PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is emerging as a fast adopter of conversational commerce, driven by strong growth in mobile messaging and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer engagement across markets, according to cloud communications platform Infobip.
According to the platform’s Messaging Trends Report 2026, Infobip said the data revealed a shift in how global brands engage with customers.
The report further noted that short message service (SMS) dominance has declined significantly.
It also stated that SMS has fallen from 99% of messages a decade ago to 62% today, as businesses increasingly adopt digital channels for business-to-consumer communication.
Infobip said across the Asia-Pacific (Apac) region alone, the growth in mobile messaging is particularly pronounced, with Rich Communication Services (RCS) traffic increasing by over five times in 2025.
RCS is a next-generation messaging protocol that enhances traditional SMS by enabling high-resolution media sharing, typing indicators, read receipts, and more advanced group chat features over Wi-Fi or mobile data.
“Meanwhile, WhatsApp continues to dominate the conversational landscape, facilitating 91% of all conversational AI interactions on the platform,” the report said.
Infobip noted that the data collected, based on the Malaysian market in 2025, showed a 240% surge in mobile messaging app interactions.
Its vice president and general manager for Apac and Eurasia Ruslana Reznikova said, “The 240% increase in mobile messaging interactions notifies a clear trend that consumers in Malaysia prefer to engage with brands on the same platforms they use to talk to friends and family.
“As we move into the era of agentic AI, the goal for businesses across Apac is to transition from simple notifications to meaningful, two-way conversations that drive loyalty and measurable business outcomes,” she explained.
In the meantime, Infobip chief revenue officer Ante Pamukovic pointed out that the future of business communication will be further defined by an omnichannel, conversational approach which is increasingly powered by agentic AI.
In its report, the cloud platform also highlighted its findings pertaining to current agentic AI trends.
“Agentic AI is enabling the next major steps in business messaging,” the report stated.
“AI agents are now capable of autonomous, goal-driven interactions, orchestrating complex customer journeys across channels,” it said.
In retrospect, Infobip said RCS has become mainstream across multiple regions, with growth extending well beyond Apac’s five-fold increase.
For instance, North America recorded a 70-fold surge in usage, while Latin America saw a seven-fold rise.
“We are progressively shifting towards a diverse ecosystem whereby brands orchestrate conversations across WhatsApp, RCS, email and voice,” Pamukovic further pointed out.
The report said Infobip delivers omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication and contact centre solutions that aim to assist businesses to overcome consumer communications complexity while pushing growth and improving customer loyalty.
