Imagine Southeast Asia, a region where mom-and-pop stores predict demand with AI, logistics companies optimise delivery with algorithms, and startups level the playing field against established giants. This reality isn’t very far away. In fact, it’s the near future fueled by artificial intelligence.
We are already seeing how AI has the potential to improve efficiencies, productivity and profitability across industries. Singapore’s grocery retailer FairPrice Group, for instance, is using AI to forecast workload and manpower needs at each retail store better while offering more flexible shifts of shorter duration so that stores can run efficiently and optimally while minimising customer wait times.
It is even considering using generative AI in expiry date management for goods in stores to reduce food wastage. TD Tawandang, which serves mom-and-pop stores in Thailand, is also using AI to help its retail distribution teams forecast demand and schedule deliveries for just-in-time stock replenishments. AI has also been playing an important role in detecting and preventing fraud, increasing security for both consumers and merchants.
Businesses are facing a rapidly changing landscape, and many across the region have shifted their focus to monetisation in a bid to achieve profitability targets, moving from user acquisition to deepening engagement with existing customers.
AI solutions will be essential for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition, particularly for startups as well as micro, small- and medium-sized businesses, which account for over 90 per cent of businesses in Southeast Asia. We believe that tapping on AI isn’t just about playing catch-up; it’s about leapfrogging the competition and carving out a new future for Southeast Asia’s business.
We see this as an opportunity, especially with the latest 2023 e-Conomy SEA Report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company projecting that the region can potentially be a US$1 trillion digital economy by 2030.
Accelerating both digital inclusion (direct access to technology and the internet) and removing barriers to digital participation (direct consumption of digital products and services) are some of the ways to get us there.
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But it’s important for businesses to keep a finger on the pulse and adopt new technologies, such as AI tools, that can fuel growth and help improve operational efficiency. While we’ve seen various startups and local businesses already finding ways to adopt AI into their business strategy, here are additional ways to seize the opportunities to maximise progress:
Maximise AI accessibility and encourage adoption
Technology competitions are often won — not by the first to invent — but by the best to deploy. To harness the full potential of AI, it must be universally accessible and useful, and this includes helping startups and small businesses access AI. This includes providing digital coaches and training to underserved communities. Low-interest loan and grant programs can also improve access to the capital needed to spur adoption more widely.
Google for AI Startups Cloud Program, for example, enables seed to Series A startups that use AI as its core technology to develop primary products or solutions to receive cloud service credits of up to US$350,000 over two years. Pre-seed startups can receive up to US$2,000 in free cloud credits in two years to fund the development of proofs-of-concept and showcase of products to prospective investors and customers.
Businesses can also take advantage of Vertex AI — an enterprise-ready AI development platform that allows their developers to gain access to over 130 Google and open-source foundation models for summarising and translating text in multiple languages, turning audio into text and more. These models can then be customised and embedded easily into internal or consumer-facing applications and websites.
Build an AI-ready workforce
AI presents opportunities to catapult economies forward through increased productivity and economic activity that can benefit everyone. We believe an AI-ready workforce will be able to navigate these challenges, and we can do so by extending AI training programs to communities while helping workers impacted by AI get the skills needed to quickly bounce back to new and better jobs.
Governments can play a role in incorporating AI as a core component of education and establish a safety net with an AI adjustment assessment program with tailored skilling programs, with Singapore’s nationwide AI skilling initiative as a good model to follow.
However, companies can and should encourage upgrading AI skills in the workforce through micro-certifications and e-learning. Free generative AI skills development courses like Google Cloud Skills Boost Program or skilling programs through online learning platforms can help develop a solid understanding of the difference between generative AI and other types of AI, how to customise pre-trained generative AI models for use in applications, how to apply AI responsibly and more.
Have a bold, creative and curious mindset
The advancement towards AI marks the third paradigm shift that we are seeing; the first is the arrival of the Internet as we revolutionise information and services adoption; the second is the explosion of mobile computing driven by smartphone adoption.
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As with the Internet and smartphones, we need to strategise the adoption of AI. It’s important that we exercise caution in the face of uncertainty to mitigate potential risk. As with any powerful new tech, we must be bold and actively work to understand AI and its implications for our customers and even marketing activities.
The power of AI also enables us to discover endless possibilities for creativity through direct collaboration and experimentation. We are rapidly moving to a world where the constraints on what you can create in digital spaces are limited only by your imagination. It helps us connect emotionally with customers and frees us from cumbersome processes to solve entirely new creative and strategic challenges.
Lastly, the adoption of new technologies requires curiosity to think expansively about how they can best serve your purpose. For example, digital retailers in Southeast Asia today are seeing new challenges, with shoppers willing to turn to their second-preferred brand or retailer and can shop across multiple channels, from search and video to social media.
In fact, more so than in other regions, customers are shopping across multiple channels. Specifically, 76 per cent of shoppers use five or more channels like search, video and social media to shop during peak sales events. We need to be curious enough to seek solutions and stay hyper-relevant to rise above fragmented shopping behaviours.
A good example is from e-commerce platform Lazada, which adopted an AI-powered, full-funnel marketing strategy for its 6.6 sales event this year to influence customers’ preferences at every stage of the purchase journey, including using AI-powered search ads to dynamically show up on all new and unexpected queries from shoppers likely to buy its products.
So the question is, are you curious enough to be the student today so you can lead your organisation to an AI transformation as a teacher tomorrow?
As AI advances, it will only become more important for all stakeholders to come together to pursue an opportunity agenda that harnesses its potential in the challenges that societies face today. We believe that AI can empower more local businesses in the region, and the best way to get ahead in the age of artificial intelligence is to be creative and innovative in applying it in our businesses.
It’s okay not to have all the answers about AI, but it’s important we start asking the questions and exploring them with boldness and curiosity. If we subscribe to the belief that this AI shift is going to be even greater than the movement from dial-up internet to a mobile-first, cloud-driven web, imagine what will be possible in the next 30 years.
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