MAS Launches AI Initiative to Tackle Complexity of Singlish Ant Group Advances AI-Finance Vision from Singapore
Ant Group Chairman Eric Jing used the global stage of the Singapore FinTech Festival to outline a strategy that places small and medium-sized enterprises at the heart of the next productivity wave, arguing that AI-powered financial tools and tokenised settlement will reshape how SMEs operate and compete globally.
Eric Jing said Ant Group is focused on putting AI-driven payment and operational tools directly into the hands of SMEs, enabling them to benefit from what he described as a coming global productivity revolution.
“We are passionate about using frontier technology to support SMEs and the use of AI will really uplift inclusion,” Ant Group’s Chairman said during the panel “Steering the Global Future” at this year’s Singapore Fintech Festival.
Singapore as a Global Base for Expansion
Jing noted that Ant International, which became independent in 2024, is headquartered in Singapore and works with more than 1,400 institutional partners. Its global payment and digitisation network now serves 150 million merchants and connects wallets and QR schemes that reach over 1.8 billion consumer accounts worldwide.
Rising Demand for Agentic Finance
He expects personalised AI financial advisors for consumers and a rapid shift toward agentic commerce for businesses, driven by autonomous systems capable of executing end-to-end payment and operational tasks.
“Agentic payment is one of the most important forces driving agentic commerce and agentic systems,” he said, noting that many SMEs lack the digital capacity to manage increasingly complex global trade environments. “This is where AI agents can really play a role in helping them navigate the landscape.”
New Tools Reduce Friction for SMEs
Ant International’s merchant services arm, Antom, is already deploying AI through Antom Copilot, a tool that supports payment integration, onboarding, risk settings and chargeback management. According to Ant, Copilot reduces payment integration time by over 90 percent, improves chargeback winning rates by three percentage points, and shortens resolution time by 46 percent.
At the festival, Antom also launched EPOS360 – an integrated app combining POS systems, payments, banking, lending and growth support into one platform to help MSMEs expand more efficiently. Jing described these AI agents as virtual “COOs” and “CFOs” stepping in as planners and implementers for SMEs.
Multi-Agent Systems Are Already Emerging
Jing emphasised that autonomous multi-agent systems capable of collaborating to execute complex transactions are no longer theoretical. These systems, he said, will underpin the next phase of global digital commerce, particularly for SMEs operating across borders.
Jing highlighted tokenisation of money as a critical enabler of real-time global settlement, especially for companies engaged in international trade. “It is necessary to have policy leadership from regulators like the Monetary Authority of Singapore, who provides institutional clarity and brings together an industry ecosystem of collaboration,” he said.
Ant International’s collaboration with MAS includes participation in Project Guardian and PathFin.ai, which Jing called an exemplary public-private partnership model. “We are honoured to participate in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s regulatory sandboxes. They provide the clarity and certainty needed to deploy cutting-edge technologies while managing risks responsibly,” he said.
Real-World Trials in Tokenised Money
Under Project Guardian, Ant International has contributed to pilot programmes involving tokenised money and cross-border settlements, demonstrating how blockchain-based payments can provide real-time transparency and credibility to SMEs transacting globally.
Through MAS’ PathFin.ai initiative, Ant International is also sharing expertise on AI implementation. Jing highlighted the firm’s Falcon Time-Series Transformer – an 8.5-billion-parameter model for FX and liquidity forecasting – which has significantly improved accuracy in cash-flow prediction and helped businesses reduce hedging costs.
