UPI has already transformed the way India pays. The next phase, however, could be about making payments more seamless, intelligent and deeply integrated into everyday devices. One area that stood out was biometric authentication.

Face and palm recognition could eventually make payments more frictionless and contactless. But for this to scale across India, the technology cannot simply be a premium solution designed for developed markets. Cost will be critical. The opportunity lies in building solutions around India’s existing digital infrastructure and making them affordable enough for mass adoption.

The bigger shift, however, could be in the payment device itself.

Today’s POS terminals and soundboxes already have significant computing capabilities. With Edge AI, these devices could potentially do much more than process a transaction.

Imagine a merchant being able to ask a POS device about daily revenue or inventory through a simple voice command. Or an intelligent device at the counter identifying suspicious activity and providing a real-time alert.

The interesting part is the combination of Edge + Cloud-quick, privacy-sensitive tasks can happen locally, while more complex analytics, financial management and lending assessments can continue to run on the cloud.

There is also an interesting opportunity for small merchants in Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets.

Affordable POS devices with screens could become more than payment terminals. They could become a source of advertising revenue for merchants while also creating opportunities for brands to influence purchase decisions at the point of sale. But technology alone will not determine how far this ecosystem goes.

A key part of the conversation was India’s hardware ecosystem.

Moving beyond imported, white-labelled devices towards locally designed and engineered hardware could create greater control over IP, certification and product development. This means strengthening the entire value chain-from domestic component and module manufacturers to PCB design, ODMs, tooling and finally Indian fintech companies and financial institutions.

A stronger local engineering ecosystem could also help address one of the industry's long-standing challenges: the time and complexity involved in hardware certification and deployment.

What I found particularly interesting is that the future of digital payments may therefore not be just about how we pay, but about what payment devices can become.

From biometric authentication to Edge AI, merchant monetization and locally engineered hardware, India’s next phase of fintech innovation could be about building a payment ecosystem that is not only digital—but intelligent, affordable and designed for India’s scale.

Learn More from our Global Point of Sale (POS) Device Tracker and Forecast

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of global Point of Sale (POS) market trends and dynamics, along with insights into shipments across 5+ regions, 10+ leading brands, and technologies, including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (RedCap/eRedCap) and non-cellular solutions. Covering the period from 2022 to 2032F, it examines the regional and technological forces reshaping the payment industry. Key regions analysed include North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa, China, India, and the Rest of Asia-Pacific, each demonstrating unique growth patterns driven by accelerating digital payment adoption and infrastructure evolution.