HitPay helps SMEs compete with large firms in AI shopping market

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia face the risk of becoming 'invisible' in the future digital marketplace as consumers increasingly turn to AI shopping assistants. Recognizing this technological gap, HitPay, a payment platform for SMEs in Southeast Asia, has launched a new initiative. This program automatically makes every HitPay Online Store in Malaysia detectable by AI assistants at no extra cost.

The move is designed to help local small businesses secure a place in AI shopping search results, thereby narrowing the technology dominance currently held by large corporations. Aditya Haripurkar, Co-founder and CEO of HitPay, stated that while Malaysia has a strong digital foundation with widespread internet connectivity and the adoption of DuitNow payments, small shops often lack the technical readiness for AI systems. "This is where we play a role by building this in-built system," Haripurkar said. "When customers start asking AI assistants about items they want to buy, small businesses in Malaysia should be in the suggested answers from the moment it starts operating, not left behind by large firms."

HitPay explained that although SMEs constitute about 97 percent of all business registrations in Malaysia, most of their online stores are not discoverable by AI assistants like ChatGPT or Perplexity. Despite high internet penetration and billions of DuitNow QR transactions in 2025, digital transformation spending is still dominated by large companies, accounting for 63 percent of total investments last year. Data from Bain indicates that 39 percent of consumers in the Asia-Pacific region already use AI for online shopping, with another 40 percent planning to do so soon. McKinsey projects AI-driven commerce could contribute $3 trillion to $5 trillion to global retail spending by 2030.

To address this issue, HitPay is providing a system that allows online stores on its platform to publish machine-readable product catalogs, names, prices, and stock levels. These are updated throughout the day to ensure AI assistants receive accurate, up-to-date information and digital signals indicating the business is ready to serve customers. This new feature is supported by...

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This is where we play a role by building this in-built system. When customers start asking AI assistants about items they want to buy, small businesses in Malaysia should be in the suggested answers from the moment it starts operating, not left behind by large firms.