The adoption of AI across organisations in Southeast Asia is a story of ‘in fits and spurts’, but its impact cannot be denied. By 2032, 70 per cent of the new value created within the regional economy will be driven by digital, with AI being a critical component of this transformation.
Despite the growth in adoption, over 60 per cent of businesses have yet to invest in an enterprise-wide strategy to coordinate their AI investments. There are also existing challenges, such as the widening skills and adoption gap that continue to be prevalent as businesses lack the expertise and knowledge required to embed AI strategies into their current process and applications.
Why is this so? For one, AI requires an extensive data and model lifecycle. This, coupled with ongoing digitalisation, might cause businesses to believe that adopting a broad approach to their AI strategy would be the way to go. However, it is quite the contrary. Leaders must ensure that they embed a tailored AI strategy that best aligns with their overall business approach and growth aspirations.
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With the multitude of considerations involved with AI adoption, what has once been deemed a task just for experts is now an essential concept to be grasped by all.
Why AI
Southeast Asia is an ideal breeding ground for digital potential, with a population of over 682 million. By harnessing AI, we have the chance to unlock a multitude of opportunities across industries. But it is critical to understand the importance and value of incorporating AI solutions effectively within a business framework.
When embedded into an organisation’s operating model, AI becomes a powerful tool that can optimise processes at every level. Companies that succeed in their AI journey are ones that leverage AI at an organisational level rather than through ad hoc use cases; these companies empower their employees to make better decisions with AI.
With the careful alignment of people, processes and technology, AI can help to unblock bottlenecks in a company’s workflow. By democratising data, financial companies can improve cash management processes, reduce food waste in the supply chain, or detect anomalies and provide service failure predictions, just to name a few.
For example, through the adoption of AI systems and strategies, the financial planning and analysis division at Standard Chartered Bank was able to take full advantage of the large amounts of diverse data at their disposal, increasing analyst productivity by a factor of 30 by replacing spreadsheet-based processes with governed self-service analytics.
The formula for success
Incorporating an effective AI strategy could be the key differentiator for businesses to help improve customer insight, employee efficiency and decision-making. Singapore undoubtedly has been the leader in the region’s AI adoption space, sort of creating the blueprint for other regional markets to adapt. This is in part due to the government’s continued push for AI and the availability of both better resources and talent in the country.
Several multinationals have their regional headquarters in Singapore, allowing them to easily pilot new initiatives. Through programmes such as Tech@SG and Tech Pass, they can scale their models across the region.
But Singapore’s not the only place we’re seeing AI adoption taking place. There has also been growing interest from traditional conglomerates within the telecommunications, banking, insurance, consumer packaged goods and retail spaces to adopt these systems across Southeast Asia.
Businesses within these industries are now being led by second and third-generation leaders who are trying to modernise processes to ensure that they can remain competitive against their digital native counterparts.
Through the introduction of systemised, easily accessible and understandable AI solutions, businesses will be equipped with the capability to improve their data readiness and people capabilities alongside their technology workloads and processes.
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Government support is another important pillar to ensure greater access and thus easier adoption of AI across the region. Countries that have seen success with their AI adoption processes have been those with clear and transparent digital blueprints for businesses to model themselves after.
Malaysia, for example, recently announced the launch of its sixth data centre aimed at catering to hyperscalers and high-end enterprises in a bid to accelerate digital transformation efforts across the country. Having clear measures outlining data privacy, security, infrastructure and data sharing across sovereignty enable countries to effectively embrace the new digital age.
A clear blueprint along with investment to fund the development of AI and investment into workforce readiness will help accelerate the AI adoption process across the region.
Onward and upward
When I think about the future of AI, I will liken it to the dawn of the internet. The proliferation of AI has completely changed how we live, work and play. With the advent of cloud connectivity, machine learning and the ever-evolving uses of AI across industries, this is also what we expect to see with AI and perhaps even more in the foreseeable future.
According to Dataiku’s recent InfoBrief commissioned from IDC, we now see the region’s early adopters of AI reaping the benefits of these strategies. They are expected to increase their spending by 34 per cent on average, as they are now entering a new phase, where they scale their operations thanks to their early implementation of AI models.
There is now a clear divide between the laggards and early adopters that will only continue to grow. From reshaping the future of work to the impact, AI will have across sectors such as manufacturing, telehealth and smart living, just to name a few, businesses need to get on board sooner rather than later to ensure they don’t get left behind, allowing the region to truly unlock its fullest potential.
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