Since I got my hands on ChatGPT, I’ve been fascinated with AI. Okay, Black Mirror is probably one of my favourite series on Netflix, but I don’t like watching it alone because it scares me. I don’t think we’re that far from a Blade Runner 2049 world.

One thing I noticed when I started using ChatGPT for a week was that my brain was getting sluggish. The various AI applications such as ChatGPT, Rytr and Grammarly’s AI have made writing and editing articles much easier.

The brain is a muscle like every other body part, and we need to keep it working out. I like improv because I call it mental gymnastics. So I had to find other ways to sharpen my brain — I started doing crossword puzzles that week and decided to learn Bahasa in Duolingo. Nothing like learning a new language to keep your brain moving.

In an era where artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT provide instant answers, there’s growing concern that reliance on these platforms might dampen our cognitive abilities. The question is, how do we leverage these powerful tools without losing our edge? In this article, we’ll explore actionable strategies for balancing the convenience of AI with the development of human intellect.

Set clear boundaries: Know when to use AI

• Determine when to use AI and when to think independently.
• Use AI for complex queries and personal effort for simpler ones.
• The balance between convenience and cognitive effort.

Engage in regular mental exercises: Stay sharp

• Participate in activities that challenge the brain, such as puzzles, reading, and writing.
• Explore creative pursuits like storytelling and stand-up comedy to enhance cognitive function.

Also Read: Should ChatGPT chat with your customers?

Apply what you learn: Make it practical

• Utilise the information gathered through AI in practical scenarios.
• Teach others to reinforce learning and maintain cognitive sharpness.

Incorporate physical exercise: A healthy mind in a healthy body

•  Regular exercise increases blood flow to the brain, enhancing mental function.
•  Physical health is an essential part of maintaining mental acuity.

Leverage AI as a collaborative tool: Partner with technology

•  Engage with AI tools in a way that complements your thinking.
•  Use AI to inspire new ideas and insights rather than merely as an information provider.

AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard are undoubtedly revolutionising how we access information. But they should not be seen as a threat to human intelligence. By adopting a balanced approach and implementing these strategies, we can maintain our cognitive edge and harness the full potential of AI.

Not only can we preserve our intellectual abilities, but we can also foster growth and creativity. The future is not about AI versus human intellect but how we can wisely integrate the two to forge new paths in understanding, innovation, and personal development.

I treat ChatGPT as both a sounding board and a springboard for idea generation for posts, articles, and, surprisingly enough, even jokes and stories when I’m stuck.

I use Canva’s AI to kick off slide creation, as I am not a big fan of slides.

Now dear reader, was this piece written by me or by AI?

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The era of artificial intelligence (AI) is here, and one function that could quietly reap its benefits is HR: specifically recruitment within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

SMEs continue to be blighted by talent shortages, with one global study of SME leaders revealing that talent acquisition and retention is a key challenge for nearly half of all businesses, only behind survival and expansion. An apparent challenge for smaller firms in Singapore is that they are recruiting from a shallow pool of candidates and, within that, competing with large, well-established businesses for talent. 

Given that SMEs are key drivers of economic growth, addressing these issues at a policy level is important and must be done consistently and continuously. Equally, though, it is time for small businesses to reimagine the hiring process entirely.

Exploring AI solutions to tackle talent gaps

Small business owners typically spend too much time writing job descriptions and sifting through hundreds of résumés, speaking to interested applicants, and establishing meaningful connections with talent for future recruitment. It is a tedious and expensive undertaking under normal circumstances – but especially so in today’s economic climate where business costs are rising and fears of a recession are looming.

In a recent survey we conducted among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), 81 per cent of Singaporean SME business leaders believe they can’t compete with multinational corporations for talent given the rising costs of recruitment. In order to expand and grow, employers need to find an easier, more seamless way to secure and maintain talent. 

Once considered an expensive, futuristic tech investment, AI solutions are now well and truly within the reach of small businesses. From sourcing and screening candidates to scheduling interviews and even reducing bias in the process, there are sophisticated AI tools that are increasingly improving recruitment results for businesses on a small budget. 

Also Read: What can local companies do in 2023 for workplace mental fitness?

This was one of the key considerations that went into developing Swag – our own AI-powered solution that’s specifically designed to level the playing field for SMEs in the current employment landscape. Conversations with several small businesses made it clear that finding and retaining employees due to increased overheads and limited resources hinders their productivity, growth and oftentimes their survival in a challenging macroeconomic environment. 

Reaping rich rewards 

The return on investment for AI-driven recruitment solutions can be tremendous. New, emerging studies already point to remarkable returns for businesses using AI-driven solutions in the form of cost and time savings as well as strategic business benefits. 

What’s more, these solutions are punching above their weight to drive value beyond talent acquisition. For example, Swag is also a primary interface for work-related tasks, offering features like shout-outs, time and attendance management, leave tracking and rostering, which plays an important role in retaining and engaging talent.  

Addressing AI critics

As with any technological innovation, but especially with AI – there are plenty of critics. Within the recruitment industry, the reticence to adopt AI solutions has to do with risks of bias and redundancy of recruitment roles. The answer to both issues is the same: regardless of what solutions SMEs choose, recruiters won’t be replaced by AI.

If anything, AI can help recruiters spend time on higher-value tasks, including improving the candidate experience, building on candidate insights and engaging with passive candidates. Importantly, talent acquisition teams can focus on scrutinising bias and demanding greater transparency from the AI platforms they use. 

Small businesses are crucial to the nation’s economy, and today they face challenges on two key fronts: a lack of skilled and qualified staff needed for better productivity and future growth and a serious cost-of-living crisis faced by their employees, leading them to look externally for job opportunities.

AI-based solutions proactively address both these pain points by empowering employers to streamline key parts of the recruiting process, leading to improved talent attraction and retention, saving costs and time in the process.

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In the evolving landscape of the tech industry, diversity and inclusion are more than mere buzzwords – they are essential components driving progress and innovation. While attempts have been made in recent years to increase gender and racial representation in tech, the inclusion of disabled persons remains a pivotal yet often overlooked aspect of this broader conversation.

According to an Adobe study, 77 per cent of employees with disabilities feel their employers have improved support since the pandemic began. Yet, 84 per cent of all respondents, irrespective of disability status, think their colleagues would benefit from enhanced workplace accessibility.

Moreover, 75 per cent of the disability community considers accessibility and inclusivity as crucial when assessing job opportunities. These insights indicate that, despite advancements in the workplace and technological accessibility, there’s room for further improvement.

In the tech sector, leveraging diverse perspectives is essential for innovation. Representation of disabled individuals is not only ethically significant but also drives growth and dynamism. The concept of diversity and inclusion is not only about hiring people from all walks of life but creating an environment where they are valued and appreciated for their unique identities. 

A recent study by McKinsey & Company, Diversity wins: How inclusion matters, revealed that companies excelling in diversity and inclusion see a profitability increase between 25 per cent to 36 per cent. These companies also have superior employee retention and demonstrate a 20 per cent elevated rate of innovation compared to their counterparts.

In July, marking Disability Pride Month, the emphasis was on the importance of embracing individuals with disabilities, offering a moment of reflection on the state of inclusion in tech, and highlighting both challenges and initiatives taken by industry leaders. As a leading player in the tech ecosystem, GitHub shares how they are promoting inclusion and accessibility in their platform.

A commitment to inclusive development

On May 18, which was also Global Accessibility Awareness Day,  GitHub announced several product updates aimed at enhancing inclusivity and accessibility for its 100M+ developers.

Also Read: Building the rainbow bridge: How businesses can foster Diversity & Inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees

GitHub’s first Head of Accessibility, Ed Summers, says, “Today, there are over 650 million people in APAC living with disabilities and more than one billion people globally. I’m proud to be one of them. However, those of us with disabilities encounter barriers every day that we need to work around to live the life we want to live. The World Bank has labelled this situation ‘The Disability Divide’ and acknowledged technology as a ‘disruptive force’ that can enable the inclusion of people with disabilities.

“Technology has the potential to completely transform life for people with disabilities. But, if we want to make a real difference in accessibility, we’ve got to figure out how to get more people with disabilities on board as creators, incorporating their valuable insights and lived experiences into the mix.”

Summers, confronted with a degenerative retina condition, lost his vision twenty years ago and adapted to screen readers and other assistive technologies to navigate computer systems. Committed to furthering accessibility, his primary goal is to assist individuals with disabilities in maximising their potential in both the modern classroom and the 21st-century knowledge economy.

Grounded in his experiences, Summers asserts that involving individuals with disabilities in the software development process stands as a pivotal strategy to enhance accessibility and address the Disability Divide. This principle has underpinned his professional pursuits for the past decade.

“In August 2022, I started my professional journey as Head of Accessibility at GitHub. Every day I’m excited to be here because GitHub has a critical role to play in improving accessibility and disability inclusion for developers globally,” remarked Summers. 

GitHub’s accessibility program aims to support individuals with disabilities in software development. The initiative begins with the company’s hiring practices and includes training for all employees on accessibility protocols. The platform is being adapted to accommodate developers with disabilities, and GitHub collaborates with these developers to understand their specific requirements. 

The GitHub team has implemented several accessibility improvements, including a primary navigation experience designed with accessibility in mind and a fast code search compatible with screen readers. Looking ahead, GitHub Copilot, an AI tool for developers, has introduced an experimental feature called GitHub Copilot Voice, enabling coding through voice and potentially assisting developers with hand-typing challenges.

The company is also working with external partners and the open-source community to further its goals for disability inclusion. GitHub commits to maintaining its focus on accessibility, providing updates on its progress, and addressing community feedback.

Personal triumphs highlight industry-wide potential

While we discuss the advancements in assistive technology and the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in software development, it’s crucial to illustrate these points with real-world examples. Let’s consider the story of Becky Tyler to provide a firsthand perspective.

Becky Tyler’s journey in coding began uniquely: she navigates the digital world entirely with her eyes, from live streaming and drawing to writing code. Her interest originated from gaming, especially Minecraft. While studying computer science at the University of Dundee, she explored open-source software and collaboration.

Initially, Becky interacted with video games through Special Effects, a nonprofit focusing on accessibility. However, the assistive equipment’s limitations led to her seeking enhanced tools. In response, developer Kirsty McNaught, in conjunction with Special Effect, integrated OptiKey’s eye gaze tracking with EyeMine, an interface tailored for players with disabilities. As a beta tester, Becky’s passion for coding was kindled, realizing she could address many accessibility challenges firsthand.

Also Read: How and why you should embrace neurodiversity at the workplace

Becky’s story is similar to that of many other developers, but with one exception – the standard way of using a computer was inaccessible to her. Her journey underscores the transformative potential of assistive technology for individuals with disabilities and the importance of their involvement in the development process.

The intersection of tech and inclusivity

Diversity and inclusion are evolving past mere social responsibility markers. Companies increasingly understand that aiding employees with disabilities through necessary infrastructure and assistive technology not only boosts credibility but also spurs innovation. 

A diverse and inclusive organisational culture augments value and productivity while opening doors for a broader talent pool. This results in a new ecosystem that enables fresh ideas and encourages a progressive approach to roadblocks.

“I hope to see more advances in assistive technologies in the coming years. This includes more sophisticated and accessible tools that cater to a wider range of disabilities, enabling seamless participation in various aspects of life and work. I also hope to see even more opportunities open up for disabled individuals in the tech industry.

“By taking proactive steps like implementing accessible workplace design and inclusive policies, organisations can enable disabled individuals to have more meaningful and fulfilling careers in tech. My vision is a future where people with disabilities play a vital role in shaping technological innovations, making society more inclusive and prosperous for everyone,” said Summers.

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Singapore-based VC firm Jungle Ventures has announced the addition of HealthXCapital to lead its healthcare investments in Southeast Asia and India.

Seemant Jauhari, a seasoned leader with 22 years of experience in healthcare investments who has led HealthXCapital since its inception, will be joining Jungle Ventures as a Partner for healthcare.

HealthXCapital has engaged with more than 1,200 founders across a wide range of healthcare segments, including home care, ambulatory care, insurtech, data sciences, and brain health. Their portfolio features names such as RED.Health, Homage, Medfin, and THB.

Jungle Ventures specialises in early to growth-stage investments in Southeast Asia and India, with a focus on nurturing businesses from their inception through their journey to becoming unicorns and eventually to IPO.

The firm’s portfolio includes regional and global category leaders such as Kredivo, Moglix, Pomelo, Livspace, Builder.ai, and Sociolla.

Also Read: Boost Capital lands US$2.5M for its chat-based bank client onboarding platform

The digital transformation in the healthcare industry, spurring innovations in advanced diagnostics, personalised medicine, big data, and AI, offers a significant opportunity for founders and investors to partner with innovators aiming to impact healthcare for the two billion people in Southeast Asia and India.

“I believe that by converging outside-in perspectives derived from investing across sectors and our nuanced understanding of healthcare, we shall be able to bring forth a unique strategic and operational value add to healthcare startups in the region,” said Jauhari.

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Singapore-based IoT transaction platform, Beep, has announced the launch of what it claims to be Southeast Asia’s largest electric vehicle roaming (eRoaming) network. Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore (HMGICS), Tribecar, EVFY, Singapore Electric Vehicles, and Quantum Mobility are among the initial entities to use the network.

Beep also announced the successful completion of its seed funding round, led by GGV Capital and Wing Vasiksiri. NUS Technology Holdings, SUTD Venture Holdings, XA Network, and prominent angel investors also took part in the funding round. The amount of funding is undisclosed.

Beep will utilise the fresh funds to improve technical connectivity and deploy the largest roaming network in Southeast Asia as part of expansion plans into Malaysia, Thailand, and beyond. The company will continue to collaborate with additional charge point operators, vehicle OEMs, and fleets to grow the network on a permission basis.

Also Read: We need to accelerate progress at the frontier of innovation

Founded in 2018, Beep seeks to transform the traditional vending machine industry by enabling cashless transactions through its innovative IoT platform.

Beep’s platform functions as a universal translator, connecting various charging systems used by different operators, eliminating the need for extra integration efforts. Rather than developing a proprietary Voltality charging app, Beep provides a white-label website or API, enabling vehicle manufacturers, charging operators, and fleets to incorporate charging connectivity into their current applications or interfaces.

After collaborating with the Singapore Government during the pandemic, Beep launched Voltality in 2021, an eMobility platform for businesses and drivers. In 2022, it initiated the region’s first eRoaming pilot with five operators.

Spanning over 1,350 charge points, the network is a collaboration with 11 operators in Singapore, including the nation’s three largest operators — SP Group, ComfortDelGro ENGIE (CDG ENGIE), and Charge+, as well as strategic providers like QuickCharge, MNL Solutions, and Go by City Energy.

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Image credit: Beep

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It’s almost impossible as a business owner to take a long break from work and your day-to-day. But I sensed a huge burnout in the last few months. I was working hard, I was happy but always tired. I found temporary energy by spending time with friends, my kids, visiting my family, but not any of it was long-lasting.

The last few years have been tiring with non-stop juggling at work and balancing home. The last memorable long break I took was the 14-day quarantine I did inside a hotel room in Singapore during the peak of COVID-19. My husband joked then that I walked out of that hotel room ‘glowing’.

So when the chance came to drop off our elder daughter for her overseas summer programme, it almost seemed like I have to make it work for me too. With some months of planning (both for me, her and our younger one), I embarked on what I now call ‘my biggest work from anywhere project’. This may seem normal to anyone (and very doable), but I am in the service industry, where my work requires me to be physically around to make things happen.

I choose to spend my five-week period alone in a small town with a slow pace and simple needs. So here are the steps I took to recharge, reboot and reflect:

• Being in a different time zone:  This helped to keep my day ‘empty and slow pace’. The freedom to wake up late, sit endlessly in a café, go for long walks, read for hours, binge watch.
• Set working hours with the team: This helped me to bring structure and process to my work on a day-to-day basis. This led me to prioritise my work and taught me to learn to disengage to let go of ‘small things’ which, in usual times, I would have spent hours doing.
• Focus and Priority: I did not overload myself with work during this period. With the clear objective of giving myself ‘rest’, I said no to some tempting work that came my way. This surely helped me to keep the focus and priority on my well-being.

Also Read: Data driven healing: The potential of analytics and AI in advancing mental health

• I travelled light (three tracks, two jeans, three shirts), did my own laundry, cooked for myself (very rarely, though), learnt easy cooking hacks, set a budget for my daily meals, and found cafes where I could spend hours with my tablet or book.
• This trip helped me to stay agile and adaptable. Learning new ways of living, adapting to a new culture, and staying alone, required me to always be flexible. Some nights were long and stressful at work (thank you, my team, for making it fun always), so it required me to rest up and take it easy the next day (read order Uber eats).
• The slow pace and small towns: There is a charm about being in a small town. From a local cafe to your neighbourhood supermarket who start to recognise you and your preferences. I have always been a city girl, living a fast-paced life. Hence, picking a small town (all cafes close at 4:30 pm) forced me to slow down. This probably is life-changing for me, making me realise that small-town life or slow-paced life is good for me (and setting this pace lies in my hands). I don’t remember the last time I napped in the afternoon or spent hours reading the newspaper!

• Pick a nice accommodation: I spent weeks researching before finally choosing my place of stay. Apart from budget, location, view, and amenities, I also looked for security to feel safe. Not to forget, I chose to save on all sightseeing and travel costs, hence could splurge on a nice place to stay. I will always have fond memories of the hotel staff who always kept an eye on me, the housekeeping staff who learnt about my late-night work routine and were mindful not to knock on my door for service early mornings.

I’m recharged, rebooted, enhanced with better digital skills (more adaptable to work on the go), even more resilient, thankful for the solo time, and for helping me bring out a better version of myself!

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The history of civilisation has been one of humankind taking ownership of the natural environment and reshaping it for our benefit. Taking basic food security for granted has been a fixture of 21st-century living in the developed world. The better off enjoy a globe-spanning choice of ingredients and cuisines.

Today’s city dwellers can access a mesmerising range of food brands and formats. Tech advancement has led to a crescendo of new product development, leveraging novel and newly popularised foods and new ways of making food.

The Asia Pacific, for instance, is a hotbed for alternative protein startups, with record investments of US$312 million flowing into the sector as of 2021 across categories including cultured meat, plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, and insect protein.

Singapore has emerged as a key hub of innovation and finance of new foods, scoring one of the highest levels of Agrifoodtech capital funding. The city-state recently climbed up 10 spots to 8th in the global startup ecosystem rankings.

As a land and resource-scarce state relying on the vibrancy of its people and living environment for success, achieving resilient food systems and more healthy and sustainable diets are key national priorities. Hence Singapore’s “30-by-30” effort to strengthen the nation’s food security and the Healthier SG initiative helping Singaporeans lead healthier lifestyles. Singapore has also been an early mover and standard setter in advancing sustainability and “Green Growth” in the face of intensifying climate change and environmental degradation.

Also Read: Singapore’s food services in 2023: Trends, challenges, and opportunities

Tech will be a key enabler to achieving such food security, wellness, and sustainability goals across Asia and worldwide. Investment and innovation will advance and harness tech to shape the future of food, transforming options for food production, accessing nutrition, and how food consumption is shaped and experienced.

Deliveroo’s recently launched Snack to the Future report explored these themes, visualising possibilities for food delivery in the context of the food culture and systems in 2040.

Bespoke diets catered to unique biological needs

Technology is set to revolutionise how we eat, with people able to enjoy food that is both healthier for them and less impactful on the environment. Think consumers opting for local, sustainably sourced, and nutritious foods and accessing bespoke diets suited to their unique needs, powered by advances in Artificial Intelligence and other technologies.

As scientific knowledge of integrated body systems and how to quantify them in real-time advances, we could also leverage information captured from an individual’s gut microbiome, metabolome, and genome and use food science and technology to translate the findings into bespoke nutritional and gastronomic solutions for each eater. “Breathprint” technology may be able to detect compounds in one’s exhaled air and provide information about one’s health that can also inform their dietary choices.

“Me-ganism” – an emerging trend cited in Deliveroo’s report – refers to a diet catered to individuals’ unique needs and powered by AI technology. This could become the diet of the future via a personalised AI system that gathers data about individuals’ lifestyles, including sleep, exercise, heart rate and hormones, to provide customised meal recommendations.

With the Personalised Nutrition industry projected to reach SG$86.5 billion by 2040, there are many opportunities for companies to hyper-personalise the food people enjoy in the future.

Building a self-sufficient Singapore amid climate change

Deliveroo’s report also delves into the wider industry shift towards innovations supporting more local food production. By 2040, new forms and national and corporate strategies for resilient nutrition could be the norm as environmental changes and overpopulation contribute to food shortages and supply chain disruptions that trigger instability and hardship across parts of the world.

“Climate-smart agriculture” techniques that adapt and shield food production from rising climate pressures are arising. A key strategy will be diversification beyond the overly concentrated and hence vulnerable range of plant and animal species in today’s mainstream agriculture.

Overlooked indigenous plant varieties with resilient and nutritive traits will be rediscovered and scaled. Think petai, jackfruit, cowpea, arrowroot, azuki bean, buckwheat, amaranth, and a range of yams, pulses, and beans.

To adapt to the climate challenge, all parts of the food value chain need to support more sustainable, nutritious food production right where it is consumed. Governments, investors, startups and corporate innovators should continue to enhance the range and competitiveness of urban farming platforms and solutions.

Food processors, retailers and the food service sector must give consumers the options and awareness to eat locally and can advance farm-to-table collaborations and innovations. Regulatory enablement harnessing a robust scientific base is especially key for the viability and scaling of novel foods such as cultured meat.

Also Read: Feeding the future: Innovation, entrepreneurship, and the rise of food tech in Asia

The role of food delivery services in the future of food

Adjacent industries such as food delivery also need to simultaneously transform their offerings to be more personalised and sustainable. With Personalised AI, advanced meal delivery services could have sophisticated AI-driven diagnostic tools that cater to people’s lifestyle needs, with predictive approaches that can automate people’s food orders based on their preferences and needs and perhaps incentivise them to lead healthier lifestyles.

Being in a food paradise like Singapore also affords food delivery platforms an ever-expanding plethora of meals to offer customers. With new technologies, food delivery platforms will be able to access customers’ health data – with due consent and safeguards – to recommend meal choices best aligned with their preferences and nutritional needs.

Food delivery companies will need to take definitive steps to cater to customers of the future and make this vision of personalised, convenient, and immersive deliveries a reality. Winning today involves listening to customers and catering nimbly to both mass and premium markets. Winning tomorrow means looking to the future beyond what customers can conceive of today and being the first and best to meet them there with the best new value, offerings, and resilient reliability.

Looking ahead to 2040, there are many challenges to global food security, not the least the pressures of climate change, which today’s food system has played a part in creating. The scaling of transformative new technologies and business models “from farm to fork” will be crucial. Seen together, the possibilities to realise sustainable, healthy, and fulfilling food lifestyles for tomorrow are awesome and exciting. The food industry, innovators, investors, and governments all have key roles to play.

But the critical step will be for consumers to gain awareness and take ownership of their roles as “food citizens” of the world. A sustainable food system is more than one click away, but begins with more intentional and informed food choices in delivery and beyond that embrace wellness for ourselves, all people, and the planet.

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Gushcloud is a force to reckon with in the influencer marketing space. Starting in Singapore as a social sharing platform in 2011 by Althea Lim and Vincent Ha, Gushcloud grew into a leading digital talent and media company with operations in 11 countries.

Over the 13 years of its existence, the company secured investments from GDP Ventures, Golden Equator Capital, KB Investments, Korea Investment Partners, and Kejora Ventures.

In this interview, Gushcloud Co-Founder and CEO Althea Lim discusses trends in the influencer marketing space, social media and digital marketing world, and the role of generative AI in this industry.

Edited excerpts:

Gushcloud positions itself as a connector between brands and influencers, but how do you ensure transparency and authenticity in influencer marketing, especially considering recent controversies surrounding fake followers and engagement?

At Gushcloud, strict policies ensure we only engage influencers with legitimate following and engagement. We run through these profiles via our own proprietary technology platform and cross-check them with various third-party platforms we have active partnerships with. Following that, we share their profile and statistics with our clients to check who amongst our talent roster best fits their brand.

Most importantly, we do not encourage nor help our influencers buy, engage, and interact with fake followers. Authenticity is critical in this business, and it is what drives the audience’s trust. Hence, our advice to all influencers we work with is to refrain from doing anything to disrupt that trust with their audiences.

With the increasing number of influencer marketing agencies in the market, what sets Gushcloud apart from its competitors? How do you maintain a competitive edge?

While we provide influencer marketing strategies and solutions for brands because we hold onto an exclusive roster of creators, Gushcloud is beyond an influencer marketing agency. In the last few years, we have pivoted to become a content and brands management group powered by the creator economy. We manage and finance content and brands alongside exclusive creators we work with.

Hence, our competitive edges are our network of 11 offices globally, allowing us to serve both brand and talent clients. Secondly, our content and intellectual property unit co-produces, licenses, and distributes content globally across platforms. And lastly, we co-develop and distribute our brands alongside creators via our commerce unit.

Trends and platforms constantly evolve in the fast-paced social media and digital marketing world. How does Gushcloud stay ahead of the curve and adapt its strategies to ensure maximum client reach and impact?

In the last few years, we have developed two units within the organisation, called Global Brands Solutions and Global Talent Solutions. Both are growing units where we place some of our best minds – to analyse key market trends, to project where this industry is headed alongside key platform players, and to keep testing out various new technologies to implement them into the company. By integrating these two units, we can give brand clients a substantial reach and impact based on their needs.

Can you provide examples of successful brand-influencer collaborations facilitated by Gushcloud that resulted in tangible business outcomes and return on investment?

Recently we launched V of BTS as the ambassador of Sinarmas (an Indonesian securities company). Gushcloud brokered that international partnership with the help of our Korea and Indonesia offices.

With V of BTS, the brand encouraged more young people in Indonesia to be an investor. It launched the partnership in March with an advertising campaign in Indonesia and followed it with a fan-meet called “Siminvestival Goes To Korea” in Seoul last June.

Also Read: Gushcloud raises US$11M to expand its digital celebrity representation biz into US, China

The TVC production resulted in a lot of buzz through capturing the aesthetic side of talent, and the tagline, including the brand name “Hey Sim” became viral among the audience.

During the launch, the brand achieved 550 per cent growth in social media (from 23,000 to 130,000), trending no.1 worldwide.

Gushcloud claims to co-create significant IPs in the content and event spaces. Can you elaborate on the IP creation process and share some notable examples of successful IP developed by the company?

We have a unit in the company under the content management department. Currently, our IPs are focused on entertainment and education –two areas that can help reshape how future generations can feel and think for the better.

Two of our IPs were on exhibition in Singapore. The first is Sneakertopia, the world’s largest sneaker exhibition, previously at the ArtScience Museum. It first opened in Los Angeles before the pandemic, and we licensed it and worked with a production company to reproduce it in Singapore. The exhibition did extremely well, and we are now on track to opening it up in Jakarta, Taiwan and Japan.

The second offline experience is Escape @ Science Centre, where we have three STEM-themed escape rooms now open for mystery solvers. It is open from Thursday to Sunday, 10:00 AM to 10:30 PM. We worked closely with the development team at the Singapore Science Centre for this project and are currently working towards licensing it out of Singapore. Beyond that, we are also working with owners of beloved IPs to license their IPs to recreate them into Escape Rooms.

Influencer marketing often involves navigating complex legal and ethical considerations, such as disclosures, endorsements, and privacy. How does Gushcloud ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards?

We do not compromise on legality, especially because we have a lot of cross-border contracts. Accountability is key for us and our influencers, especially for paid collaborations and sponsored partnerships.

At Gushcloud, we work closely with the brand to ensure that there could be little or no miscommunication and misrepresentation of intention. We also stay away from paid influencer gigs that could have the possibility of being mistaken to be propaganda. At the same time, we also handle the due diligence of incoming brand clients on behalf of our talent today.

Building long-term relationships between brands and influencers can be challenging due to changing market dynamics and shifting audience preferences. How does Gushcloud cultivate sustainable partnerships and ensure continued success for its clients?

At Gushcloud, we believe in long-term partnerships. When we think about long-term partnerships for our brand clients and talent – it has to be a “win-win” situation.

The brands we work with must gain awareness that turns into engagements and conversions. The talent we work with must align with the brand and develop those results for the brand such that the brand becomes a long-term partner to the talent. That’s how we think about packaging and performance.

Beyond that, we also believe in providing high-quality service to talent and brand partners. At Gushcloud, we always say, “everyone wants to fly business but pay economy and Gushcloud aims to be the SQ of the creator economy”.

And lastly, at Gushcloud, we constantly innovate in the space with the data we are collecting, developing more sticky services such as content publishing and content commerce, creating more cross-border and platform solutions and creatively investing in more performance for our brands and talent.

Content creation and media production have become increasingly democratised with the rise of user-generated content. How does Gushcloud adapt its services to leverage the power of user-generated content while still providing value to its clients?

We have a unit within the company called Gushcloud Unscripted Content division. This is where we hire some of the industry’s top film producers and directors to co-develop and co-produce high-quality content alongside the content creators to be acquired by the streaming networks and studios.

Also Read: Influencer marketing strategies: Driving engagement and reach in Indonesia

We also have another division called Content Publishing, providing content optimisation, licensing and publishing services to multiple platforms. This allows the talent to produce a single piece of content but is distributed on multiple platforms, hence allowing the content to monetise more efficiently.

Measurement and analytics are crucial for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of influencer marketing campaigns. How does Gushcloud track and measure the success of its campaigns, and how do you ensure accurate metrics reporting to clients?

The measurement varies depending on client needs or requirements. We look into social media engagement and reach, hashtag performance, critical message awareness, and, most important, sales and conversion performance.

In the case of the partnership we brokered between Sinarmas and V of BTS, we also indicated our success with the number of new investors and the number of investments they received during the launch phase.

As the influencer marketing landscape becomes saturated, how does Gushcloud navigate the challenge of finding and working with authentic and influential content creators amidst the noise and competition?

We have built an internal data platform, which has effectively given us data on follower authenticity and the creator’s engagement rates, allowing us to know if the creator will have the ability and power to convert. The platform also informs us on which notable creators follow that particular creator and the data on them. We found huge success in making such informed decisions alongside the brands.

How does Gushcloud leverage advanced technologies like Generative AI to stay ahead of the curve?

Three ways:

1. By implementing AI in our operations and processes: we started using AI to increase our team efficiency and productivity and predict market trends. We also use AI to scout for new creators and will be using AI next to execute and develop campaigns.
2. Virtual Influencers: we have huge hopes for the Virtual Influencers industry and are using AI to bet big in the space. AI assists us with character and story development.
3. Licensing of rights: Imagine using generative AI to develop Snoop Dogg’s voice and have it sing nursery rhymes to your children. We are also big betters in that space.

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Image Credit: Gushcloud.

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Amidst the AI revolution, e27 presents a new series showcasing how organisations embrace AI in their operations.

Nick Eayrs serves as the Vice President of Field Engineering for Asia Pacific and Japan at Databricks.

Joining the company in January 2019, he currently leads the technical team of Data Engineers and Solutions Architects across the region. In his role, Eayrs offers thought leadership and guidance for implementing data and AI strategies at the C-level with major global customers.

In this edition, Eayrs shares how Databricks has embraced Artificial Intelligence.

Edited excerpts:

How do you perceive the AI revolution and its potential impact on your industry and workforce?

ChatGPT set off an awareness revolution last November when people could see and interact with AI, when it was already very much in our everyday lives – think Siri and your program recommendations on Netflix, among many others.

This sudden growing interest in Artificial Intelligence and large language models (LLMs) is reflected in what we have seen. The Databricks State of Data and AI report showed that the number of companies using LLMs has surged by 1,310 per cent between the end of November 2022 and the beginning of May 2023.

I’m excited about the AI revolution and its immense potential to make businesses and the workforce worldwide more productive and efficient. There is potential to discover lifesaving drugs quicker than ever with the help of AI; grocery retailers can reduce fresh produce wastage by correctly predicting the amount of fresh produce to stock up for different periods.

These are among the many other impactful AI use cases that improve our daily lives.

In what ways has your company embraced AI technologies to improve operational efficiency or enhance business processes?

Our company was founded because big data and AI are difficult problems.

Databricks is leveraging LLMs to build chatbots for our engineering teams — by training them with relevant proprietary data and manuals to understand our subject matter. Our internal chatbot is a helpful tool for our engineers to look for solutions that may otherwise take them much longer to solve.

On the creative front, our marketing teams are leveraging LLMs to help draft tweets so that our staff can quickly review the tweets.

Databricks has developed LakehouseIQ, a first-of-its-kind knowledge engine that continuously learns about your business, data, and relevant concepts. Most users will see this surfaced as a new assistant that helps them derive insights from their Databricks Lakehouse platform using natural language queries. It also provides intelligent search capabilities and allows for effective management/troubleshooting of user workflows.

LakehouseIQ also exposes all of these capabilities through an API so that you can build and power your own enterprise AI applications.

Can you share specific examples of how AI has been integrated into your workforce to streamline operations or drive innovation?

Beyond the specific examples that Databricks is using AI internally to make our workforce more productive, we also enable over 10,000 organisations all around the world with their data and AI:

• Financial institutions like Siam Commercial Banks use AI to modernise their loan application process in the financial services sector, offering instant loan approvals based on predictive analytics (transforming the manual evaluation, which used to take weeks).
• Car-sharing platforms like GetGo use AI to help with demand forecasting, fraud detection, and geospatial analytics in the transportation sector, optimising user experience.
• In the energy and utilities space, waste management companies like Cleanaway use AI to plan their route to deliver efficient waste and recycling services daily to millions of households and facilities.

What challenges or concerns did you encounter when implementing AI within your organisation, and how did you address them?

AI’s potential remains boundless. It is beneficial for organisations of all sizes because of its potential to provide value for internal stakeholders like employees and external stakeholders like customers but the key to AI is quality data.

Also Read: The value for biz lies in how humans, AI will enhance each other’s strengths: Mixpanel CEO

Our research with MIT Technology Review reveals that 72 per cent of the interviewed CIOs say that data is the biggest challenge for AI, and 68 per cent say unifying their data platform for analytics and AI is crucial. This reflects our conversations with organisations — the biggest challenge that enterprises struggle with is siloed infrastructure and disparate data platforms and tools, which are incompatible and challenging to integrate.

This is why Databricks pioneered the data Lakehouse, an open and unified data management architecture that combines the best of data lakes and data warehouses — so companies can effectively do both AI and BI on a single platform, maximising the value of AI.

How do you ensure transparency and uphold ethical considerations in using AI technologies within your organisation to mitigate privacy concerns?

Data privacy is a key concern for all companies intending to build their LLMs. Our customers’ first concern is this: ‘how can we build our own LLM models in-house without handing over our sensitive and proprietary data to a third party?’

That is why AI must be democratised so that every organisation — large or small, profit or non-profit — can benefit from the AI revolution while controlling how their data is used and keeping ownership of the value created.

Each organisation sits on a treasure trove — its data. This data only really has value when its business context is understood. This is why many organisations train LLM models in-house rather than handing their data over to third parties. With open-sourced LLM models that are now able to be used
companies can leverage these tools commercially to build their own LLMs on top of their data.

Also Read: AI has its advantages, but it can never fully replace humans: Asnawi Jufrie of SleekFlow

To do this, companies must have all their data in a unified platform like the Lakehouse. It enables businesses to carefully control their company-wide data and Artificial Intelligence development carefully, allowing them to better manage risks on one unified platform.

How do you ensure that AI technologies complement your workforce’s existing skills and expertise rather than replacing or displacing human workers?

AI is meant to enhance productivity and not replace workers. AI is not about job displacement but job augmentation.

In many instances, we will still want a human in the loop to oversee and check the output from AI while having AI do the mundane stuff more efficiently. AI is meant to solve specific business challenges and enhance productivity so employees can focus on their jobs more interesting, creative and high-value aspects.

How do you envision the future collaboration between humans and AI? What role do you see AI playing in augmenting human capabilities?

We partnered with MIT Technology Review and released a report on CIO perspectives on generative AI, and this is one of the many insights from CIOs across the globe:

• “We internally view AI/ML as being a helper, truly helping our people, and then allowing them to spend more time on other value-added activities.” — Cynthia Stoddard, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Adobe.

In many ways, Artificial Intelligence is not meant to perform extremely complicated work that requires a lot of planning fully automatically. Conversely, I don’t think there’s anyone whose job is just the super simple stuff that a language model can do.

What advice would you give to founders looking to leverage AI in their workforce?

There is a saying, ‘Garbage in, garbage out’, underscoring a vital principle in AI — that the quality of the given data determines the quality of AI’s output. The resulting AI models will likely be defective if the data is flawed, biased, or incomplete.

More importantly, if data is stored in silos and in disparate systems that aren’t compatible, companies will not be able to unlock the potential of the data and Artificial Intelligence fully.

This is where Lakehouse architecture comes in, an open and unified platform for data, analytics and AI.

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Atome Financial, a Singapore-based buy-now-pay-later company targetting unbanked and underbanked consumers, has renewed its US$100 million debt facility with HSBC Singapore.

The funds will help the fintech firm to expand its services in the Philippine market and develop new consumer financing products.

Atome entered the Philippine market in end-2021 by partnering with over 50 online and offline retailers across fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and home & living. The Philippines presents enormous opportunities for the fintech firm as 34.3 million adults are unbanked (as of 2021).

Also Read: How BNPL can provide lower-income households with new opportunities

Launched in December 2019, Atome is a digital platform providing consumers across the region with flexible deferred payments through its mobile app. In addition, it offers digital consumer loans in Indonesia through the Kredit Pintar mobile app.

Cumulatively, Atome claims it has over 40 million app downloads and disbursed more than US$4 billion in loans.

Andy Tan, Head of Funding, Atome Financial, said, “The HSBC investment will help us expand especially in the Philippines, a key strategic market for us, in providing unbanked and underbanked consumers with easier, simpler, and more affordable access to digital-first consumer financing products.”

In May 2021, Advance Intelligence Group, the parent of Atome, announced over a US$400 million raise as part of its Series D round of financing. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Warburg Pincus co-led the round, with participation from Northstar, Vision Plus Capital, Gaorong Capital, and EDBI.

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Image Credit: Atome

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