Artificial intelligence is no longer just a technology trend. Across Southeast Asia, it is reshaping how businesses hire, how employees work, and what skills matter most in the modern economy.

From startups to large enterprises, organisations are realising that AI is not only automating tasks. It is redefining human value in the workplace.

The biggest shift is happening in talent strategy. Companies are beginning to prioritise adaptability, problem-solving, and AI collaboration over traditional credentials alone. In the AI era, workers are increasingly expected to work alongside intelligent systems rather than compete against them.

For Southeast Asia’s fast-growing digital economy, this transition creates both major opportunities and serious challenges.

Why AI is changing the workforce

AI tools are rapidly improving productivity across industries. Tasks that once required hours of manual work can now be completed in minutes using generative AI, automation software, and intelligent workflows.

Administrative work, customer support, content production, coding assistance, and data analysis are becoming increasingly AI-assisted. As a result, businesses are rethinking what humans should focus on.

Instead of repetitive tasks, companies now value skills that AI cannot easily replicate, including:

• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Emotional intelligence
• Leadership
• Strategic decision-making
• Communication
• Relationship building

This shift is creating a workforce reset where human strengths become more important as automation grows.

Southeast Asia’s opportunity in the AI era

Southeast Asia is uniquely positioned for this transformation. The region has a young population, rising internet adoption, and rapidly expanding digital economies.

Countries like Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia are investing heavily in digital infrastructure and AI development.

At the same time, many businesses still face a shortage of AI-ready talent.

Also Read: Generalist or specialist? Building future-proof skills in the age of AI

This gap is pushing organisations to rethink recruitment and employee development. Companies no longer want workers who only follow fixed processes. They need employees who can adapt quickly, learn continuously, and use AI tools effectively.

The result is a growing shift toward skills-first hiring.

The rise of skills-first hiring

Traditional hiring often focused on degrees, years of experience, and rigid qualifications. In today’s AI-driven economy, many employers are placing greater importance on practical capability.

A candidate who understands AI tools, automation workflows, or data-driven decision-making may now have an advantage over someone with more traditional experience.

This trend is especially important in Southeast Asia, where access to elite education is uneven. AI tools are making knowledge more accessible, allowing more people to compete globally regardless of background.

Businesses are increasingly evaluating candidates based on:

• Portfolio quality
• Adaptability
• AI literacy
• Communication skills
• Execution ability
• Real-world problem solving

For many employers, learning speed is becoming more valuable than static expertise.

AI-ready teams need continuous learning

Building AI-ready teams requires more than simply adopting new software. Companies must also invest in workforce development.

Many organisations are introducing:

• AI literacy programmes
• Internal upskilling initiatives
• Cross-functional learning
• AI experimentation workshops
• Digital productivity training

Forward-thinking businesses understand that employees who know how to use AI effectively can significantly improve efficiency and innovation.

Also Read: Building the ASEAN AI archipelago: How Southeast Asia can secure its place in the global AI value chain

However, successful adoption also depends on company culture. Employees who fear AI may resist change, while organisations that position AI as a collaborative tool often see stronger engagement.

The goal is not to replace people entirely, but to help teams work smarter with intelligent systems.

Human skills are becoming more valuable

One common misconception is that AI will reduce the importance of human workers. In reality, many human-centred skills are becoming even more valuable.

AI can generate content and process information quickly, but it still struggles with empathy, trust, cultural understanding, and ethical judgment.

Businesses still rely on humans for:

• Leadership
• Negotiation
• Creative strategy
• Emotional connection
• Crisis management
• Relationship building

This is particularly important in Southeast Asia, where business culture often depends heavily on trust and long-term relationships.

As automation increases, human-centred capabilities may become the true competitive advantage.

Education must evolve faster

The AI talent reset also challenges educational institutions across Southeast Asia.

Many schools still focus heavily on memorisation and traditional testing methods, while employers increasingly need graduates with adaptability and digital problem-solving skills.

Also Read: AI’s tipping point: Why 2026 will separate the leaders from the laggards in financial services

Future-ready education should emphasise:

• Analytical thinking
• Creativity
• Communication
• AI collaboration
• Entrepreneurial thinking
• Digital literacy

This shift creates opportunities for online learning platforms, bootcamps, and industry-led training programmes that can move faster than traditional academic systems.

In the AI era, continuous learning is becoming essential for long-term career growth.

The future of talent in Southeast Asia

The future workforce in Southeast Asia will likely be defined by collaboration between humans and AI systems.

Workers who succeed will combine technical understanding with creativity, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. Meanwhile, companies that thrive will be those that invest in learning, flexible hiring strategies, and AI-ready cultures.

Artificial intelligence is changing what work looks like, but it is also redefining what makes humans valuable inside organisations.

For businesses across Southeast Asia, the challenge is no longer whether AI will transform the workforce. The challenge is how quickly organisations can adapt to the new era of talent.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of e27.

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The pantry on the eighth floor was unusually quiet that morning.

Several employees sat with coffee cups in their hands while large dashboards displayed customer behaviour, inventory movement, and real-time promotion analytics. Yet the discussion inside the room was not about sales targets or product shortages.

It was about something bigger. Talent reset.

“AI is changing retail faster than most companies are prepared for,” Bagas said while scrolling through a customer personalisation dashboard. “And honestly, the biggest challenge is no longer technology.”

Anne looked at him curiously. “Then what is the real challenge?”

“People,” Bagas answered calmly. “The workforce itself has to evolve.”

For years, retail companies focused on operational efficiency: lower costs, faster transactions, larger product catalogues, and more aggressive promotions. Technology mainly functioned as a support infrastructure.

But AI is changing the operating model entirely.

Modern retail systems are no longer passive systems waiting for customer actions. AI recommendation engines now predict customer behaviour, analyse shopping habits, generate personalised promotions, optimise inventory movement, and influence purchasing decisions in real time.

This transformation is creating a new economic reality inside retail organisations. And that reality is forcing companies into what many executives now describe as a talent reset.

What the talent reset actually means

The meaning of talent itself is changing.

Previously, retail success depended heavily on execution speed and operational discipline. Today, companies increasingly need employees who can combine business understanding, analytical thinking, technological literacy, and human empathy simultaneously.

Also Read: What great talent actually means in the AI era

The reset is happening across almost every layer of retail operations.

Marketing teams, for example, are no longer simply designing mass promotions for millions of customers. AI can already automate large portions of campaign distribution. The real value now lies in understanding customer behaviour patterns and designing meaningful personalisation strategies.

“Marketing people now need to think more like analysts,” Bagas explained. “AI can generate promotions automatically. But humans still decide what kind of experience should be created.”

The same shift is happening inside technical teams. Retail programmers are no longer only building cashier systems, mobile apps, or product catalogues. Increasingly, they are expected to understand recommendation engines, customer segmentation models, AI workflows, behavioural analytics pipelines, and automation architecture.

The role is evolving from software builder into business technology translator. A developer today may need to understand not only APIs and databases, but also why certain recommendation logic increases customer retention or why certain customer flows reduce cart abandonment. Technical skills alone are no longer enough. Business reasoning is becoming equally important.

Operations, inventory, and AI credibility

Operations teams are experiencing another form of pressure.

Inventory management used to focus mainly on stock availability. Now, inventory accuracy directly affects AI credibility. An AI system recommending unavailable products damages customer trust instantly.

Operational precision is no longer just an internal efficiency metric. It has become part of the customer experience itself.

“This is where many companies underestimate AI,” Bagas said. “They think AI alone creates transformation. But AI is only as strong as the operational ecosystem behind it.”

The human layer AI cannot replace

As AI automates repetitive tasks, human value increasingly shifts toward emotional understanding, judgment, communication, negotiation, and trust building.

Customer service teams illustrate this transformation clearly. AI chatbots can answer repetitive questions 24 hours a day. They can process refunds, explain delivery status, and recommend products instantly. But when customers are angry, disappointed, anxious, or emotionally frustrated, humans still matter most.

Also Read: From HR to talent flow: Why workforce management needs a supply chain mindset

“AI can predict what people buy,” Bagas said. “But humans understand why people buy.”

That sentence captured the heart of the entire transformation. Because shopping is rarely purely logical. Sometimes customers buy comfort food after a stressful day. Sometimes parents overspend because they feel guilty toward their children. Sometimes people shop emotionally during moments of uncertainty or loneliness. Human behaviour contains emotional context that AI still struggles to fully understand.

The companies that will win

This is why the future of retail will likely not belong to companies that simply deploy the most AI. It will belong to companies capable of redesigning human roles around AI.

The winners will be organisations that treat AI as a productivity layer while simultaneously investing in workforce adaptation, cross-functional thinking, and human-centred capability development.

Because the true talent reset is not about replacing humans with machines. It is about redefining what makes humans valuable in an AI-driven economy.

As the pantry discussion ended, employees slowly returned to their desks. Dashboards continued updating in real time. Recommendation engines kept learning from customer activity. Personalised promotions kept running automatically across mobile apps and digital channels.

And quietly, without dramatic announcements or headlines, the retail workforce itself was already being rewritten.

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Five years ago, companies were looking for a strong candidate with deep specialisation and years of experience working within established systems. Today, especially in AI-adjacent policy, research, and innovation work, I find myself looking for a very different kind of person: someone who can learn in public, stay humble, adapt quickly, and think across disciplines without becoming intellectually shallow.

We no longer look only for specialists who know one chapter extremely well. We look for people who can read the whole book. In our space, that means navigating technology, policy, communication, ethics, and human behaviour simultaneously.

The shift became clear to us during a recent hiring discussion for a project involving AI governance and regional policy engagement. We discussed that if two candidates applied at the same time, who would we want to choose? One candidate had an exceptional résumé and prestigious credentials but struggled to adapt when project requirements changed continuously. Another candidate had fewer formal achievements but quickly integrated AI tools, synthesised policy information across disciplines, and independently proposed workable solutions. Increasingly, organisations, including us, are choosing the second profile. This isn’t an isolated hiring anomaly. It mirrors a massive global shift.

According to the 2026 PwC Global AI Jobs Barometer, skills required for AI-exposed roles are evolving 66 per cent faster than those in non-AI roles, pushing organisations to rethink hiring metrics beyond static credentials.

Today, we look for people with strong soft skills, consistent judgment, and the ability to operate in resource-constrained environments. Experience under pressure often reveals whether someone can adapt, prioritise, and continue functioning effectively in uncertainty. Experience in using AI or AI automation has also become important. Looking back, only three years ago, AI proficiency was barely discussed in hiring conversations, illustrating how rapidly organisational expectations have shifted.

Also Read: Generalist or specialist? Building future-proof skills in the age of AI

When access to information becomes increasingly universal through AI, competitive advantage shifts away from memorisation and toward judgement, adaptability, communication, and the ability to navigate uncertainty.

What is happening is not only the arrival of AI, but also the transformation of the working environment, which now requires people with diverse capabilities. Forward-thinking institutions need individuals who are well-rounded and understand how to continuously develop within the framework of their roles. Undoubtedly, deep expertise remains valuable, but agile teams must combine that specialised knowledge with speed, adaptability, and cross-domain collaboration.

Many outcome-oriented organisations have started asking four important questions in hiring:

Can the employee interpret problems rather than simply execute instructions? Can the employee collaborate with AI critically without losing independent judgment? Can the employee think creatively across disciplines? Can the employee operate independently under uncertainty?

Traditionally, these questions were often initially answered through résumés or CVs combined with HR interviews. In some cases, organisations also use standardised testing systems to measure capabilities numerically. Today, however, many organisations are beginning to realise that traditional hiring signals alone may no longer accurately predict long-term adaptability in AI-driven environments.

Also Read: AI’s tipping point: Why 2026 will separate the leaders from the laggards in financial services

My advice is to learn how to work effectively with AI and see it as a colleague whose capabilities can complement your own. Always prove that the information generated by AI is accurate and not misleading. Make AI part of your work and decision-making process because we place importance on evidence of real-world thinking through interdisciplinary collaboration, problem-solving principles, and the ability to manage uncertainty in AI-generated information. At the same time, organisations must be careful not to confuse AI-assisted speed with genuine understanding or good judgement.

All of this constantly makes me think that the concept of “great talent” is changing and spreading across industries. In other words, every industry increasingly agrees that people with great talent are those who possess fundamental qualities such as adaptability, learning ability, communication skills, and decision-making capability. In the future, each of these qualities will become separate skills that require even deeper mastery. More importantly, these skills must be visibly demonstrated during real work situations.

One challenge many organisations are currently facing is that many still prioritise stability and predictability, which conflicts with the rapidly changing nature of today’s world. At the same time, there is also a risk that organisations may begin undervaluing deep expertise in favour of constant adaptability. The challenge is not replacing expertise, but combining expertise with the ability to evolve continuously alongside AI.

Some employees who succeeded under older models of work may struggle to adapt if they rely solely on established expertise without integrating AI into their workflows. This contrasts with the new generation of great talent, who are able to adapt to changing environments by working alongside AI.

The future workforce may not be divided between technical and non-technical workers, but between those who can continuously learn alongside AI and those who cannot. In that environment, great talent is no longer defined only by what someone knows, but by how quickly they can reinterpret, apply, and evolve that knowledge in changing conditions.

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Also Read: Oil crashed 5% but Bitcoin jumped US$4K, altcoins surged 2X harder: What’s driving this?

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There is a moment, somewhere in the lifecycle of every major consumer platform, when the marketing playbook breaks. Banner ads stop working. Sponsored posts lose their edge. The audience, which has grown up inside the platform, develops an immunity to anything that feels like a paid placement.

In Southeast Asian gaming, that moment has already passed, and most brands are still running the old plays.

Also Read: The mobile-first myth that is costing SEA’s gaming industry billions

A gaming report by Southeast Asian gaming marketing agency Ampverse puts the structural shift in unambiguous terms: “Creators are not media placements; they are gatekeepers of trust.” In Southeast Asia, the report notes, a single creator can define how a game is perceived, and long-term creator relationships consistently outperform short-term influencer buys.

More than 50 per cent of gamers in the region regularly watch gaming content, and discovery — the moment a potential player first encounters a new game — increasingly happens through creators rather than app store rankings or paid advertising.

That is not a marginal shift. It is a fundamental restructuring of the distribution stack.

Why the influencer playbook fails in gaming

To understand why most brand campaigns in Southeast Asian gaming underperform, it’s helpful to examine how gaming creators differ from conventional social media influencers.

A lifestyle influencer operates on reach and aesthetic. Their audience follows them for a curated version of a life — the products they use, the places they visit, and the image they project. The relationship between influencer and follower is aspirational but relatively thin. A sponsored post slots neatly into that framework because the influencer’s identity is already partly commercial.

Gaming creators operate on trust and competence. Their audience follows them because they are genuinely good at games, genuinely entertaining to watch, and genuinely part of the same community. When a gaming creator endorses a title, their credibility is on the line in a way that a lifestyle influencer’s rarely is. Gamers can tell immediately whether a creator has actually played a game or is simply reading a script. The community does not forgive inauthenticity, and it does not forget it.

The Ampverse report captures this dynamic precisely: “Gaming audiences reward brands that participate meaningfully.” The word “meaningfully” is doing significant work in that sentence. It is not enough to pay a creator to post. Brands that win in this environment are those that enter through creators and communities, build long-term presence, create value rather than noise, and respect gaming culture on its own terms.

The creator economy inside gaming is structurally different

Southeast Asia’s gaming creator ecosystem has several features that distinguish it from both Western gaming markets and the broader regional creator economy.

Also Read: Gaming in SEA: Understanding the growing opportunity for SMEs and payment providers

First, community density. Discord servers, Facebook Groups, in-game guilds, and live tournament formats form the connective tissue of gaming communities across the region. The Ampverse report describes these structures as “the backbone of long-term engagement” and argues that successful brands and publishers treat communities as assets rather than audiences. This is not a metaphor; it reflects the reality that in markets like the Philippines, where the report describes a “highly social gaming culture” with games spreading “virally through creators and peer networks,” community infrastructure is the actual distribution mechanism.

Second, the primacy of live formats. Creator-led tournaments and live events consistently outperform static campaigns in Southeast Asia, delivering high watch time, repeat engagement, and organic social amplification. The report’s summary is pithy and correct: “In Southeast Asia, participation beats exposure.” A campaign that invites players to do something — compete, collaborate, contribute — will always outperform one that asks them to watch and click.

Third, the speed of creator-to-commerce crossover. The Ampverse report identifies an emerging trend that has significant commercial implications: gaming creators are increasingly launching mainstream consumer products. This is not peripheral to the gaming economy; it is evidence of how deeply gaming creators are embedded in their communities’ consumption behaviour. A gaming creator who launches a beverage, a clothing line, or a peripheral product is not diversifying away from gaming; they are monetising the trust they have built inside it.

The startup opportunity hiding in plain sight

The gap between what brands need and what the current market provides is, in startup terms, a problem worth solving. Most brands entering Southeast Asian gaming markets lack three things: the contextual knowledge to identify which creators are genuinely influential versus merely large, the infrastructure to manage long-term creator relationships at scale, and the measurement frameworks to evaluate performance beyond impressions and reach.

All three are addressable by technology. Creator intelligence platforms that map gaming community influence rather than follower count, relationship management tools designed for the cadence and format of gaming partnerships, and attribution models that account for community-driven conversion rather than last-click metrics; these are the products that the next wave of gaming-adjacent startups in Southeast Asia will be built around.

The Ampverse report notes that many global strategies fail because they are “copied from Western playbooks.” That observation extends to the creator strategy. Western influencer marketing infrastructure, which was largely built for Instagram and YouTube at a time when reach was the dominant metric, is a poor fit for a region where participation, community, and long-term trust are the actual levers of commercial performance.

Also Read: SEA mobile gaming surges: 1.93B installs and growing global influence

Brands that are still buying short-term influencer slots in Southeast Asian gaming are not just leaving money on the table. They are actively building a reputation for inauthenticity in communities that have long memories and loud voices. The creators who matter in this market are not waiting for brands to catch up; they are already building the next generation of distribution infrastructure without them.

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Most hyper-growth businesses are not solving a marketing problem. They are wrestling with scaling pains masquerading as one.

Here is the truth: the playbook that powered your first million in sales will sabotage you at ten million. What flourished amid disorder now overwhelms. Once agile teams falter in the tumult, while executives, previously decisive, become mired in deliberations over processes, coordination, and infrastructure, imperatives that emerged only with scale.

This reflects not a marketing deficit, but a transitional oversight.

Two marketing realms collide

Having led corporate marketing campaigns and mentored early-stage startups, I have witnessed two starkly opposing playbooks.

Enterprise marketing prioritises methodology, alignment, and scalability. It is rigorous, data-centric, and optimised for sustained expansion. Ample budgets support specialised teams, with every initiative rigorously evaluated for reproducibility. The emphasis extends beyond outcomes to their consistent replication.

In contrast, startup marketing embodies resourcefulness and velocity, fixated on proximate impact. Perfection yields to pragmatism; traction reigns supreme.

The critical error lies in presuming seamless transferability between these domains.

A fast-scaling firm transcends startup volatility yet falls short of enterprise maturity. It inhabits an interstitial phase where legacy approaches obsolesce, and nascent frameworks remain undefined.

The scaling pitfall: Where growth grinds to a halt

Misaligning marketing orientation yields dual pitfalls. Prematurely appointing an enterprise marketer begets premature systematisation for nonexistent challenges. Meetings proliferate; velocity diminishes. The nimble operation transforms into a ponderous vessel.

Also Read: The secret weapon of marketing? Why every business needs a CDP

Conversely, retaining a startup-oriented marketer indefinitely erodes efficacy. Proven campaigns wane; redundancy mounts. Growth plateaus, not from market exhaustion, but methodological limits.

Tactics themselves are not at fault.

Unlocking marketing at scale

The ideal marketing executive possesses these attributes:

• Constructs scalable processes devoid of bureaucratic excess, with discretion to adapt.
• Advances expeditiously while anchoring to strategic imperatives.
• Validates hypotheses through empirical analysis, adept in quantitative and qualitative realms.
• Excels amid constraints, leveraging them for ingenuity.

Such leaders are rare, yet instrumental in distinguishing plateaued companies from those achieving breakout velocity.

Spotting if you are snagged

Thriving organisations discern this inflection and recalibrate their marketing apparatus accordingly. I have watched too many high-potential ventures sputter by ignoring this evolution.

If your marketing efforts are falling short, use these simple checks to pinpoint the issue:

• Are you stuck in startup mode? Look for one-off campaigns with no repeatable blueprint, a knee-jerk rejection of any process, and constant crisis firefighting. These signs show you are clinging to early-stage habits that no longer fit your scale.
• Are you acting too corporate too soon? Watch for endless meetings, decisions stalled by alignment talks, and complex systems built for problems that have not arrived yet. This flips the script, putting structure ahead of speed.

These questions reveal exactly what to adjust.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of e27.

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Not long ago, turning an idea into something tangible required time, technical resources, and often a fair amount of patience.

Ideas waited.

They sat in notebooks, Slack threads, or development backlogs while founders debated feasibility, budgets, and timelines. Before anything could be tested, it typically needed approvals, specifications, and someone technical to bring it to life.

Recently, a late-night conversation reminded me just how much that assumption has changed.

The conversation that changed the question

It started with a WhatsApp exchange with entrepreneur and strategist Vicky Vaswani.

He had shared a book and pointed out something he found interesting – not the content itself, but a small interactive feature within the reading experience.

At first, I did not even understand what he meant.

I was looking at the landing page while he was referring to the book interface itself.

Then came the clarification.

The book was uploaded as a PDF, and almost jokingly, he mentioned that Seraphina – my AI twin – could probably summarise it.

Minutes later, the summary was done.

That was the easy part.

What caught my attention, however, was not the summary.

It was the interaction.

A linked chapter structure. A smoother mobile reading flow. Something that made static content feel more immersive and easier to navigate.

And almost instinctively, I replied: “I can take any PDF and make it into a digital flip page.”

Not as a polished offer.

Not as a planned product roadmap.

Just an observation.

Then came the question every founder eventually hears: “Do you have a sample?”

Historically, this is where momentum often slows.

You explain. You promise.

You say you will revert after checking with a developer or technical team.

You sell the idea through imagination.

Instead, I opened Lovable and started building.

Roughly 15 minutes later, there was a working proof of concept.

It was not formally launched. It was not meant to be perfect.

It was simply my interpretation of the idea Vicky had described – a digital reading experience paired with AI-generated summaries designed to make long-form content easier to consume.

His response was immediate.

And while the prototype itself was interesting, I quickly realised something more important:

The build was not the story.

What happened next was.

Also Read: Beyond the buzz: How AI and sustainability are reshaping design, manufacturing, and construction in APAC

The prototype that closed the deal

The following day, I was on a call with an existing client whose website I was helping develop.

During the conversation, I showed her the concept.

This was not something she had originally requested.

It was simply a proof of possibility.

She saw it. Liked it.

And chose to implement it immediately as an additional feature.

The top-up happened shortly after.

The commercial value itself is not the headline here. In fact, the amount reflected speed and optimisation more than the true value of the capability.

What mattered was the sequence.

A conversation sparked an idea.

An idea became a prototype.

The prototype changed the sales conversation.

And the sales conversation became revenue.

That progression would have looked very different even a few years ago.

AI is not changing how founders build, it is changing how founders sell

This is why I believe AI is not merely changing how founders build.

It is changing how founders sell.

Historically, entrepreneurs pitched possibilities.

They relied on decks, descriptions, and imagination.

Customers were often asked to visualise outcomes before they existed.

Today, AI-assisted tools are closing that gap.

Instead of saying, “Imagine if this worked like this.” Founders can increasingly say: “Here – try it.”

That shift matters.

Buyers rarely hesitate due to a lack of interest alone.

More often, they hesitate because of uncertainty.

They cannot visualise the outcome.

They fear making the wrong decision.

They struggle to bridge the gap between concept and lived experience.

A working prototype reduces that friction.

Not because it guarantees success, but because it transforms abstraction into something tangible.

Cheaper experimentation, compressed timelines

In many ways, AI has made experimentation dramatically cheaper.

And that changes the economics of entrepreneurship.

I have seen similar patterns emerging beyond my own projects.

In recent Money and AI Launchpad sessions, participants – many without traditional technical backgrounds – moved from ideas to live micro-SaaS applications within just 2.5 days. Alongside the build itself, they developed marketing visuals and promotional copy to support their launches.

Also Read: How sailing as a teenager prepared me for a career in tech and gaming

The real shift was not simply faster development.

It was compressed experimentation.

Ideas no longer needed months of commitment before validation could begin.

They could be tested while momentum was still alive.

Not replacement, leverage

This is perhaps where AI discussions often become misunderstood.

Much of the public conversation still revolves around replacement.

Will AI take jobs? Will it remove the need for people?

My experience has been different.

AI has not removed the need for judgment, taste, or strategy.

If anything, those skills matter more.

Execution, however, has become significantly cheaper.

Through my own workflows, supported by Seraphina and a growing ecosystem of AI tools alongside platforms like Lovable and systems we have long explored through People’s Inc. 360, I increasingly see AI functioning less as novelty and more as infrastructure.

And honestly?

I would have burned out doing this manually.

Not just the thinking. The execution.

Managing multiple ideas, testing concepts, supporting communities, refining workflows, and building across several initiatives simultaneously would have been unsustainable without AI-assisted execution.

This is why I often describe AI not as a replacement, but as leverage.

The founders benefiting most from this shift may not necessarily be those with the largest teams or deepest technical expertise.

Increasingly, they may be the ones who learn how to prototype quickly enough to test ideas before momentum fades.

AI did not eliminate the importance of good ideas.

Nor did it eliminate the need for human insight.

But it did make prototyping cheaper.

And in doing so, it may have quietly changed how modern entrepreneurship works.

—

Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. You can also share your perspective by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic.

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Southeast Asia is one of the most exciting regions in the world for founders. With a fast-growing middle class, accelerating digital adoption, and a wave of ambitious entrepreneurs building across borders, the energy is undeniable. And yet, for every startup that cracks the APAC market, there are many more that struggle.

The difference usually isn’t the product. It isn’t the funding. It’s the execution.

It’s a gap that Jenga Anderson Global was built to close. Founded by Iris Xu, the firm works with growth-stage startups and fast-moving companies navigating the complexity of scaling across Southeast Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

Why APAC is harder than it looks

Southeast Asia is not one market. It’s ten countries, hundreds of languages and dialects, and a dizzying mix of regulatory environments, payment preferences, cultural norms, and consumer behaviors. What works in Singapore doesn’t automatically work in Indonesia. What flies in the Philippines can fall flat in Vietnam.

According to Iris, the most common mistake founders make is treating APAC as a single block and building one strategy for all of it. The second is moving too fast before validating product-market fit in even one APAC country.

“Founders often think APAC expansion is about moving fast. It is, but only if you move in the right order,” says Iris Xu, founder of Jenga Anderson Global. “Too many teams copy their Singapore playbook into Indonesia, Vietnam, or the Philippines without first testing payment habits, trust signals, local partners, and regulatory assumptions.”

The other pattern she sees repeatedly is overbuilding too early. Teams set up entities, hire local staff, and enter arrangements before the operating model is clear. That creates avoidable cost and restructuring further down the road. “In APAC, the winners are not just the fastest movers. They are the founders who sequence well,” she adds.

The founder behind Jenga Anderson Global

Before starting Jenga Anderson Global, Iris built her career across private equity and consulting, focusing on growth, investment, structuring, and cross-border business strategy. She also led technology, media, and telecoms investment efforts under a multi-family office, work that put her in close proximity to founders, investors, and fast-moving technology businesses across the region.

That background shaped a particular way of thinking about expansion. “Growth is not just about capital or market opportunity,” Iris says. “It’s about turning ambition into an executable structure with the right jurisdiction, governance, banking, hiring, tax, and compliance foundations in place.”

The idea for Jenga Anderson Global crystallized from seeing the same gap play out repeatedly: founders with strong businesses who struggled with the practical execution of expanding across jurisdictions. They needed more than a service provider to file documents. They needed someone who could help them think through structure, compliance, banking, and hiring in the right order.

The firm’s name is deliberate. “Jenga reflects how I think about building a business,” Iris explains. “It is about using limited pieces efficiently to build the highest possible tower. Every piece matters, and sequencing matters. Sometimes the tower may fall, but in business, as in the game, you can always learn, rebuild, and start again, ideally with better structure and judgment each time.”

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The APAC ecosystem right now

Despite global headwinds, Southeast Asia continues to attract serious founder and investor attention. The fundamentals are strong: a young, digital-native population, rising consumer spending, and a startup ecosystem that is maturing fast, with more local talent, more local capital, and more locally-grown success stories than at any previous point.

What’s also shifting is how founders are building. Iris sees a generation of APAC companies that are regional from day one. Rather than thinking about one domestic market first and international expansion later, they are designing their companies, teams, payment flows, and investor story with cross-border growth already built in.

AI is accelerating the timeline. Smaller teams are moving faster, serving more markets, and automating operations that once required much larger headcount. But Iris thinks founders may be underestimating what that speed demands structurally. “As companies become more AI-enabled and cross-border, questions around data, tax, employment, licensing, payments, and governance become more important, not less,” she says. “The opportunity in APAC is very real. But the winners will be founders who combine speed with discipline: strong product, clear market sequencing, and a structure that can actually support regional scale.”

How Jenga Anderson Global helps startups scale

Jenga Anderson Global works with growth-stage startups and fast-moving companies that are serious about expanding in Southeast Asia and beyond. The firm helps founders use Singapore as a base to establish, operate, and scale across the region, supporting them across corporate structuring, governance, compliance, tax and accounting coordination, HR and work pass solutions, banking readiness, and ongoing operational execution.

The approach goes beyond strategy. “What clients value most is that we don’t just give advice from a distance,” Iris says. “We help them connect strategy with execution, turning expansion plans into the right structure, process, and trusted local support on the ground.”

Also read : Ecosystem Roundup: Digital on the surface, cash underneath

Case study: From strategy to scale

One client was a fast-growing technology company using Singapore as its international base. They had strong investor interest, but their corporate structure wasn’t ready for cross-border growth. Jenga Anderson Global helped align incorporation, governance, banking readiness, hiring, work passes, tax and accounting coordination, and future fundraising considerations into one practical roadmap. The result was a structure that could support real global expansion, not just a paper presence.

What separates the ones who make it

After working with founders across different markets, industries, and growth stages, Iris has identified a few things that consistently set successful APAC expansions apart.

First: intellectual humility. The founders who do well are the ones who walk in curious, not convinced. They ask questions before they make decisions. They hire locally, listen locally, and adapt quickly.

Second: execution discipline. APAC rewards founders who can move fast and stay organized: clean financial setup, clear accountability, and systems that can scale.

Third: the right partners. Founders don’t have to figure out Southeast Asia alone. The ones who scale fastest find the right people early: advisors, operators, and local hires who have already navigated the terrain.

On what ultimately separates those who make it from those who don’t, Iris is direct: “The biggest difference is not just speed. It is learning speed. The founders who succeed in APAC move fast, but they also listen fast, adapt fast, and correct course fast. They don’t assume one playbook will work across every market. They stay close to customers, local teams, regulators, banks, and partners, and they build enough structure around the business so that speed doesn’t turn into chaos.”

Meet Jenga Anderson Global at Echelon Singapore 2026

Jenga Anderson Global will be exhibiting at Echelon Singapore 2026 at Booths M14 and M15. For founders thinking about expanding into Southeast Asia, or those already in the thick of it, it’s a chance to have a real conversation with a team that has seen the full picture.

Visitors to the booth can expect a practical expansion conversation covering market-entry sequencing, structuring, compliance, banking readiness, hiring, and local execution. Jenga Anderson Global will also be sharing a market-entry checklist to help founders assess what to prepare before expanding through Singapore or into other APAC markets.

Southeast Asia remains one of the biggest opportunities in the world for ambitious founders. The question isn’t whether to be here. It’s whether you’re set up to win.

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The e27 team produced this article sponsored by Jenga Anderson Global

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Featured Image Credit: Jenga Anderson Global

The post Building across borders: What it really takes to scale in APAC appeared first on e27.

Southeast Asia’s gaming industry loves a headline number. And the headline number everyone reaches for is this: mobile accounts for roughly 70 per cent of the region’s total gaming revenue.

It is a clean, compelling statistic that has become the intellectual shorthand for an entire investment and market-entry thesis. Build a mobile game, localise it loosely, run some ads, and tap into a population of nearly 290 million gamers. Job done.

Also Read: Gaming in SEA: Understanding the growing opportunity for SMEs and payment providers

Except it is not that simple. A closer reading of a gaming report by Southeast Asian gaming marketing agency Ampverse reveals a market that is simultaneously larger and harder to monetise than the headline suggests, and one that is generating billions of dollars in downloads while leaving significant revenue on the table.

The scale-monetisation gap is real, and it is widening

In 2025, Southeast Asia’s gaming market generated approximately US$6.6 billion in revenue, growing at roughly 9 per cent year on year. Mobile gaming alone is projected to generate approximately US$4.8 billion by 2028, with PC and download games contributing a further US$1.5 billion. The broader ecosystem, incorporating advertising, creators, esports, and live services, could reach US$14 billion by 2030.

Those are extraordinary numbers. But here is the problem: Southeast Asia also ranked among the top two regions globally for mobile game downloads, recording nearly two billion installs in a single quarter. Two billion installs. And yet the region’s revenue does not come close to matching that install velocity in proportional terms.

The disconnect comes down to average revenue per user (ARPU). Across most of Southeast Asia’s six core gaming markets (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore), ARPU remains structurally low. The exception is Singapore, which has the smallest gamer base in the region (approximately four million) but the highest ARPU of any market. Singapore functions less as a consumer gaming market and more as a regional headquarters for publishers and platforms making bets on the rest of the region.

Vietnam offers perhaps the starkest illustration of the gap. With 55 million gamers, it is the second-largest market by player count, behind only Indonesia. The Ampverse report describes Vietnam as “price-sensitive but highly engaged”, a combination that is catnip for install metrics and a persistent headache for monetisation teams.

Players in Vietnam are deeply invested in their games; they are simply not converting into paying users at the rates publishers need to justify the cost of acquisition.

Free-to-play is not a monetisation strategy; it is a starting point

The dominance of free-to-play models in Southeast Asia is often cited as evidence of the region’s accessibility. That is true. But free-to-play also creates a structural ceiling on revenue that publishers and startups are only now beginning to dismantle seriously.

Also Read: How a US$14.8B SEA gaming market is turning tournaments into media ecosystems

The Ampverse report notes that gaming revenue is “expanding beyond traditional in-app purchases into content, communities, and brand ecosystems.” That is a significant shift. It signals that the primary monetisation lever for the next phase of Southeast Asian gaming growth is not in-app purchases; it is the broader economic activity surrounding the game itself.

This includes livestreaming revenue, creator-driven commerce, tournament prize pools and sponsorship, branded in-game activations, and the emerging space of user-generated content (UGC) that blurs the line between player and producer.

In markets like Thailand, which the report describes as one of Southeast Asia’s most monetised gaming markets with strong e-sports infrastructure and high acceptance of premium brand activations, this ecosystem-level monetisation is already more advanced than in neighbouring markets.

The platform story is more nuanced than mobile vs everything else

It would be a mistake to read the mobile dominance numbers as evidence that PC and console are irrelevant. The Ampverse report notes that the console remains niche but is growing in affluent urban centres across the region. More importantly, many of Southeast Asia’s most engaged gamers are not single-platform users; they move fluidly between mobile and PC depending on the game, the time of day, and the social context.

For startups building gaming-adjacent businesses (infrastructure tools, analytics platforms, creator monetisation products, and social layers), this cross-platform behaviour is commercially significant. A player who starts a game on mobile during their commute and continues on PC at home is a different kind of user than the pure mobile demographic that install-volume figures suggest dominates the region.

What the data actually tells investors and founders

For investors evaluating gaming or gaming-adjacent opportunities in Southeast Asia, Ampverse’s data points to a market in the middle of a structural transition, from a downloads-and-installs economy to a retention-and-monetisation one. The startups most likely to win in this environment are not those chasing install volume, but those building the infrastructure that converts engagement into durable revenue.

That means community platforms, creator monetisation tools, live event technology, regional analytics products, and brand-to-gaming partnership intermediaries. The US$14 billion 2030 projection is not a passive forecast; it is a roadmap of the commercial infrastructure that needs to be built to make it real.

Also Read: AI in gaming: How Southeast Asia became the testing ground for virtual companions

The mobile-first thesis is not wrong. It is just incomplete. Southeast Asia’s gaming economy is mobile by default and complex by nature, and the entrepreneurs who understand the difference between those two things are the ones who will build the companies worth watching.

The post The mobile-first myth that is costing SEA’s gaming industry billions appeared first on e27.

At Echelon Philippines 2025, Carlo Almendral, CEO and Co-Founder of AIFirst, delivered a compelling keynote speech on the second day of the event, painting an optimistic picture of the Philippines’ place in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Drawing on the country’s unique strengths, Almendral highlighted the immense potential the Philippines holds in embracing and advancing artificial intelligence. He outlined how strategic implementation of AI technology could unlock transformative opportunities across key industries, positioning the nation as a competitive player on the global stage.

His address served as both an inspiration and a call to action for Filipino innovators and business leaders alike.

The post Echelon Philippines 2025 – The future is Filipino: Opportunities in AI appeared first on e27.