Airwallex is positioning itself as a financial operating system, letting businesses hold many currencies in one wallet and avoid forced FX conversion.
Jack Zhang says converting a stablecoin into euros or pounds can cost about ten times more than current G10 currency conversion, so Airwallex will support stablecoin transfers only where vendors accept them.
Airwallex plans more than 50 AI agents, with Zhang insisting humans still approve transactions while AI monitors processes and alerts operators to anything outside policy.
Airwallex bets one platform and AI agents can automate business finance
Airwallex argues that global finance for businesses should run as one platform, with AI handling the routine work on top. Owning payments, accounts and spend data gives the AI the context to automate operations and advise like a CFO. Zhang frames the first ten years as groundwork for an autonomous financial system.
Takeaways
Airwallex is positioning as a global financial operating system. It began as money movement infrastructure and expanded into business accounts, spend management and merchant acquiring. Multi-currency wallets avoid forced conversion, and the platform processes transactions in over 180 countries, giving one view across entities and regions.
Airwallex plans autonomous finance through 50-plus AI agents. Agents will cover policy, approval and vendor onboarding, and many will run in the background to lift authorization rates and flag cash flow changes. Zhang says the goal is an autonomous, intelligent financial system within a decade.
Spend and transaction data give AI its context. Scott argues spend software shows AI a business's vendors and transactions. Zhang says fragmented tools, such as Concur or Ramp in the US and PLEO in Europe, prevent teams from building a holistic view.
Payment success rates and routing drive revenue. Airwallex routes transactions across processors by success rate, and Zhang says a 1% difference in success equals 1% of revenue. He claims the top authorization rate in over 68 countries and billions of monthly transactions.
Local currency collection avoids costly conversion. The recent Openpay acquisition lets customers pay invoices in any currency into an Airwallex wallet. Zhang says a hypothetical AI company with UK, European and Australian customers wastes 23% by converting everything to US dollars.
AI should advise like a fractional CFO, with humans approving. Zhang wants a partner that analyzes revenue, cash flow, treasury and cohort economics using data from tens of thousands of businesses, not just replacing manual work. Humans still approve transactions while AI monitors and flags anything outside policy.
Stablecoins are costly for cross-border conversion today. Zhang says off-ramp spreads from stablecoins into euros or pounds run about ten times the cost of current G10 currency conversion. Airwallex will support stablecoin transfers where a vendor is willing to accept them.
How Airwallex grew from a coffee problem
Zhang invested in a coffee business whose co-founder, Max, ran short of cash to pay for beans from Brazil and Indonesia.
Paying vendors abroad through Western Union and traditional banks cost 3% to 4% in foreign exchange fees.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
That frustration produced the first product, a money movement infrastructure.
The company then added business accounts and spend management.
Merchant acquiring followed, for both online and offline checkout.
Airwallex Copilot is next, a chat interface for onboarding, spend questions and surprise alerts.