Fintech Sector Shifts Toward Assistive Intelligence in New Engineering Paradigm

India's Digital Payments Ecosystem: A Shift Towards AI-Native Workflows

SabPaisa, a leading digital payments platform, has been at the forefront of the country's rapidly evolving payments infrastructure. In a recent conversation, Chaitanya Malik, Software Developer at SabPaisa, and Anupam Kumaria, Associate Product Manager, shed light on the complexities of building the infrastructure and the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the development process.

The Evolution of Payments Infrastructure

Payments infrastructure is a layered system comprising payment gateways, aggregators, issuing and acquiring banks, card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, processors, and settlement systems. This historical stack, built over decades, has been shaped by the market and constraints of the time. SabPaisa's early stack, for instance, reflected its niche "challan" system, which required partnerships with PSU banks and drew in government and educational merchants.

Read also: Market Analysis: Key Stocks to Watch - Narayana Hrudayalaya, ABB India, Federal Bank, Premier Energies, Ather Energy and More

The Role of AI in Development

The pace of change in the industry has accelerated with the emergence of new AI coding tools. Chaitanya Malik noted that tools like Claude Code or Codex have altered his workflow entirely, allowing him to focus on instruction and review rather than manual coding. This shift has dramatically reduced the time required to build features, from one year to just one week.

Assistive Intelligence, Not Artificial Replacement

Anupam Kumaria emphasized that AI is not a substitute for engineers but an amplifier. He views AI as Assistive Intelligence, which alters the early stages of product work and enables squads to take ownership of solutioning. This redistribution of speed and agency carries responsibility, as developers must know how to guide AI and ask the right questions.

Read also: FirstClub Secures $55 Million in Funding from Peak XV, Sofina, and Other Investors 9 Months After $22 Million Series A Round

Operational Reality: Payment Routing and Risk

The conversation highlighted the operational reality of payment routing, a problem merchants rarely see but regularly feel. Chaitanya Malik described how SabPaisa addressed this complexity by creating an Exchange system, which consolidates multiple gateways under a single orchestration layer and uses machine learning algorithms to decide routing dynamically. The goal is to maximise success rates and minimise charges without requiring merchants to manually toggle integrations.

Key Takeaways

• The payments infrastructure is a complex, layered system that has evolved over decades.
• AI is not a substitute for engineers but an amplifier, enabling squads to take ownership of solutioning.
• The emergence of new AI coding tools has dramatically reduced the time required to build features.
• Payment routing and risk management are critical operational realities that require complex solutions.
• The redistribution of speed and agency carries responsibility, and developers must know how to guide AI and ask the right questions.