MAM
AnyMind Group extends AI customer service agent feature on AnyChat to WhatsApp
MUMBAI – AnyMind Group [TSE:5027], a BPaaS company for marketing, e-commerce and digital transformation, has announced that its AI customer service agent feature launched in March 2025 on its conversational commerce platform, AnyChat, is now connected to WhatsApp. This feature was previously available only for LINE.
In April 2025, Meta revealed that WhatsApp has more than 3 billion monthly active users globally. In addition, the Asia-Pacific region is home to three of the top five countries with the most WhatsApp Users: India, Indonesia and the Philippines. With the extension of the AI customer service agent feature on AnyChat, businesses and online merchants in markets such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, and any other region that has WhatsApp users, can now leverage AnyChat to automatically handle initial customer inquiries on WhatsApp by using LLMs to understand free-text messages.
For businesses and merchants serving customers on WhatsApp’s vast user base, especially those handling thousands of customer inquiries daily with only human operators, integrating AnyChat’s AI customer service agent into existing customer service workflows holds the potential to dramatically transform customer support. In a 3-month study, between March 2025 and June 2025, done with leading global water flosser brand, Waterpik, using AnyChat’s AI customer service agent feature on LINE, Waterpik was able to tap on AI to respond to a quarter of all customer inquiries.
Unlike typical chatbots, AnyChat’s AI customer service agents can understand questions in natural language and generate responses based on brand-approved guardrails and inputs, reducing operational workload and eliminating the risk of hallucinated answers.
It also collects key information such as order ID and customer name, allowing human customer service agents to take over seamlessly when needed. AnyChat also stores historical conversation data, helping businesses and online merchants to identify common inquiries and continuously improve response templates. In addition, product information (such as seasonal products) can be easily updated at any time, enabling businesses to always provide the most up-to-date information to customers.
On the extension of AnyChat’s AI customer service agent feature to WhatsApp, AnyMind Group managing director, growth markets; Co-MD, India and MENA, Aditya Aima said, “For most Indian consumers, WhatsApp is the first and often the only touchpoint with a brand. That’s why this integration matters. It’s not about adding another tool, but about helping businesses have faster, more meaningful conversations with their customers, without overloading their teams. It’s a small shift with the potential for real, lasting impact.”
Brands
Reserve Bank of India cancels Paytm Payments Bank licence
Central bank cites compliance failures; curbs tighten as wind-up looms
MUMBAI: India’s banking watchdog delivered its sharpest blow yet to Paytm Payments Bank, cancelling its licence and effectively ending its ability to operate as a bank under the law.
The Reserve Bank of India said the entity can no longer conduct banking business under the Banking Regulation Act, citing concerns that its affairs were not being run in the interest of depositors or the public and that it had failed to meet licence conditions.
The move escalates a crackdown that has been building for months. The bank had already been barred from onboarding new customers since March 11, 2022, and later faced restrictions on deposits, credit and wallet top-ups. In January 2024, the central bank ordered it to stop accepting fresh deposits, pointing to persistent non-compliance, including lapses in customer due diligence, use of funds and technology systems.
Operationally, the bank is now on a tight leash. It may process withdrawals of existing deposits and facilitate loan referrals through banking correspondents, but it cannot take fresh deposits.
The central bank said it would apply to the high court to wind up the bank.
Paytm sought to ringfence the fallout. In a regulatory filing, it said the licence cancellation applies to Paytm Payments Bank Limited, a separate entity, and should not be attributed to One 97 Communications. It added that there is no exposure or material business arrangement with the bank and that it operates independently, without Paytm’s board or management involvement.
“As informed earlier, Paytm (One 97 Communications Limited) and its services, which have been operating without interruption, will continue to operate uninterrupted. These include the Paytm app, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold and all other services offered by its subsidiaries and associated companies,” the company said.
The distinction may reassure users of the app ecosystem, but the regulator’s verdict is unequivocal. After years of warnings, caps and curbs, the payments bank experiment at Paytm is being shut down—decisively, and with little room left to manoeuvre.
