AI adoption across Southeast Asia is accelerating, yet many cities still rely on ageing CCTV networks that cannot support modern analytics without costly hardware upgrades. Governments want smarter, safer, more efficient urban environments, but legacy systems and rising privacy expectations often make large-scale transformation difficult. This tension has created space for solutions that can modernise existing infrastructure without adding new risks or exceeding public budgets.

To support companies building this kind of practical, region-ready technology, the Taipei City Government launched the Global Pass programme in 2024. The initiative embeds Taiwan-based startups directly into overseas ecosystems. This gives them access to market insights, local partners, and on-the-ground opportunities to demonstrate their products.

AIRA is one of the clearest examples of this approach in action. With a privacy-first, hardware-light system that upgrades standard CCTVs into intelligent, on-premise AI tools, the company reflects the mission-driven innovation Global Pass was built to champion. Their expansion journey shows how thoughtfully designed AI can strengthen smart-city infrastructure across Southeast Asia without replacing what already exists.

Privacy-conscious AI for Southeast Asia’s smart city ambitions

As cities across the region pursue digital transformation, many still grapple with concerns around surveillance, data governance, and the financial burden of upgrading legacy equipment. AIRA’s model responds directly to these challenges by offering a way to enhance existing CCTV networks rather than rebuild them, which makes adoption both faster and more feasible for budget-conscious governments.

According to Stephanie Chen, Business Development Manager at AIRA Corp, “most companies still need GPU cards for camera analytics, but one GPU card can cost as much as five or six servers.” AIRA instead uses compact CPU-based devices that are “as small as a palm,” making deployment significantly more accessible.

At the same time, public expectations around privacy continue to shape how smart-city technologies are evaluated. As Chen explains, keeping everything on-site is a deliberate design choice. “We run fully on-premise, so customers keep control of their own data. Nothing is sent to the cloud, which reduces exposure and keeps everything secure.”

Also read: How GliaCloud is turning AI video into a growth engine for Southeast Asia

AIRA’s product suite designed for real-world deployment

AIRA’s approach starts with a simple idea: smart-city systems work best when they enhance existing infrastructure rather than replace it. Their flagship tools address three core needs in the region. These are: access control, investigations support and perimeter safety. They are all powered by energy-efficient AI designed to minimise false alarms and improve day-to-day reliability.

First, airaFace provides enrollment-based facial recognition for access management and visitor flow. Second, airaTrack supports rapid, privacy-conscious investigations. It does this by enabling fast cross-camera search without prior enrollment and can process up to 10,000 matches per second. Chen explains its value for large venues: “You can simply click on a face and investigate the whole footage across cameras, even if the person is wearing a mask or it’s low light.”

Third, airaFence focuses on real-time virtual fencing and intrusion detection and is already deployed across more than 100 construction sites in Taiwan. Its precision is a key differentiator. “Some AI cameras produce thousands of false alarms a day,” Chen says. “We focus on human detection so birds, cats and shadows do not trigger alerts.”

All three solutions run on AIRA’s lightweight CPU-based AI, delivered through compact NUC devices that plug into existing CCTV networks. This removes the need for GPU hardware, large servers or cloud infrastructure and keeps all processing on-premise. The browser-based interface can be learned in under two hours, and export tools automatically blur non-target individuals, which reflects AIRA’s commitment to privacy within everyday workflows.

Global Pass as a catalyst for meaningful market entry

For AIRA, Global Pass played a strategic role in bridging the gap between technological readiness and real-world adoption. Instead of entering Thailand with assumptions about the market, the programme allowed the team to observe firsthand how smart city ambitions intersect with practical constraints like legacy infrastructure, budget pressure, and rising privacy expectations. While in Thailand, they also made use of the co-working spaces partnered under the Global Pass, where live demos replaced theoretical pitches, giving C-level leaders and system integrators a clear view of what CPU-based, on-premise AI could actually deliver.

This early access shaped AIRA’s expansion philosophy. By working directly with distributors and system integrators from day one, the company understood how to localise enablement materials, structure proof-of-concept kits, and support partners through remote training. The Solution Day sessions hosted by their Thai distributor reflected this approach, creating a shared understanding of the technology that could scale beyond one event or one country. Global Pass ultimately helped AIRA refine a regionally attuned, partnership-driven strategy that now guides their growth across Southeast Asia.

Also read: How IsCoolLab is shaping the future of industrial automation in Southeast Asia

Expanding a partnership-driven model across Southeast Asia

Beyond Thailand, AIRA is applying the same partnership-driven approach to scale across the wider region. In the Philippines, their distributor is leading more than ten active projects across malls, government facilities and major venues. The team also maintains a sales representative in Malaysia and collaborates with multiple system integrators across Southeast Asia. Its expansion strategy lowers the barrier to adoption and allows partners to demonstrate value quickly while maintaining AIRA’s emphasis on privacy and on-premise processing.

Looking ahead, the company plans to replicate this approach across more markets through partner launches, additional Solution Day sessions, small-box demo units and scalable reseller ecosystems. As Stephanie Chen summarises, “Our mission is to bring AI to life. We want cities to use their existing CCTV not just as decoration, but as tools that truly improve safety and operations.”

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The e27 team produced this article sponsored by the Taipei City Government

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Featured Image Credit: AIRA

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