SotaTek has announced new insights and industry guidance on how banks across Southeast Asia can transform merchant onboarding using next-generation AI technologies. As digital banking adoption accelerates across the region, onboarding millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) efficiently and compliantly has become a critical competitive differentiator for modern financial institutions.
Unlike traditional banks that rely on legacy merchant-acquirer pipelines, digital-first banks in Southeast Asia increasingly depend on merchant onboarding as a core revenue engine. Each transaction made through onboarded merchants drives meaningful income. However, most banks still struggle with manual processes, high drop-off rates, poor onboarding experiences, and a limited number of onboarding specialists to support merchants who may not be tech-savvy.
SotaTek's new framework highlights how agentic AI, voice AI, and intelligent workflow orchestration can dramatically reduce friction, shorten onboarding time, and widen market reach. According to the company, the next generation of onboarding technology relies not on scripted bots but on agentic systems that can reason, guide, adapt, and self-correct across complex onboarding journeys. These systems can act as a guided onboarding concierge, assisting merchants step-by-step while validating inputs and documents in real-time. They adapt explanations and instructions based on the merchant's level of digital literacy, reducing dependency on human specialists.
"Many digital banks have fewer than 100 onboarding specialists but serve millions of potential merchants," said Meng Khong Tong, CEO of SotaTek US and Asia. "By combining agentic AI with OCR, behavioral signal detection, and intelligent workflow design, banks can deliver a personalized, human-like onboarding experience at scale." He noted these systems anticipate needs and guide each merchant through a journey tailored to their readiness, allowing even non-tech-savvy merchants to get started confidently.
The implications for the industry are significant. For digital banks racing to scale, this AI-driven approach could unlock access to vast, underserved merchant segments, directly impacting revenue growth and market share. Efficient onboarding also reduces operational costs associated with manual review and specialist labor.
Banks in heavily regulated environments like Malaysia and Singapore face additional requirements. Any AI deployment must be auditable, explainable, and integrated cleanly into cloud-native stacks such as AWS and Databricks. SotaTek continues to explore new applications of agentic AI in digital banking, working with ecosystem partners to co-design proof-of-concept solutions and accelerate time-to-market. For more information on SotaTek's services, visit https://www.sotatek.com.
The shift toward agentic AI represents a strategic evolution in financial technology. By moving beyond automation to intelligent, adaptive systems, banks can transform a traditional pain point into a scalable competitive advantage. This development matters for business leaders and technologists as it illustrates a practical path to leveraging advanced AI for tangible business outcomes in high-growth, complex markets.
