 221 crore a year ago.'The point is how much can costs be controlled without compromising growth, given competition is severe and consumer-facing platforms need to invest in brand building,' said a senior fintech executive, who did not wish to be Paytm reduced expenses 20% year-on-year in the June quarter, according to the regulatory filings. Its revenue increased 27% to Rs 1,917 crore from Rs 1,501 crore during this period.'I do think there is always a corner where we are able to find some cost, but they will not be material. So it is not the agenda, so we are not actively pursuing cost cuts, while I'm definitely pursuing whatever (cost) is not necessary to drop it out of the window,' Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chief executive, Paytm, said in response to an analyst question on cost cuts after the June quarter PB Fintech, which runs insurance marketplace Policybazaar, has reported a gradual reduction in its marketing and advertising expenses over the past two October-December 2024, PB Fintech reported marketing expenses of Rs 289 crore, which went down to Rs 277 crore in the March 2025 quarter and further to Rs 253 crore in the June the company is investing heavily in building its new line of businesses, for the core operations the firm has tried to keep its costs to stock market analysts after FY25 results, Policybazaar CEO Sarbvir Singh called out employee costs among the major expense items and said that despite expanding teams through the year, the company kept the spending flat in the last quarter of 2024-25, which helped improve the contribution margin in the Mobikwik, the challenge has also been to ensure revenue growth in the past one year. Its revenue fell almost 21% year-on-year in the June quarter while its overall expenses went down 9% year-on-year. While the Gurgaon-based payments firm does not offer a breakdown of its marketing costs, its broader 'other expenses' category, which includes this head, reduced to Rs 77 crore from Rs 82 crore a year payments firms, which mostly ride on banks' infrastructure to process digital payments, the rise in business volume comes with a corresponding jump in payment processing charges, one of their major cost lines. For instance, Mobikwik reported a jump in payment gateway costs to Rs 142 crore from Rs 127 crore a year ago.'Promotional spends is one lever where the management has full control, but again too much reduction of these expenses can hurt business as well, so it will be interesting to see how growth and spends get balanced from here on,' a stock market analyst who tracks fintech startups said on condition of anonymity.
