Paytm is investing in artificial intelligence (Al) to build an artificial general intelligence software stack, founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said in the company's latest annual report, while outlining opportunities in India and the firm's commitment to build a long-term profitable business. 

India can expect 500 million payment consumers and 100 million merchants "not very far in future", Sharma said, as he penned a letter to shareholders in the latest annual report of One97 Communications, which owns the brand Paytm. 

He said Paytm is investing in Al with an eye on building an Artificial General Intelligence software stack. 

Sharma talked about Paytm's expanded offerings, AI capabilities, and "an India scale Al system which will help various financial institutes in capturing possible risks and frauds, while also protecting them from new kinds of risks due to advancement in Al." 

The Paytm top honcho said that India has an opportunity to become a net exporter of payment technology, software, and hardware, exuding confidence that the fintech firm will "lead the way in this". 

Sharma projected 500 million payment consumers and 100 million merchants not very far in the future in India and attributed it to Paytm "leading from the front", the government's Digital India agenda, and the regulator's encouragement to build an open, scalable payment system. 

"We have set our mission to enable 500 million Indians to get benefits of mainstream economic growth. This begins by enabling them with mobile payments and helping extend various other financial services like loans, insurance, etc. to them," Sharma said. 

Paytm, he asserted, is not only a beneficiary but also the biggest champion of government and regulator-driven Digital Public Infrastructure. 

He went on to say that Paytm Labs is constantly building various Al and big data features that enhance payment trust when consumers or merchants use Paytm. 

In India's digital revolution after mobile payments, Paytm's next contribution will be small mobile credit with high credit quality and fully compliant with the regulators' guidelines. 

"Expectedly, this requires sophisticated capabilities in Al and other technologies. I am very proud of our advanced Al capabilities in use and how we are expanding," he said. 

Paytm is building an India-scale Al system, which will help various financial institutes in capturing possible risks and frauds, while also protecting them from new kinds of risks due to advancement in Al, he informed. 

"We believe by building it in India we are not only making our country's tech capability, also creating something that could be leveraged outside India," Sharma said. 

With a disciplined and result-oriented approach in all the selected investment areas, Sharma expressed confidence that the company will be able to capitalise and build strong differentiators in the market and in turn, a business that scales efficiently without linearly adding to costs. 

Beyond payment and credit disbursement business, Sharma said he is excited by the possibilities of the Open Network of Digital Commerce (ONDC). 

"We have seen very encouraging early results of the same. In my opinion, in the next three years, you will see some worthy numbers and results of hard work put in by the team. Your company's team remains committed to serving India and building a long-term profitable business," he said.