Grab banks big on AI for new product solutions

Southeast Asia’s superapp Grab is unveiling a new suite of agentic AI solutions to help merchants and driver partners unlock new avenues of revenue generation. This builds on Grab’s partnership with OpenAI, first announced in 2024. The new partnership also builds on a strategic partnership with Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI models, to jointly develop new AI solutions and test the latest Claude models.

According to Grab, with 44 million monthly transacting users across eight countries and over 800 cities in SEA, there is a large regional user base and real-life use cases to train, test and refine AI models.

Speaking at the first ever Grab X product event, Philipp Kandal, chief product officer, Grab said “At Grab we’ve always believed that win-win partnerships help us go further, faster."

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"By working with two of the world’s foremost AI research organisations, we gain access to cutting edge capabilities enabling us to create innovative solutions that serve our community. At the same time, we provide our partners with real-world use cases and insights that help them to refine and push the boundaries of their AI models," added Kandal.

For merchant partners, Grab’s new AI Merchant Assistant comes in the form of a chatbot powered by large language models (LLMs). It is integrated within the GrabMerchant app to provide merchants with tailored insights and help them handle daily tasks.

The company added that the solution came about as many merchants on Grab’s platform are small business that lack the resource of bigger brands to invest in advanced technology, and don’t have the time to deeply analyse business performance. Hence the AI Merchant Assistant seeks to level the playing field by being available to merchants at their convenience and act as a business advisor.

Showcasing a product demo at the Grab X event, the company said that the new solutions understand the merchants’ individual needs and varied operational and business questions. It can then provide personalised recommendations in a human tone, and proactively reach out to merchants with business suggestions with advice on improving sales, in addition to helping them handle tasks such as creating ads and updating menus.

Meanwhile for rider partners, Grab’s new AI-ride guide can draw on real time and historical data to predict where ride demand will be highest and guide drivers towards those hotspots. Kandal added that merchants and driver partners are some of Southeast Asia’s most entrepreneurial folk and grab wants to equip them with the tools to succeed in an increasingly AI-centric world.

“The two agentic AI solutions we are introducing today are personal, intelligent assistants designed to help every merchant and driver-partners optimise their businesses and maximise productivity,” said Kandal.

“These solutions reflect our AI-first with heart approach – our commitment to solving real problems for the communities we serve, with AI at the core of how we work and what we build,” he added.

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