Dr David R. Hardoon, CEO, Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI)
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to gain popularity worldwide, including in Southeast Asia (SEA), startups are faced with the question of how they can help different sectors embrace the technology—not only in their home country but also in the region.
This is the mission that Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI) aims to tackle with its solutions.
Founded in 2021, ADI is a Singapore-based Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) startup backed by the Philippines’ Aboitiz Group.
Launched with the support of Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB), ADI has served as a central entity for DSAI collaborations and a catalyst in reshaping industries through AI. To date, it has partnered with organisations such as Cloudera to bring GenAI to Asia Pacific’s financial and industrial sectors, speeding up data and AI processes to empower enterprises to make more accurate and timely decisions, thereby increasing revenue generation and optimising costs.
It also partnered with Thailand’s REPCO NEX and AboitizPower to create the Philippines’ first smart power plants. These plants use DSAI to optimise their performance, empower operators and engineers to make more informed decisions, and ensure a safe and resilient power grid.
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In addition to those partnerships, the startup has also teamed up with leading organisations in the banking and financial services sector, power sector, and public sector.
“At ADI, we hope to become the go-to partner for organisations in making AI work. We aim to foster a collaborative ecosystem across the region where entities can work together to push the boundaries of innovation to solve pressing problems and uncover opportunities,” CEO Dr. David R. Hardoon tells e27 in an email interview.
“Emerging from the Aboitiz Group with diverse businesses, our data science and AI capabilities focus on financial services, power, and the public sector. We are well-positioned to expand our AI capabilities built and tested in the Philippines and Singapore to other SEA markets, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, by addressing common challenges while adapting to each market’s unique nuances.”
In this conversation, we learn how ADI plans to leverage its expertise in the Philippines and Singapore to address similar challenges and opportunities in neighbouring markets, fostering industry-wide transformation.
This is the edited excerpt of the conversation.
What key challenges and opportunities has ADI identified in the Philippines and Singapore that are common across neighbouring markets?
Despite being a hot topic for a few years, AI still raises concerns due to its novelty. Implementing AI innovations in SEA faces varying readiness levels, and while innovating with AI can pose challenges, it offers opportunities for transformative breakthroughs.
For me, AI is all about knowledge. They are not replacing humans in terms of knowledge. Still, suddenly, you have this technology that aids us in organising knowledge and making sense of the available information.
AI’s value lies not just in the information it provides but also in how that information is applied. Organisations should move beyond focusing solely on revenue potential and invest in AI to enhance their capabilities and achieve long-term improvements.
Similarly, when parents invest in a child’s university education, they don’t ask, “How much will I get back in five years?” They invest to improve the child’s capabilities and future prospects.
The way we see AI at ADI is that it provides the inherent ability to find patterns through data, which is crucial to making sound decisions that would lead to solutions to problems and new opportunities. We recognise that various industries and countries in the region face both common and unique challenges. This is where AI solutions stand out, offering scalability or customisation as needed.
AI technologies are designed to adapt and be applied broadly while being flexible enough to be tailored to specific needs or challenges.
In the bigger picture, organisations can benefit from harnessing AI. While it’s good for one or two companies to benefit from AI, the real opportunity lies in empowering organisations across industries to adopt AI and derive benefits from it.
How does ADI plan to apply its expertise and successful strategies from the Philippines and Singapore to other markets in the region?
We plan to adapt our successful strategies from the Philippines and Singapore to other markets by tailoring them to local needs. We will use our insights to address specific challenges, build and strengthen partnerships, and implement best practices to replicate our success and drive growth across the region.
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We also leverage our team from over 14 countries globally, with diverse backgrounds, domain expertise, and local, regional, and global experience. With a global workforce, ADI promotes diversity, cultural exchange, cross-border collaboration, and a multidisciplinary approach. This diverse talent pool enables ADI to tap into a wide range of perspectives, skills, and experiences, enhancing our ability to leverage AI effectively.
What partnerships or collaborations is ADI pursuing to enhance its impact and effectiveness in addressing these challenges and opportunities in the broader region?
We have recently set a goal of expanding its data science and AI capabilities across SEA to foster innovation and growth across the region. Through our work in the Philippines, we found that some challenges and opportunities in deploying, developing, and delivering value from AI are the same as in neighbouring markets in SEA.
This provides an immense opportunity for us to bring ADI’s know-how and approaches to making AI work to other countries in the region. Besides Singapore, we are also currently exploring how we may integrate our data science and AI solutions to solve some of the most pressing issues in other neighbouring countries like Malaysia—for example, landslide detection in areas prone to adverse weather conditions.
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Image Credit: Aboitiz Data Innovation
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