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ASEAN member nations’ flags outside the Pullman Hotel, the venue for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ retreat meeting in Luang Prabang, Laos, in January 2024.

Tang Chhin Sothytang Chhin Sothy | Afp | Getty Images

The U.S. and China are usually top of mind when it comes to artificial intelligence and generative AI. But Southeast Asia’s small businesses have huge potential that shouldn’t be ignored, experts say.

In fact, it’s a matter of survival, according to Jochen Wirtz, a professor of marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School, who said those that fall behind will be “moved into a franchise business or will be pushed out of the market by bigger players who do it.”

“Either you grow and adopt, or you die,” he added.

AI and genAI will contribute about $120 billion to the region’s gross domestic product by 2027, Boston Consulting Group projected in an April report titled “Unlocking Southeast Asia’s AI Potential,” which cited the technology’s potential to “redefine business processes and unlock new revenue streams.” And Google’s e-Conomy SEA 2024 report found that Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia are ranked among the top 10 globally for AI-related searches and demand, indicating “curiosity” and an “active interest” within the region.

Youth is an advantage. Among surveyed countries in the Asia-Pacific, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines have the highest percentage of business owners or leaders under 40 years of age, according to CPA Australia’s Small Business Survey 2024-25.  

For countries such as Vietnam, “the future is bright because … it’s a very young population, is a very internet-savvy population,” said Soumik Parida, associate program manager of the professional communication program at RMIT University Vietnam’s School of Communication and Design. “They are starting to have a global voice and they’re very easy to adapt any new technology,” he added.

Here’s how some of the region’s businesses are using it to stay on top of the competition — as well as the opportunities and roadblocks they face.

Most popular use cases

Customer service is the leading use case in Southeast Asian e-commerce, followed by marketing and advertising, according to a joint report by Lazada and Kantar about AI adoption trends in the six largest economies in Southeast Asia. Also known as the ASEAN-6, they comprise Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

A McKinsey survey released in March revealed a similar trend: Companies have adopted genAI for marketing and sales, with tech companies leading the charge. It also showed that most adopters are using the technology to generate text, with 63% of surveyed companies reporting that they do so.

GenAI presents a unique boon for a region as linguistically diverse as Southeast Asia: Aside from writing personalized marketing messages, it can also translate promotional texts into different languages.

For example, Lita Global, an Indonesia-based social media platform for gamers, is benefiting a lot from that. Since integrating OpenAI’s models in the second half of last year, it said, it has been able to host almost twice as many online gaming events monthly, thanks to greater efficiency.

That’s a big boost for its business, since every event can raise weekly revenues by an average of 20%, the company said. 

With genAI, employees can quickly translate announcements about events from English to Southeast Asian languages, such as Vietnamese and Thai, to reach more users in the region. And that frees them up — time originally used for writing, translating and formatting promotional text can now be used for organizing more revenue-generating events, according to Lita Global.

The company also uses genAI in its chat function to recommend responses to users. Lita Global is a social platform where users can hire other gamers to play with them online.

Gamers for hire typically chat with users before an order is placed for a gaming session. But that can be difficult when demand for gamers is high and gamers for hire are busy with other matches. Gamers for hire who use the AI-recommended responses have seen a 10% to 20% uptick in orders, said Lita Global’s CEO Yihao Zhang.

“So we’re using AI to really help them to improve their efficiency, to help them to be more available to the users,” Zhang said.

Another way Southeast Asian MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) can use genAI in marketing is through AI livestreaming. Google’s SEA e-Conomy report noted that live shopping has become more popular in the region. Live shopping, or livestreaming, usually involves a host showcasing the products for sale. Not only does this include clothing try-ons, but shoppers can also ask questions in the comments section, which are answered in real time.

While livestreams are traditionally hosted by humans in studios, MSMEs may lack the funds or technical know-how to execute regular livestreams to boost sales. AI livestreaming can open doors to new opportunities for sellers, said Jensen Wu, CEO of TopviewAI.

TopviewAI says on its website that its AI livestreaming services can cost around $1 per minute. Instead of spending on studio rental, samples of the merchandise and labor of human hosts, companies can have one person monitor the livestream, Wu said. That helps lower costs while boosting sales, making for a “pretty good” return on investment, he added.

The problem of costs

The efficiency boost doesn’t come cheap, however.                             

That’s why small businesses are limited to adopting AI on a small scale for now. Using AI chatbots for relatively simple tasks, for example, can reduce labor costs as subscriptions for such services tend to be inexpensive. On top of that, with a variety of third-party tools available on the market, business owners can also have their pick, according to RMIT Vietnam’s Parida.

Small businesses in the fashion, and food and beverage industries in Vietnam, for example, have begun using chatbots to manage inquiries and orders, Parida said.

“Anything beyond that requires a lot of expense” he said.

While larger companies can hire software companies to develop sophisticated systems customized to a business’ needs, it’s a luxury not many can afford.

Even companies that have the expertise to integrate AI themselves pay a premium to do so.

Lita Global, for example, spends about $2,000 on AI every month, part of which goes to purchasing tokens for OpenAI’s application programming interface (API). APIs allow companies to build upon OpenAI’s models, instead of requiring companies to build the AI model from scratch.

AI can help improve early-life and elderly health care: Danone

However, as AI improves, the cost to use it is expected to drop. Research and advisory firm Gartner 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.

That could mean even greater affordability for smaller businesses adopting AI for their businesses.

Outlook for the region

In emerging markets such as those in Southeast Asia where labor costs are low, companies may feel less motivated to boost efficiency through adoption of technology. But technology can provide “much better [outcomes]” for existing business practices, said NUS Business School’s Wirtz. AI is just another way to adopt technology.

He compared it to the popularization of e-hailing services, which reduced the risk of tourists getting scammed by taxi drivers in foreign countries, as e-hailing apps could estimate the price of a journey.

And with a tech-savvy population of entrepreneurs in economies such as Vietnam, where labor costs are low, the excitement to adopt AI remains high, according to Parida.

“It’s a very hungry young people,” he said.

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Winklevoss-founded Gemini reportedly prices IPO at $28 per share, valuing the crypto exchange at $3.3 billion

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Winklevoss-founded Gemini reportedly prices IPO at  per share, valuing the crypto exchange at .3 billion

Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss (L-R), creators of crypto exchange Gemini Trust Co., on stage at the Bitcoin 2021 Convention, a cryptocurrency conference held at the Mana Convention Center in Wynwood in Miami, Florida, on June 4, 2021.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Gemini Space Station, the crypto company founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, priced its initial public offering at $28 per share late Thursday, according to Bloomberg.

A person familiar with the offering told the news service that the company priced the offering above its expected range of $24 to $26, which would value the company at $3.3 billion.

Since Gemini capped the value of the offering at $425 million, 15.2 million shares were sold, according to the report. That was a measure of high demand for the crypto company, which had initially marketed 16.67 million shares. Earlier this week, it increased its proposed price range from between $17 and $19 apiece.

A Gemini spokesperson could not confirm the report.

The company and the selling stockholders granted its underwriters — led by and Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley — a 30-day option to sell an additional 452,807 and 380,526 shares, respectively, per the registration form. Gemini stock will trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “GEMI.”

Up to 30% of the shares offered will be reserved for retail investors through Robinhood, SoFi, Hong Kong-based Futu Securities, Singapore’s Moomoo Financial, Webull and other platforms.

Gemini, which primarily operates as a cryptocurrency exchange, was founded by the Winklevoss brothers in 2014 and holds more than $21 billion of assets on its platform as of the end of July.

Initial trading will give the market a sense of how long it can keep the crypto IPO party going. Circle Internet and Bullish had successful listings, but there has been a recent consolidation in the prices of blue chip cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. Also, in contrast to those companies’ profitability, Gemini has reported widening losses, especially in 2025. Per its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gemini posted a net loss of $159 million in 2024, and in the first half of this year, it lost $283 million.

This week, however, Gemini received a big vote of institutional confidence when Nasdaq said it’s making a strategic investment of $50 million in the crypto company. Nasdaq is seeking to offer its clients access to Gemini’s custodial services, and gain a distribution partner for its trade management system known as Calypso.

Gemini also offers a crypto-backed credit card, and last month, launched another card in partnership with Ripple. The latter garnered more than 30,000 credit card sign-ups in August, a new monthly high that was more than twice the number of credit card sign-ups in the prior month, according to the S-1 filing.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

(Learn the best 2026 strategies from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others at CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and info here.)

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OpenAI says nonprofit parent will own equity stake in company of over $100 billion

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OpenAI says nonprofit parent will own equity stake in company of over 0 billion

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella (L), speaks with OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who joined by video during the Microsoft Build 2025, conference in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.

Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

OpenAI on Thursday said its nonprofit parent will continue to have oversight over the company and will own an equity stake of more than $100 billion.

The artificial intelligence startup, recently valued at $500 billion, said this structure will make the nonprofit “one of the most well-resourced philanthropic organizations in the world,” and will allow the company to continue to raise capital.

OpenAI also announced it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Microsoft, which outlines the next phase of their partnership. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, backing the company as early as 2019, three years before the launch of of the chatbot ChatGPT.

“We are actively working to finalize contractual terms in a definitive agreement,” OpenAI said in a joint statement with Microsoft, which is also the company’s key cloud partner. “Together, we remain focused on delivering the best AI tools for everyone, grounded in our shared commitment to safety.”

In May, OpenAI bowed to pressure from civic leaders and ex-employees, announcing that its nonprofit would retain control even as the company was restructuring into a public benefit corporation. OpenAI was founded as a nonprofit research lab in 2015, but has in recent years become one of the fastest-growing commercial entities on the planet.

OpenAI said Thursday it is working closely with the California and Delaware Attorneys General to establish its structure.

“OpenAI started as a nonprofit, remains one today, and will continue to be one – with the nonprofit holding the authority that guides our future,” the company’s Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement Thursday.

The startup has been engulfed in a heated legal battle with Elon Musk, one of its co-founders. Musk has been trying to keep OpenAI from converting into a for-profit company as he competes in the generative AI market with his own startup, xAI.

OpenAI said its nonprofit is also opening applications for the first phase of a $50 million grant initiative that is aimed to support other nonprofit and community organizations across AI literacy, economic opportunity and community innovation.

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‘We will do better.’ Microsoft CEO Nadella admits company has to rebuild trust with employees

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'We will do better.' Microsoft CEO Nadella admits company has to rebuild trust with employees

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella departs following a meeting of the White House Task Force on AI Education in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Sept. 4, 2025.

Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees in a meeting on Thursday that the company has work to do to smooth relations with employees after announcing several rounds of layoffs and a mandated partial return to in-person work.

In the meeting that was held online, an employee asked executives to speak about a perceived lack of empathy in the company’s culture as of late and steps Microsoft is taking to rebuild trust with its workforce.

“I deeply appreciate that, the question and the sentiment behind it,” Nadella said, in audio that was obtained by CNBC. “I take it as feedback for me and everyone in the leadership team, because at the end of the day, I think we can do better, and we will do better.”

Nadella’s comments come after Microsoft slashed 9,000 jobs in July, following smaller reductions in the months prior. On Tuesday, Microsoft said workers living near its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, must come into the office three days a week, starting in February, with a broader rollout to follow.

Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s human resources chief, said at Thursday’s meeting that reception to the return-to-office announcement has been mixed, with some workers feeling like they’re losing autonomy. But she said that employees in and around Seattle already come in, on average, 2.4 times each week.

Like most of the tech industry, Microsoft went fully remote during the pandemic, and made particular use of its internal Teams video and chat offerings, which gained rapid adoption during that period. Microsoft has been slower than many of its peers to put a mandate in place for coming back to the office. Amazon, one of Microsoft’s top rivals, called employees back to offices five days a week in January.

While Nadella and the executive team are taking criticism from some staffers, Wall Street is applauding the company’s growth and execution. The stock is up almost 20% this year, outperforming the broader market, pushing Microsoft’s market cap to $3.7 trillion, which trails only Nvidia among the world’s most-valuable companies.

In July, Microsoft reported a 24% increase in net income to $27 billion. The company’s gross margin was under 69%, compared with 71% in late 2023. It’s rapidly building and renting data center infrastructure to meet artificial intelligence demand.

AI infrastructure build-up is a long-term story as adoption is only consumer based now

Nadella said at the meeting that with remote work, new employees and those who are early in their careers don’t always feel a sense of apprenticeship or mentorship.

“Management is just mostly all remote, but the interns are all, you know, in one location,” he said. “And so those are things that just will break a social contract.”

Microsoft didn’t immediately provide a comment.

Even with Microsoft’s rapid expansion, Nadella said the company is feeling the pressure. It’s a common theme in the software industry, as concerns proliferate about the impact of AI and its potential to automate work.

“We have some very, very hard work ahead of us, and that hard process of renewal is essentially what we have to do,” Nadella said. “You have to be hardcore in terms of an intellectual honesty about what really needs to happen.”

Microsoft’s Azure cloud business grew 39% in the latest quarter, but revenue in the Windows and devices business increased by just 2.5%.

“Some of the biggest businesses we built may not be as relevant going forward,” Nadella said. “Some of the margin that we love today may not be there tomorrow, and that means you have to be way ahead of all of those going away, right?”

Microsoft, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in April, will retain its core values as it confronts market realities, Nadella said.

“Capital markets have one simple truth,” he said. “There is no permission for any company to exist forever.”

That wasn’t the only contentious topic at the meeting.

Employees are awaiting details from a third-party investigation after The Guardian said in August that Israel’s military used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to store Palestinians’ phone calls as part of Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Microsoft has fired five employees following protests at its headquarters in Redmond, according to a statement from the group No Azure for Apartheid.

Microsoft President Brad Smith, whose office the protesters entered, addressed the issue on Thursday. He said that he and Coleman met with Jewish Microsoft employees, who have been harassed and threatened and have seen their public information shared online.

“We don’t get to control what happens outside Microsoft, but we need to be clear about one thing,” Smith said. “There is no room for antisemitism at Microsoft, and as a company and as a community, we will protect this group and defend them from that.”

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Nebius Co-Founder: $17.4 B Microsoft deal highlights surging AI infrastructure demand

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