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Wency Chen

Ant International, the overseas affiliate of China’s Ant Group, is executing an artificial intelligence overhaul across its entire suite of global financial services, introducing AI agents designed to help manage payments, foreign exchange and treasury operations.
Described by the company as its largest-ever product upgrade, the initiative embeds AI-native solutions across all platforms: cross-border payment network Alipay+, merchant services provider Antom, account and treasury platform WorldFirst, and digital credit platform Bettr.
The global roll-out has begun and would extend through winter, the company said.
Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, said the shift would prepare global commerce for a “fully agentised future”, adding that fintech providers needed “a future-ready trust infrastructure” paired with financial AI models and connected AI-native solutions.
The move follows a roughly US$1.2 billion series A funding round in July, backed by Ant Group, Alibaba Group Holding and other institutional investors.
Carved out as an independent operating entity in 2024, Ant International said it connects over 150 million merchants to more than 2 billion consumer accounts, processing over 25 million daily transactions across 210 markets.
The upgrade spans nearly 100 products, including AI assistants for payments and account management, tools for cash-flow forecasting, currency hedging and global payouts, and services supporting billing, tax filing, marketing and access to credit. Ant said it also introduced a business account designed for AI agents.
“We’re a problem solver for merchants,” Gary Liu, CEO of Antom, said in an interview with the South China Morning Post, noting that 89.5 per cent of Antom’s merchants already used AI agents, with 81.4 per cent of payment tasks receiving AI assistance.

Liu said agent authorisation should depend on the task and its spending limits, rather than the job titles used to determine employees’ authority. “It matters what the task is,” he said.
According to Ant International, the overhaul relies on two proprietary systems: a payment foundation model - called Antom 3-in-1 Transformer - that processes structured records, sequences of behaviour and relationships between users, merchants and devices to assess transactions, and FalconTST, a forecasting model for cash flows and currency exposures.
Ant International said FalconTST had achieved over 93 per cent forecasting accuracy and reduced corporate currency hedging and capital allocation costs by 30 to 60 per cent in real-world applications.
On top of the Antom 3-in-1 Transformer, the company built a second security layer, with a “know-your-agent” (KYA) framework linked to its Agentic Mobile Protocol, which connects mobile wallet networks to agentic transactions. The security layer includes AgentSafePay, which offers a fund-back guarantee against losses from agent-specific risks.
To combat security risks tied to autonomous transactions, the firm relies on its Antom Shield framework to guard against AI-driven fraud, as well as AgentSafePay, an indemnity scheme covering merchant losses from agent errors.
Ant International is also partnering with Visa and Mastercard to establish global agent verification standards through its Agentic Mobile Protocol.
Alibaba is the owner of SCMP.


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The new suite features accounts tailored for AI agents, allowing users to delegate specific tasks without relinquishing account control


The new suite features accounts tailored for AI agents, allowing users to delegate specific tasks without relinquishing account control.


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Ant International embeds AI agents across all platforms in biggest-ever product upgrade

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The new suite features accounts tailored for AI agents, allowing users to delegate specific tasks without relinquishing account control

The new suite features accounts tailored for AI agents, allowing users to delegate specific tasks without relinquishing account control