SINGAPORE, 14 November 2025 — Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing said the company is focused on equipping SMEs with AI- and tokenisation-powered payment and operational tools to harness the next wave of global productivity.
Speaking at the Singapore FinTech Festival during a panel titled “Steering the Global Future”, Jing highlighted the potential of agentic AI to act as virtual CFOs and COOs for SMEs, enabling small businesses to navigate complex global trade and risk environments.
“Many SMEs may not have sophisticated digital skills or a large workforce to support them, and this is where AI agents can really play a role,” he said.
Ant International’s merchant payment and digitisation services arm, Antom, has deployed Antom Copilot to streamline payment integration, merchant onboarding, risk management, and chargeback resolution. Copilot reportedly cuts integration time by over 90%, increases chargeback success rates by three percentage points, and shortens resolution times by 46%. The firm also launched EPOS360, an app combining POS, payments, banking, lending, and growth support to help micro, small and medium enterprises scale efficiently.
“Agentic AI will step in as virtual financial and operational planners and implementers for SMEs, enabling them to compete globally,” Jing said. He added that multi-agent systems are already collaborating to execute complex end-to-end transactions autonomously.
Jing also emphasised the importance of public-private collaboration. He cited Ant International’s work with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) through initiatives such as Project Guardian and PathFin.ai, which pilot tokenised money, cross-border settlements, and AI-driven FX and liquidity forecasting.
“Regulatory leadership from MAS provides clarity and brings together an industry ecosystem. Sandboxes allow us to responsibly deploy cutting-edge technologies while managing risks,” he said.
Ant International’s Falcon Time-Series Transformer (TST) Model, an 8.5-billion-parameter AI system, has improved accuracy in predicting cash flow and liquidity, helping SMEs reduce hedging costs in today’s volatile global economy.
Since becoming independent in 2024, Ant International, headquartered in Singapore, now collaborates with over 1,400 institutional partners, serving 150 million merchants and more than 1.8 billion consumer accounts through a network of global wallets and national QR schemes.
“New technology is emerging, and we cannot shy away from it. The right approach is to harness it while managing potential risks and challenges,” Jing said, underscoring the company’s commitment to supporting SMEs in global trade through AI and tokenisation.
