Southeast Asia's digital banking sector is accelerating adoption of next-generation AI technologies to transform merchant onboarding processes, according to new insights from SotaTek. As digital banking expands across the region, efficiently onboarding millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises has become a crucial competitive differentiator for financial institutions. Unlike traditional banks that rely on established partnerships, digital-first banks increasingly view merchant onboarding as a core revenue engine, with each transaction through onboarded merchants generating significant income.
Most banks currently struggle with manual processes, high drop-off rates, poor onboarding experiences, and limited specialist support for merchants who may lack technical expertise. SotaTek's framework demonstrates how agentic AI, voice AI, and intelligent workflow orchestration can dramatically reduce friction, shorten onboarding time, and expand market reach. The company emphasizes that next-generation technology moves beyond scripted bots or static robotic process automation to agentic systems capable of reasoning, guiding, adapting, and self-correcting throughout complex onboarding journeys.
These systems function as guided onboarding concierges, assisting merchants step-by-step while validating inputs and documents in real-time. They adapt explanations and instructions based on each merchant's digital literacy level, 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 optical character recognition, behavioral signal detection, and intelligent workflow design, banks can deliver personalized, human-like onboarding experiences at scale."
The systems anticipate needs and guide merchants through journeys tailored to their readiness, needs, and digital capabilities, enabling even non-tech-savvy merchants to begin confidently with AI adapting to their pace and preferences. Banks operating in heavily regulated environments like Malaysia and Singapore require AI deployments that are auditable, explainable, and integrate seamlessly into cloud-native stacks such as AWS and Databricks. SotaTek continues exploring new agentic AI applications in digital banking, collaborating with ecosystem partners to co-design proof-of-concept solutions and accelerate innovation time-to-market. For more information, visit https://www.sotatek.com.
