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Ant International drives AI in cross-border payments to boost global expansion

The firm’s AI model predicts currency exchange rates on an hourly basis, helping businesses reduce transaction costs

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Ant International’s new AI model for cross-border transactions is expected to strengthen global trade and commerce. Photo: Shutterstock
Ant International, the overseas arm of Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to improve cross-border payments for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide, as part of efforts to use the technology to help expand its global operations.
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Singapore-headquartered Ant International said it has developed an AI model that predicts currency exchange rates on an hourly basis for both inbound and outbound transactions, which would help businesses reduce transaction costs and better allocate resources, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

“Integration of AI into the processing of cross-border transactions is of critical importance to further strengthening global trade and commerce, especially for SMEs who up to now can’t afford real-time global settlement services,” Ant International CEO Yang Peng said in the statement.

To address potential risks, Ant’s new FX model, which consolidates hundreds of existing models, provides mechanisms that allow human intervention in case of discrepancies between the new model and previous ones, according to Yang.

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group goes all in on artificial intelligence. Photo: Shutterstock
Chinese fintech giant Ant Group goes all in on artificial intelligence. Photo: Shutterstock
Ant International has also spent two years developing Know Your Customer, a tool to detect cyberattacks enabled by generative AI (GenAI) applications such as deepfakes, the company said. It added that the new tool’s interception success rate exceeds 99 per cent.
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