Interoperability and Trust Key to AI Commerce: Alipay+ and S&P Global Report

SINGAPORE — A new report by Alipay+, the unified wallet gateway of Ant International, in partnership with S&P Global, reveals a growing “commerce digitalisation gap”, with people increasingly expecting seamless mobile payments and intelligent digital assistance, yet friction – from inconsistent payment acceptance to trust in AI – still define their experience.

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The study, which surveyed 6,000 consumers across nine markets in Asia, Europe and the US on their cross-border spending habits, points to a major shift underway in global commerce — one where e-wallets, AI and interoperable digital ecosystems are becoming foundational to how consumers discover, transact and engage across borders.

“The world has already become mobile-first and borderless, and the challenge now is whether commerce infrastructure can evolve quickly enough to keep pace with consumer expectations,” said Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International . “The next phase of global commerce will not be defined by whether payments are digital, but whether ecosystems are intelligent, interoperable and globally connected.”

Consumers are moving fluidly between e-wallets, cards, QR codes and NFC-based payment ecosystems across borders. Yet the travel journey remains fragmented across local payment environments, creating growing friction between rising consumer expectations and existing commerce infrastructure.

Mobile payments are now the preferred method for everyday, in-destination spending for food, shopping and local attractions, while cards continue to dominate pre-trip bookings, particularly for those in Germany and the United States. Mobile payments, across both QR NFC, are also rapidly gaining traction, with 63% of consumers already using them for most transactions while travelling. Preferences, however, diverge across markets, with consumers from China, Malaysia and Thailand preferring QR payments, while those from the US, UK and Germany favour NFC-based, card-linked wallets.

Respondents who do not use digital payments express a clear intent to adopt them, saying they are either “very likely” (49%) or “somewhat likely” (51%) to use these methods on future trips.

This divergence is creating growing friction across the travel journey. More than half of consumers cite concerns around transaction security (62%), exchange rates and fees (56%), unfamiliar payment terminal steps (56%) and merchant acceptance (53%) when using mobile payments abroad. Friction also begins before consumers depart, with 54% reporting challenges using preferred payment methods during pre-trip bookings.

As a result, one in four still carry cash as a fallback, particularly among older consumers and in markets perceived as less interoperable.

Travel is accelerating the shift from payment apps into global-native wallet ecosystems, as consumers gravitate towards integrated platforms that combine discovery, booking, payments, rewards, and in-destination services within a single experience.

This shift is being driven by growing complexity across the travel journey itself.