Artificial intelligence customer engagement platform Superbench has integrated HitPay's payment infrastructure to help consumer-facing service businesses manage inquiries, bookings, and payments in one unified system. The partnership is available to businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, while HitPay provides regulatory and compliance coverage in the Philippines. It targets small and medium-sized enterprises that often juggle separate tools across the customer journey, from first contact to final payment.
A Unified Customer Journey
Superbench serves home service providers, tuition centres, beauty clinics, and other business-to-consumer service companies. Its platform answers customer questions and automatically updates information when a business changes prices, products, or promotions, reducing the need for manual updates. HitPay supplies the payment layer, covering online deposits, checkout transactions, and in-person point-of-sale payments across cards, bank transfers, QR codes, and digital wallets.
Closing the Fragmentation Gap
The partnership aims to reduce the number of separate systems that small businesses use to move customers from initial interest to completed booking and payment. Superbench co-founder Jingjing Zhong said the path from interest to payment is where platforms often lose people because the tools in between are fragmented, making the experience costly. HitPay co-founder and CEO Aditya Haripurkar stressed that payment systems require fraud controls, card network compliance, and correct settlement across accounts and currencies, none of which can be improvised.
Uneven AI Adoption in Southeast Asia
AI adoption among Southeast Asian businesses remains uneven, particularly for smaller firms. In Singapore, the proportion of SMEs using AI rose from 4.2 percent in 2024 to 14.5 percent, far below the 62.5 percent rate among larger companies, according to the Infocomm Media Development Authority. Malaysian business AI use increased from 20 percent to 27 percent this year, while 14.9 percent of Philippine companies use AI tools, with adoption concentrated among large urban businesses, according to official studies.
Regulatory Coverage and Market Reach
HitPay is regulated by financial authorities including the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, giving it coverage in markets where compliance is essential. Founded in 2016, Singapore-headquartered HitPay provides online, point-of-sale, and business-to-business payment services to more than 20,000 businesses. It is backed by investors including Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital, and HOF Capital.
Early Adoption and Use Cases
The integration is available now to B2C service businesses in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and the UAE, including early adopters in the aesthetic and family services sectors. These early users are already combining automated customer engagement with payment collection in a single workflow. HitPay's infrastructure works with widely used AI development tools, allowing platforms like Superbench to add payments without building or maintaining that layer themselves.
By combining AI-driven customer engagement with licensed payment infrastructure, Superbench and HitPay address a critical gap in how small service businesses operate online. The collaboration reflects a broader trend in Southeast Asia where SMEs are quick to adopt customer-facing AI tools but remain cautious about building payment systems due to fraud, compliance, and licensing requirements. As digital commerce continues to grow in the region, unified systems that simplify inquiry, booking, and payment could help more small businesses compete effectively.