Ant Group Targets SMEs with AI Agents and Tokenisation
Ant Group is positioning AI-powered agents and tokenised payment infrastructure as core tools for small and medium enterprises navigating cross-border commerce, according to Chairman Eric Jing.
Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival on 14 November, Mr Jing outlined the company's approach to making frontier technologies accessible to businesses that lack sophisticated digital capabilities or large operational teams.
The strategy centres on what Mr Jing describes as agentic payment systems, where autonomous AI handles tasks ranging from payment integration to risk management.
Ant International's merchant services arm, Antom, has deployed Copilot technology that reduces payment integration time by over 90% and cuts chargeback resolution time by 46%.
The system has also improved chargeback winning rates by three percentage points.
“Agentic AI will act like your COO, your CFO,” Mr Jing says. “They are stepping in as virtual financial and operational planners and implementers for SMEs, enabling them to compete globally.”
During the festival, Antom launched EPOS360, an application combining point-of-sale systems, payments, banking, lending and business support services.
The tool is designed to help micro, small and medium enterprises move from initial setup through to scaling operations.
MAS sandbox collaboration on blockchain and AI
Mr Jing emphasised the role of regulatory frameworks in enabling deployment of blockchain and AI technologies.
Ant International has participated in two Monetary Authority of Singapore initiatives: Project Guardian, focused on tokenised money and cross-border settlements and PathFin.ai, which facilitates knowledge exchange on AI implementation.
Through Project Guardian, Ant International has contributed to pilot programmes testing how blockchain-based payments can provide real-time, transparent settlement for SMEs engaged in international trade.
Mr Jing argues that tokenisation of money, enabling instant cross-border settlement, offers particular advantages for companies operating globally.
“We are honoured to participate in the Monetary Authority of Singapore's regulatory sandboxes,” Mr Jing says. “They provide the clarity and certainty needed to responsibly deploy cutting-edge technologies while managing risks.”
Under the PathFin.ai programme, Ant International has shared its Falcon Time-Series Transformer Model, an 8.5 billion parameter system designed for foreign exchange and liquidity forecasting.
The model has improved accuracy in predicting cash flow and liquidity, which the company says helps businesses reduce hedging costs.
“Through participating in sandboxes, we see benefits and opportunities to improve our products before rolling them out”
Multi-agent systems and agentic commerce
Mr Jing identified agentic payment as a driver of broader agentic commerce systems, where multiple autonomous AI agents collaborate to execute transactions from end to end.
The approach responds to challenges SMEs face in managing complex payment environments and risk assessment across different markets.
“Many SMEs may not have sophisticated digital skills or a large workforce to support them in doing business, and this is where AI agents can really play a role in helping them to navigate the landscape,” Mr Jing says.
On the consumer side, Mr Jing anticipates growth in personalised AI financial managers and advisors, though he provided no timeline for deployment.
Ant International, which became independent in 2024, operates from Singapore and works with over 1,400 institutional partners.
The company provides payment, settlement and digitisation services to 150 million merchants and maintains a network of global wallets and national QR schemes serving over 1.8 billion consumer accounts.
Mr Jing appeared on a panel titled Steering the Global Future alongside Agustín Carstens, former general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, and Ravi Menon, chairman of the board of directors at Global Finance and Technology Network and former managing director of MAS.
“Through participating in sandboxes, we see benefits and opportunities to improve our products before rolling them out,” Mr Jing says. “It has really been a pleasure to be part of that – MAS is taking a very proactive role and it's enormously valuable.”
