“How do you perceive these ‘same same, but different’ challenges within your own businesses and divisions?” Mr Thilan Wickramsinghe asked panellists at a session titled “The Next Great Leap: Unearthing ASEAN Opportunities from AI and Digitalisation” at Maybank’s Invest ASEAN event in June.

While navigating these complexities, companies also ought to optimise for new opportunities like digitalisation and AI, with considerations such as the pace of digitalisation and how to position themselves in the months and years ahead. The panel, moderated by Mr Wickramasinghe, Head of Research at Maybank Investment Banking Group, touched upon a few pertinent questions.

How much should digital companies in ASEAN localise?

Companies in the region have taken a broad range of approaches when it comes to scaling while addressing the uneven nature of the South East Asia market – which has various levels of urbanisation, digitalisation and connectivity.

Central to this is a firm’s localisation strategy. It is a paradox that entrepreneurs aiming to crack have grappled with adapting both to the region and locally. For instance, Grab, a super-app ubiquitous in the region, used a “regional lens from day one” to “scale and roll out hyperlocal services quickly and effectively”, according to a Forbes article. In contrast, GoJek waited eight years before expanding from its native Indonesia.

Mr Michele Ferrario, co-founder and CEO of investment platform StashAway, said at the panel discussion that he does not believe in “over-localisation”, highlighting brands like Zara and Coca Cola as global brands that have huge similarities across regions and have chosen not to tailor their products excessively to fit local markets. Since StashAway’s founding in 2016 in Singapore, it has expanded to Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates.

To him, personalisation is more crucial, especially since StashAway serves a demographic of middle-aged white-collar workers who share broad similarities across borders. For example, the platform customises portfolios for users based on their financial situations and preferences. Technology such as data analytics and AI could improve such personal experiences.

His fellow panellist, Ms Jennifer Zhang, offers a contrasting view, believing in greater localisation. Her company, Wiz.AI, which develops humanised voice AI for customer service use, tweaks customer acquisition models for each market, based on their unique factors like the tech and telecommunications infrastructure.

What advantages do ASEAN companies have?

Despite the different types of strategies with regard to localisation when it comes to scaling, one thing is clear: companies have structural advantages by operating out of South East Asia, said Mr Samuel Ooi, Head of Group Ventures and Partnerships at Maybank.

Tech companies in the region have access to a strong pool of tech talent that is relatively cheaper to acquire compared with other regions such as Europe and the US. Many of the talents here are “highly educated, ambitious and entrepreneurial”. Those aged between 15 and 34 account for a third of the region’s 654-million population.

With a strong pool of tech talent driving growth, innovation will bubble through and propel the growth of tech start-ups. Forbes predicts that tech start-ups in South East Asia could be valued at US$1 trillion by 2025, tripling from US$340 billion in 2020.

Mr Ooi also added that by solving for a highly diverse customer base in ASEAN, companies like Wiz.AI and StashAway are also constructing a system architecture that can hyper-personalise products and services – making it is easier to move to other geographies.

How much AI should companies use?

Fundamental to any discussion on the future of the digital economy is the rapid growth of artificial intelligence.

But while few would dispute the growing importance of the transformative technology, another question that many companies have is: How much AI to incorporate and how to go about it?

For example, the use of a generative AI tool in customer sales could have great potential, creating sales opportunities based on live data rather than historic patterns. But doubts linger over its effectiveness in sealing the deal, especially given the importance of human interaction.

One approach is to do a hybrid model, said Mr Ferrario. Citing customer support, he said AI can play a bigger role through the use of advanced chatbots, especially as their responses become more humanlike. But he believes companies should “retain the human point of contact” in some form.

“Generative AI can help by making customer service agents more efficient and effective,” he added, noting how agents can gain quicker access to information through AI to help resolve issues in a single call instead.

He applied the same principle when it came to building investment portfolios without the use of AI, even if StashAway uses a data-driven, systematic framework. “It’s important that it’s (the portfolio) is not a black box, but something our investment teams can explain in detail. Investment is not an exact science,” he said.

What are the opportunities and risks of AI?

The potential of AI as a great equaliser has been heralded by some, while others argue that it may in fact lead to more pronounced divisions in society – just like how the Internet has left many behind.

An area where technology like AI and blockchain could help is in banking. For example, digitalisation in banking will benefit rural communities tremendously, such as those in the Philippines, where AI-powered credit scoring aims to extend credit access to clients in these areas.

Similarly, Ms Zhang also shared that her company’s conversational AI has improved product penetration into rural South East Asian areas in sectors such as FMCG, contributing to more inclusive growth. Wiz.AI has helped to boost order-taking processes by automatically reviewing client feedback in dialogues and ensuring accurate deliveries.

Despite the obvious advantages, concerns linger over AI, including existential ones. Has AI “hacked the operating system of human civilisation”? Philosopher Yuval Noah Harari raised his concern in The Economist, that new AI tools could threaten our existence.

Expanding on this, the panel’s moderator Mr Wickramsinghe posed his concluding question to the panel: Could “releasing AI into the wild” be like “open-sourcing” the Manhattan Project (which created the atomic bomb)?

It was perhaps apt that ChatGPT, who made a special appearance as the final “speaker” on the panel, had a say on this. In the form of a female humanoid on screen, she replied that AI has to have robust regulations and ethical frameworks, guidelines for responsible AI development, and there is a need for collaboration between industry, academia and policymakers.

“Ultimately, it’s essential to prioritise human well-being and actively monitor and address the potential risks as we navigate the path of widespread AI adoption,” she said.