TLDRs;
- Ant Group pushes new AI tools to help SMEs streamline payments, risk processes, and day-to-day financial operations.
- Antom debuts EPOS360, a unified app offering payments, lending, POS, and merchant growth support.
- Ant International deepens collaboration with MAS on tokenised money and blockchain-enabled cross-border settlement pilots.
- Singapore’s regulatory sandboxes accelerate testing for fintech innovations spanning payments, AI risk tools, and tokenised financial assets.
At the Singapore FinTech Festival, Ant Group placed a bold spotlight on artificial intelligence as the foundation of its next phase of payment innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Speaking on a high-level panel on November 14, Ant Group chairman Eric Jing said the company’s overarching mission is to deliver practical, AI-driven payment and operational tools that help small businesses stay competitive in an increasingly complex financial landscape.
Jing explained that Ant International, the group’s Singapore-based global payments and digital services arm, is ramping up development of AI applications designed to behave like “virtual CFOs and COOs.” These intelligent assistants support SMEs with tasks traditionally requiring financial officers: managing cash flow, assessing risk exposure, navigating cross-border payments, and integrating diverse payment rails.
“These tools should remove the friction that slows down small businesses,” Jing said, noting that AI is becoming essential for companies with limited resources and tight margins.
Antom Introduces AI Copilot for Merchants
A major highlight of the discussion was the progress of Antom, Ant Group’s merchant services division. Jing revealed that the team has rolled out new technologies including Antom Copilot, an AI assistant built to simplify payment integration and streamline risk management workflows.
The Copilot tool is designed to support merchants handling multiple transaction channels, helping them identify anomalies, automate reconciliation, and maintain compliance without hiring additional specialized staff.
To build on this momentum, Antom also launched EPOS360, an app bundling point-of-sale processing, payments, banking, lending, and merchant growth support into a single interface. The platform specifically targets micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, segments often underserved by sophisticated financial software.
Advancing Tokenised Money and Cross-Border Settlement
Beyond merchant tools, Jing highlighted Ant International’s expanding collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The partnership includes active participation in blockchain and AI pilots testing tokenised money, cross-border settlement solutions, and interoperable digital asset infrastructure.
These initiatives operate under MAS’s broader Project Guardian, an ecosystem that welcomes not only large financial institutions but also custodians, fintech firms, and emerging market infrastructure players. The project spans multiple currencies and asset types, tokenised funds, bonds, bank liabilities, and stablecoins—opening opportunities for fintechs to plug into global markets.
MAS also supports the space through initiatives like the Global-Asia Digital Bond Grant Scheme, which helps smaller firms offset the costs of issuing digital bonds and building interoperable tokenisation frameworks.
For fintech companies serving SMEs, especially in payments and credit, these pilots create alternative entry points into fixed-income and settlement flows without direct competition against major financial incumbents.
Regulatory Sandboxes Create Safer Testing Grounds
Jing emphasized that Singapore’s regulatory sandbox environment has been key in enabling Ant Group and other fintech innovators to test advanced technologies in real-world conditions before scaling globally.
These controlled experiments, he said, significantly reduce the risks associated with deploying emerging technologies, whether in payments automation, AI-driven financial analysis, or blockchain-based settlement networks.
“Sandboxes allow us to iterate rapidly while maintaining compliance,” Jing noted, framing regulatory cooperation as a cornerstone of Ant Group’s international strategy.
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