6 in 10 businesses have had their supply chains affected

According to the UOB Business Outlook Study 2023, both small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises in the ASEAN and Greater China regions are eager to expand internationally to boost their revenue and profits. The study surveyed over 4,000 businesses in Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Mainland China, and Hong Kong SAR.

Key findings of the survey include:

• Expansion Plans: 83 per cent of businesses expressed a keen interest in expanding overseas, with Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese companies displaying the strongest desire. However, businesses in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore showed more hesitation. Most companies (4 in 5) value having a cross-border digital trade platform for their international expansion.
• Challenges: Some challenges hindering businesses from expanding overseas include difficulties in finding the right partners, a lack of in-house talent, and insufficient support regarding legal and regulatory compliance and tax matters. Many companies cited the need for more support, including connecting with overseas partners or clients and tax incentives.
• Target Markets: The top two markets businesses want to expand to are ASEAN and China, with only 1 in 4 companies interested in expanding beyond Asia. Within ASEAN, Singapore is seen as the most important country for business ventures, followed by Thailand and Malaysia.
• Supply Chain Concerns: Around 60 per cent of SMEs reported that their supply chains have been affected by ongoing geopolitical tensions. Global inflation and challenges in procuring suppliers were also highlighted as issues. Around 3 in 10 SMEs are seeking to diversify their supply chains, build stronger supplier relationships, and leverage data analytics for decision-making.
• Sustainability Practices: While around 90 per cent of businesses believe sustainability is important, only 45 per cent have implemented sustainability practices. SMEs in Thailand and Vietnam showed higher adoption rates (more than 50 per cent), while Singaporean SMEs lagged behind at 38 per cent. Concerns about increased costs to customers and impacts on profits and revenue were cited as barriers to implementing sustainability practices.

To address these challenges, UOB, a leading bank in Southeast Asia, aims to support companies in their transition to sustainability and provide access to sustainable financing options. The bank offers tools like the Sustainability Compass to help companies overcome barriers and kickstart their sustainability journeys.

The UOB Business Outlook Study 2023 aims to understand the business outlook and expectations among SMEs and large enterprises in ASEAN and Greater China. It has been conducted annually in Singapore since 2020 and was expanded this year to include the ASEAN and Greater China markets.

Tags: ASEANAsiaUOB

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The pace of work has outstripped human capacity, affecting innovation

Microsoft Corp. has introduced Microsoft 365 Copilot, a generative AI tool, to its suite of applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. The company is expanding access to the Copilot preview and introducing new features. In conjunction with this announcement, Microsoft released insights from its 2023 Work Trend Index report, titled “Will AI Fix Work?”

The Work Trend Index report surveyed 31,000 individuals across industries in 31 countries, including 14 Asia Pacific markets, and analyzed trillions of signals from emails, meetings, chats, and labor trends on Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn. The findings indicate that the pace of work has outstripped human capacity, affecting innovation. The report suggests that next-generation AI can alleviate the burden of work, leading to increased creativity and productivity.

Vinod Muralidharan, General Manager Modern Work at Microsoft Asia, highlighted the transformative potential of AI in the workplace. He emphasized the need for leaders to leverage AI to remove mundane tasks, foster creativity, and develop AI skills among employees.

The report offers three key insights for business leaders:

• Digital debt hinders innovation: The volume of data, emails, and chats has surpassed our ability to process it efficiently, resulting in digital debt. This debt affects productivity, with 72 per cent of individuals in the Asia Pacific region reporting a lack of time and energy to complete their work, making them three times more likely to struggle with innovation. The average person spends 57 per cent of their Microsoft 365 time on communication and only 43 per cent on creation. Inefficient meetings were identified as the top productivity disruption.
• AI-employee alliance: Employees prioritize the promise of relief over fears of job displacement, while managers seek to empower employees with AI rather than replace them. Although 58 per cent of respondents in Asia Pacific expressed concerns about AI replacing their jobs, 78 per cent would delegate tasks to AI to reduce their workloads. Three out of four people in the region are comfortable using AI for not just administrative tasks but also analytical and creative aspects of their roles. Leaders are more likely to see AI as valuable for boosting productivity rather than cutting headcount.
• AI aptitude for all employees: All employees, not just AI experts, will need to develop core competencies to thrive in the AI era. Leaders anticipate that 85 per cent of employees in the Asia Pacific region will require new AI-related skills. However, 71 per cent of individuals currently feel they lack the necessary capabilities to perform their work. The demand for an AI-centric skillset will impact everything from resumes to job postings.

To support businesses in the AI era, Microsoft is launching the Microsoft 365 Copilot Early Access Program for select enterprise customers. They are also introducing new capabilities to Copilot and Microsoft Viva, such as Copilot in Whiteboard, Copilot in PowerPoint with DALL-E integration for custom image creation, Copilot in Outlook for email writing guidance, Copilot in OneNote for drafting plans and organizing information, and Copilot in Viva Learning for personalized learning journeys.

Additionally, Microsoft is rolling out the Semantic Index for Copilot to all Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 customers, aiming to assist customers in becoming AI-ready.

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Vpon Big Data Group teams up with Hong Kong brand Mezzanine Makers

Vpon Big Data Group, the leading big data company in Asia, has successfully developed the AI visual generative system “InVnity”, utilizing AI and big data to generate and optimize advertising design and delivery. The system is 10 times more efficient than the design workflow in the past, with the precise design requirements and keywords, the AI system will automatically generate high-quality advertising visuals with various creative to choose from. Then, “InVnity” would identify tags such as age, location, and behaviour of the target audience to match the most relevant advertisement for everyone, and continuously monitors, evaluates, and optimizes the effectiveness of the advertisement in real-time. The first client to use the revolutionary AI creative system is the Hong Kong-based soft drinks brand Mezzanine Makers. Through “InVnity”, a series of AI-powered advertisements were created, and the innovative collaboration campaign has already launched.

10x More Efficient, Breakthrough the Boundaries of Reality

As Asia’s leading big data expert, Vpon reaches over 900 million mobile devices every month, holds a vast amount of mobile device data, and possesses high-quality media resources in the Asia-Pacific region. Recently, Vpon has successfully developed the AI visual generative system “InVnity”. With “InVnity”, when the creators input the requirements and keywords based on their understanding of the target audiences, the system will autonomously generate an abundant of high-quality advertisements. This process is up to 10 times more efficient than the visual generating process in the past, allowing designers to explore more possibilities with a few clicks. From realistic painting and comic styles to portraits and scenery photographs, “InVnity” can generate a diversified artistic style in response to the prompts. However, the true power of “InVnity” is beyond reality. Creators can envision their products in surreal setting in just a split second, such as historical and futuristic scenery, which would require a large amount of production cost and resources in real life.

AI-powered Analytics, Reaching the Full Potential

Vpon’s AI visual generative system “InVnity” has been adopted by Mezzanine Makers, a Hong Kong-based boutique soft drink brand, as its first user. Vpon’s professional team created a series of advertising visuals with “InVnity” tailored for the target audiences of Mezzanine Makers. The system’s AI capabilities allow it to learn from real-time advertising results and continuously optimize the visual material based on big data analysis. Fanko Yim, Global Solutions Director of Vpon Big Data Group, stated that “Mezzanine Makers has a diversified targeting group. Making good use of AI technologies like ‘InVnity’ allows Vpon to quickly provide a range of advertising designs for our clients in a relatively cost-effective way. To overcoming the pain points of designers and the limitation of resources, we specifically designed the ‘dreambooth’ function in “InVnity”, which can generate quality designs using our client’s product photos as the main subject. Creators then can quickly modify details partially such as background and clothing with the ‘inpainting’ function, for a highly flexible advertising design experience.”

Arthur Chan, Chief Operating Officer of Vpon Big Data Group, believes that integrating AI and big data will drive significant breakthroughs in the advertising industry. “Artificial intelligence is changing the world rapidly. We can foresee that AI would be found at every corner of business activities very soon,” he explains. “Therefore, Vpon will not cease our AI innovation. ‘InVnity’ will keep on learning and improving from our database, while simultaneously collecting visual-based data with the new technology, further our understanding of the audiences.” The goal of Vpon’s leading AI technology team is to leverage “InVnity” to deliver cost-effective, hyper-personalised, and innovative advertising designs to individual brand audiences, ensuring that each potential customer receives a brand message that resonates with them on a deeper level.

Adrian Ng, the co-founder of Mezzanine Makers, expressed his excitement at the brand’s ability to reach the public in a new and unique way. “As a Hong Kong-based brand, Mezzanine Makers has always drawn inspiration from old Hong Kong in its designs. The unique styles of these AI-powered advertisement by Vpon perfectly aligns with our innovative brand image. As an independent boutique soft drink brand, we may not have the resources to always ensure the effectiveness of our advertisements, meaning we could potentially miss out when a change of visual or strategy is needed. However, with the “InVnity” AI system, the advertising performances are analysed autonomously for real-time optimization of the strategy and visuals, ensuring the advertisement are amplifying our brand message, none of our resources would go wasted.”

For Vpon, “InVnity” is merely the starting point of the company’s AI development. They will continue to enhance the system’s capability and user’s journey, take advantage of their big data expertise to tailor to the needs of the brands, surpassing other AI generator currently available on the market. With a focus on innovative technologies, Vpon is striving to revolutionize the advertising industry and break through existing limitations.

Tags: Hong KongMezzanine MakersVpon

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1000minds uses explicit criteria and explicit human judgments

1000minds has launched an AI assistant as part of its decision-making and conjoint analysis software using Microsoft Azure OpenAI services. OpenAI’s GPT technology is also used in the popular ChatGPT service.

The 1000minds AI assistant helps people build their decision model while keeping them in the driver’s seat, which is incredibly useful for learning how to use 1000minds and for testing its use in new domains.

For example, if people are comparing electric cars, the AI assistant will suggest criteria such as recharge time, speed, safety, and distance, and optionally provide examples of electric cars to consider.

1000minds’ commitment to AI safety best practices, including a “human-in-the-loop” approach, means that people are involved every step of the way. With just a few words about what they want to compare, e.g., “electricity generation options” or “candidates for head of HR”, the AI assistant generates suggestions that people can adapt to meet their needs by incorporating their own knowledge and expertise.

It’s the perfect marriage: 1000minds’ structured decision-making combined with the OpenAI language model, which works well for this kind of application given well-framed prompts designed to get good suggestions.

The AI assistant also supports ideation with 1000minds’ expert group decision-making tools, and builds models for conjoint analysis, discrete choice experiments and preferences surveys.

Unlike “opaque” AI-based decision-making, in which the reasoning behind a decision can’t be fully explained, 1000minds uses explicit criteria and explicit human judgments. This creates a fully auditable, defensible, and refinable decision model that can be trusted.

“Combining 1000minds’ PAPRIKA algorithm and OpenAI’s GPT, two incredible technologies, is a brilliant idea,” said Colin Smithies, Business Intelligence Analyst at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. “1000minds has always been very powerful and user-friendly, and now getting AI help with specifying the criteria for your decision is extremely helpful. It’s fantastic!”

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70 per cent of organizations currently in exploration mode with generative AI

In a recent Gartner, Inc. poll of more than 2,500 executive leaders, 45 per cent reported that the publicity of ChatGPT has prompted them to increase artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Seventy percent of executives said that their organization is in investigation and exploration mode with generative AI, while 19 per cent are in pilot or production mode.

“The generative AI frenzy shows no signs of abating,” said Frances Karamouzis, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Organizations are scrambling to determine how much cash to pour into generative AI solutions, which products are worth the investment, when to get started and how to mitigate the risks that come with this emerging technology.”

The poll was conducted among 2,544 respondents as part of a Gartner webinar series in March and April 2023 discussing the enterprise impact of ChatGPT and generative AI. Results of this poll do not represent global findings or the market.

Executives Say Benefits of Generative AI Outweigh the Risks

The poll found that 68 per cent of executives believe that the benefits of generative AI outweigh the risks, compared with just 5 per cent that feel the risks outweigh the benefits. However, executives may begin to shift their perspective as investments deepen.

“Initial enthusiasm for a new technology can give way to more rigorous analysis of risks and implementation challenges,” said Karamouzis. “Organizations will likely encounter a host of trust, risk, security, privacy and ethical questions as they start to develop and deploy generative AI.”

Customer Experience is the Primary Focus of Generative AI Investments

Despite ongoing economic headwinds, only 17 per cent of executives indicated cost optimization as the primary purpose of generative AI investments. Customer experience was the most common primary focus of investments, cited by 38 per cent of respondents.

As organizations begin experimenting with generative AI, many are starting with use cases such as media content improvement or code generation. While these efforts can be a strong initial value-add, generative AI has vast potential to support solutions that augment humans or machines and autonomously execute business and IT processes.

“Autonomous business, the next macrophase of technological change, can mitigate the impact of inflation, talent shortages and even economic downturns,” said Karamouzis. “CEOs and CIOs that leverage generative AI to drive transformation through new products and business models will find massive opportunities for revenue growth.”

Tags: ChatGPTGartner

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There are several generative AI tools emerging in the market

The immense popularity gained by ChatGPT since its launch in November 2022 has brought generative AI tools under the spotlight, prompting many companies cutting across industries to aggressively explore their capabilities and use cases. Telcos are no exception to this trend and are quickly warming up to their benefits, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Pradeepthi Kantipudi, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “There are several generative AI tools emerging in the market, capable of generating conversational text, and customized content like images, music, or codes based on a given prompt, with ChatGPT especially drawing attention for its instant and near accurate output. For telcos, ChatGPT could bring disruption in several business functions, including customer service, network management, fraud detection, sales, and marketing.”

Samrat Volam, Technology Lead Analyst at GlobalData, adds: “For instance, integrating ChatGPT with telecoms’ traditional customer service channels can help deliver instant, automated support round-the-clock, provide information on the product and service portfolio, handle wide-ranging customer inquiries and issues quickly and efficiently, reduce wait times, and boost customer satisfaction. To better serve a geographically diverse customer base, telecom companies can also employ ChatGPT to provide translation for customers who speak different languages. In this way, AI-powered tools can help telcos in enhancing customer experience and cutting costs.”

By presenting customers with tailored product recommendations and exclusive offers based on previous purchases and interests, ChatGPT can also aid in boosting sales and revenue of telecom companies. Additionally, ChatGPT can be used to identify and monitor fraudsters, even build a database of information that can be used to prevent fraud attempts.

Pradeepthi continues: “With several telcos testing and exploring new use cases for ChatGPT, investment in the telecommunications sector is set to increase in the short to medium term. This is put into perspective by GlobalData’s market opportunity forecasts for AI, which estimate enterprise AI spending in the communications sector at $US1.6 billion in 2022 and project it to increase up to $US2.9 billion by 2026.”

Another interesting trend emerging is that the telcos have already started working on their own ChatGPT-like versions. KT, a South Korean telecommunications company, is working on its own version of the OpenAI model. SK Telecom is also planning to launch its own AI chatbot and launched a beta version called “A.” (pronounced “A dot”) in South Korea in May 2022. Also, China Telecom announced plans to build an AI foundation model to develop an industrial ChatGPT version for the telecommunications industry.

Samrat concludes: “The benefits of ChatGPT as a useful tool for customer care and technical support in the telecommunications industry are evident. As the technology matures and companies explore novel applications, the telecom companies stand to benefit by offering an enhanced customer experience and thereby reducing churn and improving their sales and profits.”

Tags: AIChat-GPTGlobalData

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JATCO plays a crucial role in the Japanese automotive industry

UiPath, a leading enterprise automation software company, today announced that JATCO Ltd, Japan’s leading automotive transmission manufacturer, is expanding the use of the AI-powered UiPath Business Automation Platform enterprise-wide.

JATCO plays a crucial role in the Japanese automotive industry. As a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Company, the company provides high-quality, continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) and automatic transmissions (ATs). These products are supplied to automakers worldwide and are highly valued for their reliability and durability.

JATCO first implemented the UiPath Business Automation Platform in its Research & Development (R&D) department in late 2018. The R&D department had issues with manual work and managing hours spent on time-intensive tasks like the extraction and analysis of data. Given the variety and sheer number of specialized instruments and equipment used by the R&D team in developing new products, they sought an automation tool that could extract the necessary data from these devices to speed up the development process. After comparing various tools, the company selected UiPath, as it was able to support almost all third-party software and programs used by the team.

Since implementing UiPath, JATCO’s R&D department has developed over 750 workflows, which has saved more than 200,000 hours over four years. This has led to significant productivity gains. For example, the company has improved the efficiency of report preparation through automation and can now review its hour usage on a weekly basis. Prior to this, the report was available only monthly. This helped the company to quickly identify causes of delay and adjust delivery dates and resources in advance. Additionally, they were able to build a framework that converts raw data generated by testing equipment and devices into comma-separated value (CSV) formats.

Integration with Kintone for faster data entry support and analysis

JATCO also integrated UiPath with Kintone, a no-code/low-code process improvement software by Cybozu, a Japanese software provider. The company used to enter expense processing data both into the Kintone application and a legacy system. However, JATCO developed a framework to automate data entry into the expense processing system after manual entry into Kintone. This allowed the company to improve business processes without significant investments in resources and time to revamp its systems. Automation attained by integrating UiPath and Kintone has created many other benefits as well.

Rob Enslin, Co-Chief Executive Officer, UiPath said, “We are honoured to continue supporting JATCO, as it scales its automation use enterprise-wide to maximize productivity gains. With automation fast becoming the new way of operating and innovation, ensuring that the workforce is well-placed to work with automation solutions will be critical. By augmenting its automation solutions with skills training for its workforce, JATCO will be able to reap the full potential of automation and future-proof their business.”

To expand and entrench the automation initiative, JATCO is training citizen developers in each division so that they can develop their own workflows. The company introduced four educational programs for employees of different proficiency levels. Over 900 people have completed at least the entry-level program and are now capable of developing RPA. As JATCO accelerates automation of business processes across the company, it’s also focused on fostering digital talent, by incorporating digital skills in its internal employee assessment criteria.

Tags: JapanJATCOUiPath

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Wenspok began testing Berry AI’s camera-based drive-thru timers last year

Berry AI, a leader in the restaurant AI technology industry, announced today that its expanding use of camera-based drive-thru timers in partnership with Wenspok Companies, a Spokane-based franchise operator of Wendy’s operating 65+ restaurants.

Wenspok began testing Berry’s camera-based drive-thru timers last year. The system provides more actionable data than traditional loop timers, is easier to install and maintain, and helps restaurants improve speed of service. The success in testing fueled Wenspok’s desire to add the technology to more locations and is committed to an upcoming rollout.

“With Wenspok’s desire to build a drive-thru that improves operational efficiency while delivering an elevated guest experience, Berry’s camera-based drive-thru timer solution is a natural choice,” said Adam Azril, Wenspok’s Director of Technology and Training. “The Berry AI platform has exceeded our expectations and we are excited to deploy the solution to more restaurants. Our intention isn’t to replace jobs – quite the opposite. The goal is to have the employees focus on higher-value tasks and make their jobs easier over time.”

“We’re excited to work with Wenspok Companies, an innovative Wendy’s franchise operator that constantly finds new ways to improve their world-class operations,” said Eric Lam, CEO of Berry AI. “We’re grateful for the trust and confidence Wenspok has shown in us as we enter the next phase of our partnership.”

“Since COVID, the QSR industry has been investing heavily in the drive-thru,” Eric added. “Heavier investments like drive-thru layout remodels will take years to realize, while lighter technologies like Berry’s only require a simple install of a few cameras and can retrofit existing stores, providing a fast path to system-wide impact.”

Eric estimates there’s over 200,000 drive-thrus in the country and predicts that in five years, tens of thousands of locations will adopt the camera-based drive-thru timer technology. “It’s just such a no-brainer. Sales goes up, food costs go down, and guests are more satisfied,” Eric explains.

Berry AI said it has the most penetrated camera-based drive-thru AI technology in the industry. Since its founding in 2019, Berry AI has been on a mission to improve the QSR guest experience and is in active partnerships with numerous top-50 QSR brands.

Tags: Berry AIWendysWenspoke Companies

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Autonomous vehicles are moving from virtual tests to early development

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are moving from virtual tests to early development phases worldwide in commercial spaces like ride-hail services, freight logistics, and mobile retail. Both consumer and commercial vehicles are leveraging real-time data to build complex simulations and understand how artificial intelligence (AI) responds to unpredictable situations, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Manish Dixit, Practice Head at GlobalData, comments: “AVs are focused on using advanced algorithms and sensing technology to improve vision, radar, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and vehicle control systems. AI is helping in path planning and predictions to forecast the behaviour of other vehicles and pedestrians, and with predictive maintenance to reduce downtime and maintenance costs of AVs.”

Prathyusha Paruchuri, Senior Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, comments “AI is an integral part of AVs functionality, starting from observation and decision-making to control and supervision. AI can not only reduce traffic congestion and optimize travel routes but also eliminate human intervention in driving. However, it still needs to overcome challenges in terms of safety and reliability of AVs and improve overall vehicle performance.”

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic along with a slowdown in economic development and global funding has brought many AV trials to a temporary halt. Moreover, the high investment costs, lack of profitability, and the time involved in manufacturing AVs is leading to the exit of many players. For instance, Uber disposed of its AV unit in late 2020, and Argo.ai joint venture between Ford and VW was dispersed in 2022. Subsequently, companies like Tesla, Waymo, and Baidu are looking to manufacture safer and more reliable vehicles.

GlobalData’s latest report, “Digital Innovation Case Studies in Automotive,” highlights the implementation of AI technologies with real-world use cases and assesses the return on investment.

Continental leveraged AI to reduce time-to-market

Continental AG, a Germany-based supplier of automotive parts, collaborated with NVIDIA, a provider of AI and IBM Spectrum storage for data. They launched Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), which use deep learning and trained artificial neural networks to develop intelligent sensors and data-driven traffic safety solutions. The systems are claimed to improve AI training time by 70 per cent and reduced training time from weeks to days.

BMW uses big data and machine learning to boost productivity

BMW Group collaborated with DXC Technology, an IT and consulting services provider, to effectively access and analyse the vast amounts of data required to develop and improve the driving algorithms for its automated vehicles. The platform provided nearly 230 petabytes of usable storage and established sufficient processing capacity to simulate up to 240 million kilometres of test data within a period of just 3 months.

Honda harnesses AI to improve operational efficiency and profitability

Splunk, a technology provider, was approached by Honda Manufacturing of Alabama (HMA), which is Honda’s biggest light truck production facility, to implement its machine learning (ML) solution. Splunk claims that its ML solution allowed HMA to access the right data and reduce the mean time to repair (MTTR) by 70 per cent.

Paruchuri concludes: “The use of AI and machine learning is converting the vehicles into intelligent and adaptable systems. AVs are also incorporating cybersecurity to safeguard passenger data from malicious activity. Manufacturers are now focusing on Generative AI that uses synthetic training data to conduct virtual tests in a controlled environment, which could train their AVs more efficiently and effectively.”

Tags: AIAutonomous vehiclesGlobalData

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Adoption of (AI) has been emphasized in various aspects of the China-ASEAN partnerships

Recent visit by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to China signals the strong strategic partnerships between both countries. In fact, China has been playing an increasingly significant role as Malaysia’s largest trading partner for the past decade. Similar robust partnerships are observed across other ASEAN countries. In recent years, adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has been emphasized in various aspects of the China-ASEAN partnerships as part of greater effort to strive in the era of digitalization.

Indeed, China has achieved tremendous breakthroughs in AI technology and facility developments. The China-ASEAN (Huawei) AI Innovation Centre in Guangxi, the Big Data centre in Guizhou are examples of China endeavours in the pursue of latest AI technologies. The successful implementation elements of these AI initiatives can serve as source of reference for ASEAN countries in developing their strategic AI blueprints and promoting the cross-regional AI technological transfers, especially in the domain of cloud-based intelligent system.

The ASEAN Media’s View on Digital China Media Tour conducted in late February 2023 visited a number of companies that have significant interest in the AI development such as Huawei, Meituan, WeBank, and Ping An Group, as well as Guangdong Laboratory of AI and Digital Economy (Shenzhen) and Belt and Road Research Institute (Shenzhen) for International Cooperation and Development at Shenzhen University. The tour interviewed numerous key figures at respective organizations with indicative signs of advocating closer China-ASEAN regional cooperation and exchange in parallel with China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Prospectively, joint talent cultivation in AI is the key to sustainable long-term regional partnerships between China and ASEAN. Strategic AI techniques such as Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Edge Computing, etc have trickled literally into all economic sectors. Although some efforts such as Huawei partnership with National University of Singapore Business Analytics Centre were initiated to nurture AI talents, more well-coordinated, wider scale talent programs are required to increase the AI awareness among local populations. Public AI talent development and upskill programs, especially for ASEAN youth, will be paramount in cementing future success of AI-driven digital economy.

Tags: ASEANChinaPrnasia

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