Meta to shape India's future through WhatsApp payments and AI technology

Arun Srinivasan, Managing Director and Country Head of Meta India, has stated that the expansion of payments, business interaction, and government services through WhatsApp, along with the use of AI (AI) by small businesses, will accelerate the company's next phase in India. According to a report by Business Standard, Srinivasan discussed WhatsApp Pay, AI agents, and security issues in detail during a video interview.

Speaking about the strategy for WhatsApp Pay, Srinivasan said that this service is extremely strategic for Meta. In the future, people will want to work with AI agents and simplify transactions through one-click payments. Since all these conversations and transactions are to take place on Meta's platforms, the company's focus is on the payments sector. He added that significant efforts have been made over the last year to improve user experience and integrate bill payments into WhatsApp.

The payments journey is now gaining momentum, especially with the arrival of a bill payment hub and other capabilities. Meta has connected with the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) network. Currently, the company has connections with more than 22,722 billers across 30 categories, including electricity, gas, water, insurance, credit card bills, and loan repayments. Srinivasan assured that the company will take more important steps in the payments sector and will provide more information about new features in the future.

Addressing the government's concerns regarding Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Srinivasan clarified that Meta has a 'zero tolerance' policy against any kind of child sexual abuse on its platforms. He stated that in the first six months of the year, more than 50 lakh pieces of content were actively removed on Facebook and Instagram in India alone. More than 98 per cent of this content was detected and removed automatically by the platform.

To identify and remove such content, the company uses technology, tools, and AI classifiers. However, Srinivasan admitted that individuals with bad intentions are constantly adopting more sophisticated methods to evade platform scrutiny. Initially, these activities were carried out through organic content, but when the platform tightened its grip, they began using advertisements. Now, they are using 'benign' advertisements, which appear innocent but lead users to websites or applications outside the platform where Meta does not have full visibility or tracking capabilities.

In this ongoing struggle, Meta has taken a significant step. The company has become the first platform to announce a direct partnership with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). Under this partnership, Meta will report such cases directly to the cyber crime portal, which is a step in line with the government's demand. The company's effort is to constantly improve detection capabilities and provide necessary information to the relevant authorities so they can take appropriate action.

Following the launch of 'Muse' by Meta, there was also discussion on how agentic AI and agentic commerce will work in India, including the possibilities of making transactions easier through AI agents.