Back in 2021-2022, the Asia Pacific region was considered lagging in AI adoption, with only 39 per cent of businesses leveraging the technology for their operations. But today, in 2023, new data from the IDC AI Adoption InfoBrief revealed that 76 per cent of businesses in the region are leveraging the technology—a significant jump in such a short period.
Commissioned by Dataiku, the report showed that in Southeast Asia (SEA) alone, businesses plan on spending 67 per cent more on AI/ML in 2023 than they did in 2022.
AI is certainly a big trend this year, but is there any other explanation behind this rapid change?
According to JY Pook, Senior Vice President & General Manager, APJ at Dataiku, the AI/ML market is “rapidly democratising”. Soon, it will get to the point where it is integrated into “nearly” every interaction the customers have, a concept that Dataiku refers to as “Everyday AI.”
“Companies are progressing in their AI journeys from statistical analysis to predictive modelling and advanced AI capabilities,” he writes in an email interview with e27.
“With the macro turbulence that many businesses across the region have faced, we observed a significant acceleration in demand for analytics and AI solutions as businesses seek more efficient and data-driven ways to navigate these ongoing challenges. Instant gratification is the norm in today’s fast-paced world; we’ve endeavoured to understand the growing need for faster time-to-value from AI initiatives while also supporting the teams who drive this work.”
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Dataiku sees the following as keys to fully harnessing the success of AI: Efficient tools, a skilled team, and an inclusive approach to data as governance.
“With this in mind, we’ve introduced new capabilities, like ready-built business solutions, machine learning operations, governance, and access to large language models, that democratise and accelerate the development of AI capabilities in a governed way,” Pook says.
To find out more about how the organisation views this AI trend and how businesses can seamlessly implement the technology, check out the edited excerpt of the interview.
For companies that have successfully implemented AI, what are the secrets behind their success?
Integrating an effective AI strategy can be pivotal to helping companies improve customer insights, elevate employee efficiency and transform overall decision-making. By introducing a systemised, easily accessible and understandable AI system, businesses can improve their data readiness and people capabilities alongside their technology workloads and processes.
Successful companies build unicorn teams and not just hire unicorn people. This means building teams of data and domain experts while also evolving their AI operating model, which simultaneously boosts the company’s AI maturity over time.
In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, 85 per cent of companies that have successfully scaled AI use interdisciplinary development teams.
Businesses need to think about moving AI mainstream by tapping into collective intelligence and building communities of interdisciplinary business and data professionals across the entire organisation. This arguably solves two of the biggest blocks for AI at scale – hiring people with analytics and AI skills and identifying good business cases.
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Establishing an AI governance strategy is also crucial for a company’s success. Oftentimes, teams either do not have these processes set up prior to deployment or do not have a vision to clearly move forward with the right projects that would be able to generate business value and deprecate the underperforming ones. We’ve seen that AI governance delivers end-to-end model management at scale, with a focus on risk-adjusted value delivery and efficiency in AI scale, all of which is aligned with existing regulations.
Success with this stems from teams making distinctions between proof of concepts, self-service data initiatives, industrialised data products and the governance needs surrounding each. While space needs to be given for exploration and experimentation, teams need to make clear decisions about when self-service projects or POCs should have funding, testing and assurance to become an industrialised, operationalised success.
Companies also need to pinpoint the right technologies and processes to enable the use of AI at scale. Harnessing an end-to-end platform brings cohesion across the analytics and AI project lifecycle steps. Buying separate tools for the company’s needs can become challenging and in order to get to a stage of long-term cultural transformation via an AI program, IT needs to be involved from the very beginning.
AI adoption can reveal challenges and areas for business growth – and the potential gains certainly outweigh the costs. When AI is collaborative and aligned with business objectives, it supports an open data-driven culture and improves efficiency for businesses across the board.
What opportunities are available for startups that are providing AI Solutions? How can they seize them?
Startups providing AI solutions are definitely in a favourable position, especially in APAC. In 2022 alone, 76 per cent of businesses in APJ adopted AI solutions within their ecosystems. Startups and SMEs can continue to differentiate and meet industry demands by creating innovative solutions that address specific industry challenges and pain points.
Many businesses are now also being run by second and third-generation leaders looking to modernise their legacy businesses. Startups and SMEs can tap into this by offering tailored AI solutions that automate processes, enhance decision making and optimise their operations.
Most importantly, perhaps, is making AI accessible and understandable.
Is there anything that governments can do to support businesses in their journey to embrace AI? What kind of support do they usually need?
With many governments looking to use AI within their operations and public service delivery, there are several programmes and initiatives 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; for instance, having clear measures outlining data privacy, security, infrastructure and data sharing across sovereignty.
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.
This includes providing financial assistance and tax incentives through programmes such as the Productivity Solutions Grant and The Malaysia Artificial Intelligence (AI) Roadmap, to accelerate digital transformation, prioritising investment in sustainable and responsible business practices, and insulating their operations from macroeconomic volatility.
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When it comes to Government AI readiness and maturity, Singapore holds its own – leading in two out of three pillars against countries such as the US. This is a result of the Singapore government’s committed and innovative approach to digital government, paired with a business-friendly legislative environment. The nation undoubtedly serves as an example of how this pairing can breed productive public-private partnerships to support public-sector innovation.
As more businesses continue to move online, having policies that support e-commerce and digital trade will allow them to expand their reach globally and continue to contribute to APAC’s overall economic growth. At the same time, governments should continue to encourage foreign investment to help promote innovation and job creation, which will be key to steering key sectors into the next phase of growth.
Ultimately, people will always be our greatest assets. Investing in infrastructure and education will enable us to build a future-ready skilled workforce, particularly around ICT and Artificial Intelligence.
In Southeast Asia, what kind of changes do you predict we will see in the next few years when it comes to AI adoption?
I would liken the future of AI to the dawn of the internet – it completely changed how we live, work, and play. That’s what we can expect from AI and more over the next few years at a progressively faster pace.
According to the recent IDC InfoBrief commissioned by Dataiku, AI platforms are going to be the fastest-growing software category between 2022 and 2026. This growth is driven primarily through use cases across customer experiences, business process automation and industry-specific applications. There has also been a noticeable shift towards cloud computing, with over 73 per cent of AI workloads projected to be residing on the cloud by the end of 2026.
From reshaping the future of work to the impact that AI will have across industries, businesses should start looking into AI adoption if they haven’t already to ensure that they don’t get left behind, allowing the region to unlock its fullest potential with the help of AI truly.
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Image Credit: RunwayML
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