Ant International bets on Small AI for emerging markets

AT STELLAR Coffee in Kuala Lumpur’s historic Rex building, founder Cheyenne Si serves Johor-grown Liberica beans. About seven in 10 of her customers are tourists. Before her shop joined Malaysia’s DuitNow QR network in late 2023, customers would fumble at the counter with currencies she couldn’t easily accept, and cash piled up. Today, more than 90 percent of her transactions are cashless, paid through visitors’ home e-wallets. That shift, multiplied across more than 360,