The rise of AI assistants: How APAC is leading the way in real-world applications

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the Asia Pacific region is poised to explode, at a rate of 46.47% CAGR to reach US$83.42 billion by 2030, from US$8.45 billion in 2024.

Daily users of generative AI in APAC are set to triple within the next five years, from 11% to 32%, according to a recent report by Deloitte, with China, India, and Southeast Asia in the lead with a 30% higher share of generative AI users than the rest of Asia.

The same Deloitte report also highlighted the key role that young people play in the adoption of generative AI in the region, dubbing them “Generation AI” for the way they have grown up in an era of voice assistants and recommendation algorithms.

AI-driven assistants that have been supercharged by advanced conversational capacities revolutionise customer experience through 24/7 support, personalised responses, and the ability to handle multiple customer inquiries simultaneously.

Lazada, a leading eCommerce platform, offers ChatGPT-powered LazzieChat, an intelligent chatbot that works in English, Bahasa Indonesia, and Tagalog.

Designed to answer customers’ shopping queries, the technology provides a personalised experience and product recommendations. Lazada’s skin test function runs a skin diagnosis using a camera phone and receives product recommendations based on the results.

By analysing data to uncover patterns, AI assistants enable businesses to tailor their offerings accordingly.

APAC’s linguistic and cultural diversity presents unique challenges. Singapore startup Wiz.AI developed conversational AI that recognises speech patterns, encouraging natural conversations between an AI chatbot and humans.

Apps such as Grab and Didi use AI-powered real-time translation to provide ease of communication between user and drivers who do not speak the same language.

'OCBC Buddy and Wingman' are AI-powered assistants that work behind the scenes at Singapore’s OCBC Bank, trawling through thousands of internal documents and intranet pages to answers queries, relieving the mundane tasks of approximately 30,000 employees and thereby boosting productivity.

The use of generative AI in marketing is still limited, not yet meeting its market potential. But in APAC, AI has already progressed from a novel technology to a mass application, unlocking more use cases, often as assistants that are tailored to the cultural nuances of local markets.

Asia’s population will be 250 million larger in 2030, as it urbanises faster than any other region. As life expectancy continues to rise, the region carries significant healthcare gaps, and challenges remain in delivering quality education. Climate change and unsustainable farming methods hurt agriculture, which is Asia’s lifeblood.

As the region seeks to respond to far-reaching and diverse economic, demographic and regulatory changes, AI offers solutions that can impact welfare beyond GDP. Supercharged by large language models, AI applications leverage voice and text to assist in critical sectors to advance medical practices, enhance learning experiences, improve public living, and make aquaculture and other kinds of farming more efficient.

Fields such as healthcare require a human touch. AI virtual assistants offer personalised experiences to patients and help medical professionals accomplish mundane tasks so they can focus on the human side of patient care.

The tools identify illnesses based on symptoms, monitor patients’ health status, and schedule doctor appointments. Using an AI chat assistant, Siloam Sri Wijaya Hospital in Indonesia sends out text reminders to parents about their babies’ vaccination appointments.

A Chinese startup, the Shenzhen Bixin AI Company, developed “vision-helper AI glasses” to help visually impaired people “see” surroundings when walking alone. Based on large language and auditory models, the glasses, which are equipped with a microphone, speaker and camera, possess humanlike abilities of hearing, speaking, and seeing.

By directly asking the glasses questions, users can find out just what they need to know about their surroundings, such as what road they are on or whether there are any obstructions nearby.

AI offers many powerful opportunities to help with learning. Duolingo is a great example of a language-learning platform that uses AI to personalise lessons, also incorporating gamification to keep learners engaged.

In Australia, the New South Wales Department of Education partnered with Microsoft to develop NSWEduChat. This “virtual tutor” has been hailed as the future of AI in education. It was custom built for the New South Wales education system, after ChatGPT was banned there.

To take one example, if a student asks, “Can you write me an essay?” it will not do so. Instead, the chatbot uses Socratic questioning—throwing questions back to students, encouraging critical thinking.

Southeast Asian governments are also using AI to encourage good urban governance. Thousands of civil servants in Singapore use a chatbot based on ChatGPT to help with coding.

Developed by the government agency GovTech, Pair generates quick responses for public officers, boosting productivity within the government and benefiting the public.

In South Korea, getting information on public services can be complicated. To obtain information in a simpler way, Korea’s ministry of the interior and safety launched GoodPy, a virtual assistant integrated with messaging applications such as Naver and Kakaotalk (py means “secretary” in Korean). This is an excellent case of a citizen-centric public service using AI to surface information more easily.

To keep fish and shrimp healthy, farmers in Indonesia use Mas Ahya. Powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, the “Farming Expert” answers a range of questions in Javanese: “What is the quality of my pond water?” and “What is the market price of shrimp?” for instance.

Farmers use the data to maximise production and estimate prices better. Farmers in India face their own challenges, such as erratic weather, pests, and financial burdens. The startup Digital Green teamed up with OpenAI to launch FarmerChat, an AI-driven assistant to help farmers boost their agricultural productivity.

The fundamental value of AI assistants is in being a copilot. Doing more than enhancing personalised customer experience and automating complex tasks, AI assistants in APAC are accelerating progress and improving standards of living.

They are also bringing a human touch in healthcare, enhancing learning experiences, simplifying complex public-service processes, and revolutionising agricultural practices. The region is leading the way in leveraging AI assistant’s true capabilities in powering real-world applications by tackling challenging problems and improving human lives.

This article was written by Aditya Kilpady, regional strategy director, UM APAC.