PayU Announces Agent HQ – An AI‑Powered Agent Store for SMB Merchants

PayU, described as India’s leading diversified fintech platform and backed by investor Prosus, issued a press release on 11 September 2026 announcing the launch of Agent HQ, a storefront of AI agents that SMB merchants can select and deploy to support the entire commerce journey.

The offering is positioned as a no‑code, zero‑integration solution embedded directly within the existing PayU merchant dashboard. Merchants can hire an AI agent with a few clicks, set its execution frequency, and monitor outcomes via the dashboard, receiving outputs through email or WhatsApp. Agents operate only within the parameters defined by the merchant, ensuring control and data privacy.

Scale of PayU’s Underlying Platform

Agent HQ builds on more than a decade of commerce intelligence generated by PayU’s platform, which currently:

  • Serves over 4.5 lakh (450,000) merchants,
  • Has facilitated journeys for more than 700 million shoppers, and
  • Has processed Rs 7,800 billion in transaction volume.

Industry reports cited in the release indicate that roughly 50 % of search traffic is shifting to AI agents, and AI‑referred shoppers convert up to three times better (Shopify, 2026).

Two Core Outcomes for Merchants

1. Building an AI‑Ready Growth Engine – Merchants can make their products and services discoverable and purchasable on AI platforms such as Claude and ChatGPT, as well as on messaging channels like WhatsApp. They may also create custom conversational AI assistants that operate across websites, mobile apps, and other customer‑facing touchpoints, delivering real‑time assistance and handling post‑purchase queries.

2. Running the Business Efficiently – A suite of AI agents is available to automate complex operational tasks, including:

  • Transaction follow‑ups,
  • Chargeback reconciliations,
  • Refund escalations,
  • Settlement processing.

Leveraging merchant transaction data—payment success/failure patterns, chargeback histories, settlement cycles, and shopper behaviour—these agents can also act as growth enablers by recommending targeted sales and marketing campaigns, helping merchants manage fraud and disputes proactively, reduce operational effort, and protect revenue.

Merchant Adoption

The release lists Policybazaar, Daily Objects, and Pinq Polka among the merchants already using Agent HQ to harness AI agents for their commerce operations.

Executive Commentary

Manas Mishra, Chief Product Officer, PayU & Wibmo, stated that Agent HQ is “one of our biggest bets” aimed at giving merchants control over their growth and operational efficiency, extending PayU’s value‑added solutions beyond payments to a full‑stack AI‑driven commerce experience.

Contact & Source

The announcement was distributed by PayU through NewsVoir on 11 September 2026 at 10:59 a.m. IST.