Generative AI is now used by 243 million people in Southeast Asia, or 58% of the working population, according to the 11th e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek and Bain and Company. Adoption is scaling four times faster than the rollout of mobile internet. The regional digital economy is projected to grow 17% year-on-year to $368 billion in gross merchandise value in 2026, putting it on track to exceed $1 trillion by 2035. For business, this links mass AI habits directly to transaction growth.
How AI reshapes shopping, travel and finance
E-commerce remains the anchor of the digital economy at $226 billion in gross merchandise value, up 18% year-on-year. Shoppers use multimodal discovery and in-app assistants to navigate complex purchases, and personalized experiences deliver 10% higher conversions with order volume uplifts as large as 75%. Online travel reached $59 billion, up 10%, with generative AI overtaking social media as the second-most used tool for organizing complex itineraries after traditional search engines. Online media, mobility and finance show the same pattern of AI-assisted decisions.
Online media generated $44 billion in revenue, up 22% year-on-year, as personalized feeds and more relevant ads produced a 10 to 20% quality engagement uplift. Commerce media has become a $4 billion market inside that segment. Mobility and food delivery reached $40 billion, up 15%, supported by predictive suggestions, smarter routing and AI-powered offerings such as pooled rides. Digital financial services reached $1,650 billion in gross transaction value, up 16%, with real-time fraud detection, broader credit access and personalized recommendations alongside human advice. Singapore holds regional leadership in digital wealth platforms.
The report uses tokens as the new benchmark for the AI economy and projects a 60-fold surge in regional AI usage over the next five years. That metric reflects confidence in agentic commerce rather than simple chatbot queries. Digital automation is already established, with 72% of users relying on everyday features like price tracking. Some 75% say they would let AI agents autonomously compare prices and complete transactions. Trust rose as well, with 62% reporting greater trust in AI tools than a year ago, driven by proven track records, rising familiarity and output accuracy.
What agentic commerce means for companies
For companies selling online, discovery is shifting from search listings and social feeds to assistants that compare options and complete purchases. The reported 10% conversion gain and order uplifts of up to 75% point to where investment pays off: structured product data, clear pricing and availability, and in-app assistance for complex choices. Small merchants can gain visibility inside marketplaces and delivery apps without building their own models. Large retailers will need consistent catalogs across channels so agents can act on accurate information.
Expansion of agent-led buying depends on guardrails that users explicitly expect. The conditions cited include robust privacy safeguards for 44% of users, transparent information on what AI can and cannot do for 36%, and the ability to reverse agentic transactions for 30%. Firms should treat reversibility, spending limits and audit trails as product requirements, not legal footnotes. This news alone does not guarantee that stated willingness to delegate purchases will convert into completed orders. Vendors should be asked how autonomy is logged, how errors are compensated and how fraud detection works.
The marker to watch is whether regional AI usage moves toward the projected 60-fold increase by 2030. The report ties that path to data center infrastructure, energy efficiency and unified digital trade policies. If token volumes, agent-completed orders and cross-border rules advance together, the $1 trillion valuation by 2035 becomes a planning baseline for assortment, logistics and payments in the region.
