The 'Inclusion' Illusion: Ant International's AI Play for Global Dominance

I have spent enough time in the crypto and web3 trenches to know that whenever a corporate giant starts talking about 'democratization' and 'inclusion,' it is time to check your wallet. The latest example of this linguistic gymnastics comes from Ant International.

At the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World Investment Forum 2026 in Doha, Qatar, Ant International CEO Peng Yang took the stage to pitch a vision of 're-globalisation.' As first reported by the Financial Post via Business Wire, Yang is positioning AI as the Great Equalizer—a tool that will supposedly break the shackles of 'Globalisation 1.0' and allow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to finally get a seat at the table.

Let's be clear: this is my opinion, and I am calling it exactly what it is. This isn't a philanthropic mission to save the world's small businesses; it is a calculated play for AI-driven market dominance.

Yang’s argument rests on a premise that sounds noble on paper. He claims that the first wave of globalization primarily benefited large enterprises, leaving SMEs—which he notes make up over 90% of businesses globally—behind due to gaps in talent, technology, and resources. He cites a 2024 World Trade Report from the WTO to back this up, noting that while 30% of large firms export directly, only 15% of medium-sized firms and 8% of small firms do the same. He even points to a 2025 OECD survey showing a stark 'AI divide,' where 52% of large firms utilize AI compared to a meager 17.4% of small firms.

On the surface, the logic is seductive: if the gap is the technology, then providing the technology closes the gap. Yang argues that by 'democratising AI technology,' Ant International can level the playing field.

But here is where the corporate gloss meets the reality of market capture. Yang isn't proposing an open-source utopia where AI tools are handed out for free to the masses. He is promoting 'full-stack AI-native solutions' provided by Ant International.

When Yang tells the UNCTAD panel that Ant International has served over 1 million new small merchants across 54 new markets in the last three years, he isn't describing a charity project. He is describing a massive customer acquisition campaign. By embedding these merchants into their proprietary AI ecosystem, Ant International isn't just 'empowering' them—they are locking them into a specific corporate infrastructure.

The numbers Yang provides are designed to dazzle. He claims that when these SMEs use Ant's AI-native solutions, their cross-border transaction volume grows by approximately 50% annually. He frames this as a triumph of 'innovation meeting inclusion,' noting that this growth rate is 10 times that of total global trade volume.

To a naive observer, that sounds like a win for the little guy. To a realist, it sounds like a textbook strategy for scaling a platform. If you control the tools that enable trade for a million merchants across 54 markets, you don't just participate in the market—you define the market. You own the data, you control the flow of transactions, and you set the terms of engagement.

This is the classic corporate expansion playbook dressed up in the language of the United Nations. By framing their expansion as a necessary component of 're-globalisation,' Ant International is attempting to moralize its growth. They are positioning themselves not as a service provider seeking profit, but as a benevolent force fighting against the 'limitations' of the old global order.

We've seen this movie before in the tech world. The promise of 'inclusion' is almost always the vanguard for a proprietary ecosystem. Once the 'democratized' tool becomes the industry standard for a million small businesses in the Global South, the power doesn't reside with the merchants—it resides with the entity that owns the 'full-stack' solution.

Peng Yang can talk about 'democratising opportunities' all he wants in Doha, but the objective remains the same: market share. Ant International is simply using the current AI hype cycle to accelerate its penetration into emerging markets, ensuring that the next generation of global trade runs on their rails.

In the end, 're-globalisation' is just a fancy word for a new map of corporate influence. And if you believe that a massive financial technology firm is providing AI-native solutions out of a sense of altruism for the 90% of the world's small businesses, you haven't been paying attention.