Cashfree Payments is transforming the way engineering teams operate in the age of Generative AI, leveraging cutting-edge tools and AI integration to push the boundaries of software development. With a lean team of just 200 tech professionals, the company is incorporating AI not just as a tool—but as a collaborative partner. From using GitHub Copilot to building orchestrators over large language models (LLMs), Cashfree is automating key aspects of development such as code generation and debugging.
“We don’t call them coders anymore. They’re builders,” said Ramkumar Venkatesan, CTO at Cashfree Payments, highlighting the shift in how engineers contribute in this AI-augmented environment.
Software engineer Varun Bothra shared that AI now writes around 30% of his code, freeing up his time to work on more complex, strategic challenges. Meanwhile, architect Mayank Juneja pointed to their innovative use of multilingual WhatsApp bots, powered by their proprietary Model Context Protocol (MCP) and LLMs. These bots allow users—even those without technical backgrounds—to create payment links in multiple Indian languages. “We’ve effectively built a no-code interface over payments,” he said.
The company’s backend infrastructure—built on robust platforms like Kubernetes and Kafka—enables them to process high-volume payment events, such as those driven by UPI, with resilience and scalability. Their implementation of AI-enhanced self-healing CI/CD pipelines and predictive debugging has significantly reduced downtime. “We’re not just solving problems faster. We’re predicting them,” Venkatesan added.
Looking ahead, Cashfree is setting its sights on the next frontier of digital commerce—agentic transactions. The team envisions a future where AI-driven assistants, such as Google chatbots, conduct purchases autonomously, with Cashfree serving as the underlying payment engine. “We want to be the payment layer when a Google chatbot shops for you,” Juneja explained.
Currently leveraging models from OpenAI and Anthropic, the company is also exploring India-specific LLMs that better align with the local financial and linguistic context, further reinforcing its vision of inclusive and intelligent fintech.
Through its GenAI-first approach, Cashfree Payments is not only accelerating innovation but also reshaping the future of digital transactions and software development.
