It’s 9pm. You’ve just finished packing orders, and now you have 14 unanswered customer messages about delivery dates.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Running an SME in Malaysia means being the marketing team, the customer support line, and the operations department — all before breakfast. You’ve heard about AI tools that could help, but most of what you’ve seen feels complicated or doesn’t fit how your business actually runs.
Then news breaks that Klaviyo — the email marketing platform used by 200,000 businesses worldwide — is buying an AI startup called Agency. On the surface, it’s another tech acquisition. But underneath, it’s a signal about what your marketing and customer service software will be able to do two years from now — and how you should prepare.
TL;DR: Klaviyo is acquiring AI startup Agency to build “agents” that write marketing campaigns and answer customer questions for you. The technology exists now, it’s being scaled for small businesses, and the winners will be the ones who get their customer data organised before the tools arrive.
What This Means
In plain language, Klaviyo is building software that does the work — not just sends it. Two AI agents are in development:
- Composer — builds marketing campaigns for you, from writing to sending.
- Customer Agent — handles post-sale support like returns and order tracking automatically.
These aren’t the clunky chat-bots you’ve met on e-commerce sites. The idea is that the agent already knows your business — your products, your shipping times, your customers’ preferences — and can act like a genuinely capable assistant, not a scripted response machine.
The key advantage Klaviyo’s CEO Andrew Bialecki points to is data. Klaviyo has spent years collecting customer behaviour data from those 200,000 businesses, and that’s the fuel that makes AI agents actually useful. Competing startups like Decagon and Sierra are building similar products without the same history to draw from.
“We’re going to take that and combine it with our agent products and try to bring that to 200,000 businesses — and hopefully to millions more over the next couple of years.” — Andrew Bialecki, Klaviyo CEO
How This Applies to Malaysian SMEs
You might be thinking, “I don’t use Klaviyo, and my shop runs on Shopee, TikTok Shop, and WhatsApp.” That’s exactly why you should pay attention. The AI features being built now won’t stay locked inside western platforms. Your local tools — from your e-commerce marketplace dashboard to your WhatsApp Business app — will adopt the same capabilities. The question is whether you’ll know how to use them when they arrive.
Think about what these agents actually do. Composer removes the hardest part of email and social marketing: sitting down to write. For a Malaysian SME that sells batik scarves or artisan coffee, your marketing messages follow a pattern — you announce a new product, you share a promo, you follow up with customers who visited but didn’t buy. That’s exactly the pattern AI agents excel at. The software doesn’t need to be a creative genius. It just needs to produce a decent first draft based on what your customers have already shown interest in.
Then there’s Customer Agent. If you sell online, you know that the same questions come back every single day: “Where is my parcel?” “Can I exchange the size?” “Is this in stock?” These inquiries eat hours of your week. An agent that can look up the order, find the tracking information in your logistics partner’s system, and reply on your behalf frees you to focus on things that actually grow the business — sourcing new products, negotiating with suppliers, improving your product photography. With Malaysia’s logistics landscape — multiple couriers, different tracking systems, and peak season delays — an agent that handles routine questions reliably saves you hours every single week.
Here’s the part that matters most for you: the data lesson. Klaviyo’s entire advantage comes from years of customer data. That’s a clear warning for Malaysian SMEs. If your customer data is scattered across a receipt book, a WhatsApp chat history, and what you can remember about your regulars, then no AI tool in the world will work well for you. The most practical thing you can do this month — before the AI features even reach you — is to start organising. Export your sales history from Shopee and Lazada. Log every customer inquiry in a spreadsheet. Keep track of which products each customer has bought. When the AI agents come, they’ll need this data to be useful. Businesses with clean data will see results in days. Businesses without it will be starting from scratch.
There’s also a human lesson in this deal. The acquisition happened because two people built a relationship over 15 years. Torres hired Bialecki in 2010, mentored him, then invested in Klaviyo’s seed round in 2015. Trust like that doesn’t come from a LinkedIn connection request. For Malaysian SME owners, it’s a reminder to take relationships seriously — with your suppliers, your staff, your regular customers. The person you help today might be the person who rescues you tomorrow.
Practical Takeaways
- Start organising your customer data now. Even a simple spreadsheet is better than nothing. Track who buys, what they buy, and what they ask.
- Watch what your existing platforms are doing with AI. Shopee, Lazada, and WhatsApp Business are all rolling out AI features. Try them when they appear.
- Write down the five questions you answer every day. Those are your automation shortlist. The answers are the exact scripts your future AI agent will need.
- Build one relationship intentionally this month. Not a transaction — an actual relationship. This Klaviyo deal started with one hire, 15 years ago.
The Numbers Behind the Deal
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Businesses using Klaviyo | 200,000 |
| Funding raised by Agency | US$32 million (Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, Felicis) |
| Team joining Klaviyo | 25 people |
| Klaviyo IPO valuation (Sept 2023) | US$9.2 billion |
| Drift sale (Torres’ previous company) | US$1.2 billion (Vista Equity, 2021) |
The Bigger Picture
AI agents will stop being a buzzword in the next two years. They’ll become standard features in the tools you already use — like spell-check did, or like e-invoicing is becoming. Businesses that thrive won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones with clean data, clear processes, and an owner who actually understands what the software is doing behind the curtain.
You have an advantage right now: you’re reading about this while most other SME owners are still ignoring it. Start your data hygiene this week. You don’t need a big system — a spreadsheet you actually update counts. Keep it simple, keep it consistent, and you’ll find the AI wave a lot easier to ride when it reaches Malaysian shores.
One more thing worth remembering. Klaviyo started bootstrapped and founder-funded. Torres has done two major exits. Neither of them got there by chasing trends. They did the consistent, unglamorous work for years. Then the right opportunity came through the right relationship.
You’ve got the same ingredients. Use them.
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