Speaking at the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum 2026 panel, “Investing in AI for an Inclusive Digital Future”, Ant International CEO Peng Yang called for a new, inclusive “re-globalisation” project that harnesses AI and digital connectivity to give small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) greater access to global markets and opportunities.
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Ant International CEO Peng Yang speaks at the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum 2026
“Globalisation 1.0 mostly benefited large enterprises, and a lot of SMEs very rarely got to participate in the global economy,” said Yang. “Achieving inclusion is critical to re-globalisation, and AI will accelerate it by democratising opportunities.”
1. The limitation of Globalisation 1.0 and how AI and other innovations offer a chance to improve
Yang said one of the greatest limitations of Globalisation 1.0 was its concentration of power among large enterprises. Small businesses, which make up over 90% of businesses globally, have often been left behind due to the gap in technologies, talent and other resources. It is difficult for them to participate in the last round of globalisation, which involves handling multiple markets and the complexities of global trade.
According to the WTO’s 2024 World Trade Report, 8% of small firms and 15% of medium-sized firms export directly, compared with 30% of large firms.
The AI divide compounds the challenge: a 2025 survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows 52% of large firms used AI, compared with just 17.4% of small firms.
However, the rise of AI means we have the chance to level the field and close the gap if we democratise AI technology and its applications to give equal opportunities to SMEs.
2. When innovation meets inclusion, SMEs can also grow and thrive on the global stage
Yang said that in the past three years, Ant International has been serving over 1 million new small merchants from 54 new markets globally, empowering them to participate in global trade.
“In the last three years, we have seen tremendous growth for SMEs when innovation meets inclusion. When we offer them powerful full-stack AI-native solutions, cross-border transaction volume of SMEs across our own businesses has been growing by about 50% every year, which is 10 times the growth rate of the total volume of global trade,” he said.
“This shows that if we can do things right, drive innovation, provide the AI technologies, and make it more accessible for the small guys, they can take the global stage to grow and thrive,” Yang added.
Ant International processes 25 million transactions daily across its global payment, global account, embedded finance and digitalisation services. 95% of its 150 million-strong global merchant customer base are SMEs. In September 2026, Ant International announced sweeping full-stack AI-native solutions on payment, account, FX, treasury and growth for global businesses, many designed to tackle SMEs’ challenges.
3. New full-stack AI-native solutions empowering SMEs to drive truly inclusive re-globalisation
Democratising the Falcon TST FX model for SMEs
- Cross-border FX and money management is expensive for SMEs. Ant International has been developing its Falcon TST AI forecast model, which achieved SOTA (state-of-the-art performance) on the MASE metric on a top global benchmark, with a consistent forecast accuracy rate of over 93%, and has been working with the world’s leading banks to keep increasing coverage. Today, it has been democratised as part of the full-stack AI-native solutions for SMEs to use so they can handle global transactions more efficiently with less FX risk.
Proprietary agents WorldFirst Autopilot and Antom Autopilot automate operations for SMEs
- Under WorldFirst and Antom – Ant International’s core Global Account and Global Payment services – enterprise-grade financial capabilities are engineered into SME-friendly applications.
WorldFirst combines cross-border collections, payments, foreign exchange and fund management in one global account. This enables smaller businesses to manage international operations, collect money and make payments with less FX risk and access working capital at lower cost, even without finance and treasury teams. Ant International’s global AI business agent for SMEs — WorldFirst Autopilot — further simplifies the operations by streamlining financial tasks and connecting businesses to partner services through natural language interactions.
WorldFirst helps over 2 million SMEs to manage their cross-border accounts, with more than US$500 billion in cumulative transaction volume across 210+ markets. Its network connects SMEs to 130+ e-commerce platforms and 600+ ecosystem partners, helping them navigate overseas markets and grow globally.
Antom Autopilot simplifies payment operations for merchants, especially SMEs, with AI support across onboarding, integration, analysis, risk management and reconciliation. By the end of 2026, 95% of merchants are expected to complete onboarding with Antom within 1 hour. Its SmartDispute provides dispute analysis and appeal strategies, helping merchants achieve a 41.8% win rate versus 24.5% without the tool, while its fully automated AutoDispute helps merchants recover an average of 18% of chargeback losses, reducing the additional resources SMEs need to devote to dispute management.
Alipay+ empowers SMEs to access global consumers with AI-powered marketing solutions
- For Global Payment, Alipay+, Ant International’s global wallet gateway, connects over 50 digital wallets to more than 150 million merchants globally, over 95% of them SMEs. Beyond seamless cross-border payments, small merchants are targeting global consumers online and in-store with more effective and precise campaigns through Alipay+’s AI-powered marketing solutions.
In the Siam Square commercial area in Bangkok, Thailand, the Alipay+ marketing campaign combining pre-trip social-media push and on-site ad displays helped small merchants grow TPV by 66% YoY, with an increase in the number of orders by 115% YoY; for merchants in Gaya Street in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, it drove more than 120% growth in TPV and 140% in orders; for a local skincare brand in Bali, Indonesia, it delivered a growth of 137% in TPV and 140% in orders during the campaign.
4. New foundations of trust for inclusive AI in public-private sector collaboration
Yang also stressed that businesses, including SMEs, need confidence that AI can be used safely and responsibly, particularly as AI agents take on financial and operational tasks. Effective safeguards require collaboration across the technology and financial industries, alongside regulators and international institutions.
“Trust is everything in payments and financial services, and it becomes even more critical in the AI era. We need to work closely with international organisations and regulators to develop appropriate frameworks, while building safeguards that allow businesses to use AI agents safely. Collaboration across the private sector must also be complemented by international institutions and regulators to establish common standards and trusted infrastructure,” said Yang.
Ant International is advancing this approach through collaboration across the public and private sectors. In Singapore, it works with the Infocomm Media Development Authority on privacy-enhancing technologies and participates in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s BuildFin.ai initiative on developing and scaling responsible AI solutions for financial services.
The company is also collaborating with Visa and Mastercard on interoperability for Know Your Agent (KYA), helping strengthen trust in AI agents acting on behalf of consumers and businesses.
It also takes a step forward by introducing the industry-first Antom AgentSafePay, built to protect merchants navigating agentic commerce, to verify multi-dimensional purchase intent in real time, and to offer a fund guarantee against losses from intent misinterpretation, malicious prompt injection or other risks within merchant-deployed agents.
Yang said that, with the cost of AI lowered and accessibility made easier for SMEs, both small merchants and individuals can be equipped with enterprise-grade innovative solutions, fully automate their operations and benefit from the next global economic revolution.
“We believe in a future where the new normal of Globalisation will leave no one behind. When innovation meets inclusion, everyone can pursue their opportunities like the big guys did in the past,” Yang said.
The ninth WIF, the UN’s flagship forum for the global investment community, brings together policymakers, investors and business leaders to explore how investment can support sustainable, resilient and inclusive growth amid geopolitical fragmentation and rapid technological change.
About Ant International
Ant International helps businesses to thrive through a full stack of AI-native payment, account, foreign exchange, treasury and growth solutions, underpinned by our trusted foundation models, security architecture, blockchain RTP platform and a world-leading mobile payment ecosystem. We drive relentless innovation to bring inclusive growth for merchants and communities of all sizes, today and tomorrow. To learn more, visit https://www.ant-intl.com/.
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