Flags of the ASEAN member nations outside the Pullman Hotel, the place of the retirement meeting of the ministers of foreign enesus in Luang Prabang, Laos, in January 2024.
Tang Chhin Sothytang Chhin Sothy | AFP | Getty images
The United States and China are generally in mind with regard to artificial intelligence and generator. But small businesses in Southeast Asia have enormous potential that should not be ignored, according to experts.
In fact, this is a question of survival, according to Jochen Wirtz, professor of marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School, who said that those who will be delayed would be “transferred to a franchise company or will be expelled from the market by greater players who will”.
“Either you grow and adopt or die,” he added.
AI and Genai will contribute around $ 120 billion to gross domestic product in the region by 2027, Boston Consulting Group projected in an April report entitled “Unlock the potential of Southeast Asia AI,” Who has cited the potential of technology to “redefine business processes and unlock new sources of income”. And Google E-Conomy Sea 2024 report have noted that Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia are classified among the first 10 worldwide for searches and the demand linked to AI, indicating “curiosity” and an “active interest” in the region.
Youth is an advantage. Among the countries interviewed of Asia-Pacific, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines Small business survey of CPA Australia 2024-25.
For countries like Vietnam, “the future is brilliant because … It is a very young population, is a very informed population on the Internet,” said Soumik Parida, associate program director of the Professional Communication Program of the RMIT University Vietnam’s School of Communication and Design. “They are starting to have a world voice and they are very easy to adapt any new technology,” he added.
Here is how some of the companies in the region use it to stay at the top of the competition – as well as the opportunities and roadblocks they face.
Most popular use cases
Customer service is the main case in electronic trade in Southeast Asia, followed by marketing and advertising, according to A joint report of Lazada and Kantar On AI adoption trends in the six largest economies in Southeast Asia. Also known as Anase-6, they include Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
A McKinsey survey Released in March revealed a similar trend: companies adopted GENAI for marketing and sales, technological companies leading the costs. He also showed that most adopters use technology to generate text, 63% of the companies interviewed reporting that they did.
Genai presents a unique boon for a region as diverse linguistic as Southeast Asia: in addition to writing personalized marketing messages, he can also translate promotional texts in different languages.
For example, Lita Global, a social media platform based in Indonesia for players, benefits a lot. Since the integration of OpenAi models in the second half of last year, he said, he has been able to host almost twice as many online game events per month, thanks to greater efficiency.
It is a big boost for his business, because each event can increase weekly income on average by 20%, said the company.
With Genai, employees can quickly translate announcements on English events to Southeast Asian languages, such as Vietnamese and Thai, to reach more users in the region. And that releases them – the time originally to write, translate and format the promotional text can now be used to organize more events generating income, according to Lita Global.
The company also uses Genai in its cat function to recommend responses to users. Lita Global is a social platform where users can hire other players to play with them online.
Rental players generally discuss with users before an order has placed for a game session. But this can be difficult when the demands of players are high and the players to hire are occupied by other matches. House players who use the Recommended IA responses have seen an increase of 10% to 20% of orders, said CEO of Lita Global, Yihao Zhang.
“So we use AI to really help them improve their efficiency, to help them be more available for users,” said Zhang.
Another way than MPMs in Southeast Asia (microphone, small and medium-sized enterprises) can use Genai in marketing is done by AI diffusion. The report on the Google Sea E-Concery noted that live purchases have become more popular in the region. Live purchases, or live broadcasting, generally involve a host presenting the products for sale. Not only does this include clothing tests, but buyers can also ask questions in the comments section, which are answered in real time.
Although live flows are traditionally hosted by humans in studios, MPMs can lack funds or technical know-how to execute regular live broadcasts to increase sales. Livestreaming can open doors to new opportunities for sellers, said Jensen Wu, CEO of Topviewai.
Topviewai says on its website that its AI delivery services can cost around $ 1 per minute. Instead of spending in studio rental, samples of goods and human hosts, companies can ask a person to monitor lives, said WU. This helps reduce costs while increasing sales, which makes a “fairly good” return on investment, he added.
The cost problem
The boost of efficiency is not cheap, however.
This is why small businesses are limited to adopting AI on a small scale for the moment. The use of AI chatbots for relatively simple tasks, for example, can reduce labor costs because these services tend to be inexpensive. In addition to this, with a variety of third -party tools available on the market, business owners can also have their choice, according to RMIT Vietnam’s Parida.
Small fashion companies and food and drinks industries in Vietnam, for example, started using chatbots to manage requests and orders, said Parida.
“Everything that is beyond that requires a lot of expenses,” he said.
Although large companies can hire software companies to develop sophisticated personalized systems to the needs of a business, it is a luxury that few people can afford.
Even companies with expertise to integrate AI themselves pay a premium to do so.
Lita Global, for example, spends about $ 2,000 on the AI each month, part of which goes to the purchase of tokens for the OPENAI application programming interface (API). APIs allow companies to rely on OpenAi models, instead of asking companies to build the AI model from zero.
However, as AI improves, the cost of use should drop. The Gartner research and advice firm predicted in February that by 2027, the average prices of application programming interfaces for Genai will fall to less than 1% of the current average price for the same technology.
This could mean even greater affordability for small businesses adopting AI for their companies.
Perspectives for the region
In emerging markets such as those in Southeast Asia where labor costs are low, companies can feel less motivated to stimulate efficiency through the adoption of technology. But technology can provide “much better [outcomes]”For existing commercial practices,” said Wirtz of the Nus Business School. AI is just another way to adopt technology.
He compared it to the popularization of electronic mail services, which reduced the risk that tourists have won over by taxi drivers in foreign countries, as email applications could estimate the price of a trip.
And with an informed population of technology entrepreneurs in economies such as Vietnam, where labor costs are low, the excitement of adopting AI remains high, according to Parida.
“He is a very hungry youngster,” he said.
