At the China International Financial Exhibition held from June 16 to 18, 2026, China’s cutting-edge payment technology shined, attracting the attention of many overseas people.
“Before coming to China, I had never experienced AI (artificial intelligence) + payment. I was deeply shocked by the convenience it brought.” Joshua Way (Chinese name Wei Zhuoxi), an employee of Ant International in London, lamented.
His job is to apply cutting-edge technology in cross-border payments, global account management, inclusive credit and other scenarios. This time he was sent to Shanghai to participate in the financial exhibition in order to personally experience the latest development trends in China’s payment ecological construction.
At the exhibition, many participating Chinese payment institutions demonstrated the latest application results of AI+ payment.
Joshua Way feels that Shanghai and London have formed different development momentums in the construction of payment ecology.
In London, NFC (Near Field Communication Technology) payment is becoming increasingly popular, and digital banks are rapidly emerging. In Shanghai, with the efficient integration of AI technological innovation and super applications, using AI+ payment tools such as Alipay, you can easily complete operations such as hailing a taxi, ordering takeout, and scanning QR codes for shopping and payment. This feeling of “one payment app to easily travel the world” made him truly feel that the future of payment is closely connected with AI.
LISA, head of payment business of African regional banks, was also invited to participate in this financial exhibition.
As soon as she entered the exhibition area, she was attracted by a series of “AI + payment” application results.
In the WeChat payment exhibition area, she saw an AI-based smart business robot with operating modes such as cashier shopping guide, store manager assistance and fun interaction; in the immersive digital payment experience exhibition area of Wanglian, she experienced AI intelligent weighing and one-click settlement for daily grocery shopping. She also wore AI-based AR (augmented reality) glasses to achieve a shopping experience of “take a look and say a word” shopping experience. In addition, she also tried the “touch” payment and palmprint payment functions of the mobile phone.
She said: “These AI+ payment tools make me feel like I am living in the future world.”
Joshua Way is applying China’s “AI+ payment” technology to Ant International’s global account service system.
Through this system, a custom farrier in Tasmania, Australia, can easily sell products to 180 markets around the world and receive payment in more than 40 currencies.
He also plans to apply more AI+ payment technology to a wider range of cross-border payment and global account management scenarios.
The cross-border application of digital renminbi has also attracted much attention.
Aminah, head of the cross-border payment business of a large bank in Central Asia, witnessed the signing of direct participant service agreements between the Digital RMB International Operation Center and the first batch of 26 financial institutions. The digital RMB cross-border payment business can cover Singapore, Laos, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Brazil and other countries and regions.
She learned that the cross-border settlement comprehensive service platform “CBETS”, which was upgraded based on the three major business platforms, has the characteristics of lower access cost and higher settlement efficiency, which provides a new option for cross-border trade payment and settlement between China and Central Asia.
During the exhibition, Bank of Communications and Malaysian cooperative institutions launched a digital RMB “outsourcing and internal use” solution, and ICBC and Yiwu
Pay cooperates to launch the “Digital RMB Cross-border E-commerce Payment Solution” to solve the pain points of cross-border payment collection for small, medium and micro foreign trade merchants.
Aminah said: “China has established a set of prudent, clear and forward-looking regulatory framework for the construction of payment ecosystem, which has accelerated the pace of innovation and construction of payment ecosystem. Especially in many business scenarios, China’s payment solutions have taken the lead.”
Faced with the display of China’s cutting-edge payment technology, many overseas cross-border payment institutions are also working hard to build their own payment ecosystem.
Yu Xiang, Vice President of Asia Pacific Business of EBANX, a large Brazilian cross-border payment platform, said that new alternative payment methods are being welcomed by more and more global consumers who lack credit cards. They will continue to expand regular alternative payment methods to more emerging markets to help global merchants reach more digital consumers.
