Can AI Help Small Businesses Go Global Without a Big Finance Team?

Say you run a small business and an order comes in from overseas. You’re happy to take it, but your supplier’s bill is due before the customer’s payment lands.

An exchange-rate move while you wait could leave you with less than you budgeted. You might be doing those sums while packing the next order.

A bigger company has a finance team for that.

Ant International CEO Peng Yang thinks wider access to AI for SMEs could take some of that work off the owner’s desk and give more small businesses a shot at selling abroad.

He called for a new round of “re-globalisation” on a panel titled “Investing in AI for an Inclusive Digital Future” at UN Trade and Development’s World Investment Forum in Doha.

“Globalisation 1.0 mostly benefited large enterprises, and a lot of SMEs very rarely got to participate in the global economy,” Yang said on the panel.

Just 8% of small firms export directly, according to the WTO’s 2024 World Trade Report.

The share rises to 15% for medium-sized firms and 30% for large ones. The gap shows up in AI use, too.

Among countries with available data, 17.4% of small firms used AI in 2025, compared with 52% of large firms, according to the OECD.

“However, if we give smaller firms enough innovative technology support, and provide them the AI-powered solutions they need, they can also compete, grow and thrive on the global stage,” Yang added.

He even pointed to what Ant International was seeing in its own businesses.

He said its SME cross-border transaction volume had grown about 50% a year over the previous three years, roughly 10 times the growth rate of global trade volume.

Over the same period, the company served more than a million new small merchants across 54 new markets, he added.

Getting Paid Before the Supplier’s Bill is Due

If you’re already chasing an invoice, learning another piece of software is one more job to fit into the day.

Ant International’s approach to AI for SMEs, set out in its September product announcement, is to build AI agents into the payment and account services merchants already use.

Owners can start some tasks by typing what they need in everyday language.

WorldFirst, used by 2M+ SMEs, US$ 500B+ in cumulative transaction volume across 210+ markets, lets a business receive cross-border payments, convert currencies and pay suppliers from a single account.

Ant International says the service can also help smaller firms get working capital at a lower cost, which can come in handy if a bill falls due before you get paid.

Its WorldFirst Autopilot agent lets owners handle financial tasks and access partner services through a chat interface.

On the currency side, Ant International says it’s making its Falcon TST forecasting model available to smaller firms so they can estimate what exchange-rate moves could mean for the money they expect to have on hand, which Ant International says achieved a consistent forecast accuracy of over 93% on a top global benchmark.

When a Sale Comes Back as a Dispute

You might have shipped the order weeks ago. Then a card dispute lands, and you have to go back through the sale and work out how to respond while today’s orders are waiting to go out.

Disputes are one place where AI can spare an owner some digging.

Antom SmartDispute analyses the case and suggests how the merchant could respond.

Ant International reports that merchants won 41.8% of disputes with the tool, compared with 24.5% without it.

Its Antom Autopilot agent also helps with the work that follows an ordinary sale, including matching incoming payments to orders.

Your Next Overseas Customer Might Walk Through the Door

Alipay+ connects merchants to more than 50 digital wallets and banking apps, so a tourist may be able to pay with the same app they use at home.

It also offers AI-powered marketing to help merchants reach international visitors.

At Bangkok’s Siam Square, the customers are the ones travelling. An Alipay+ campaign reached tourists on social media before they left home and put ads in front of them once they arrived.

Ant International says small merchants recorded year-on-year increases of 66% in total payment volume (TPV) and 115% in orders during the campaign.

The company reports that a separate Alipay+ campaign on Kota Kinabalu’s Gaya Street helped merchants lift total payment volume by more than 120% and orders by 140%.

“Trust is everything in payments and financial services, and it becomes even more critical in the AI era,” says Yang

What If an AI Agent Buys the Wrong Thing?

A customer standing at your counter can tell you what they meant to buy.

An AI agent shopping on their behalf could misread the request and pay for something the customer never meant to order.

Ant International is working with Visa and Mastercard so that Know Your Agent (KYA) checks (which verify an AI agent and who it is acting for) can work across payment systems.

The company says its Antom AgentSafePay service checks what the buyer intended and offers merchants a guarantee for specified losses, including those tied to misread instructions or attempts to manipulate the agent.

Yang also called on the industry to work with regulators and international institutions on safeguards and common standards.

Ant International works with Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority on privacy-enhancing technologies and takes part in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s BuildFin.ai initiative for responsible AI in finance.

Back at the shop, you’ll judge these tools by what they do for the order in front of you.

Saying yes to the next overseas order gets a little easier when you have a clearer idea of what the payment will cover and can handle a dispute without putting the rest of the day on hold.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore based on images by Peng Yang via LinkedIn and Ant International via its website.