During the first day of BEYOND 2024 at The Venetian Cotai Expo in Macau on May 23, entrepreneurs in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector discussed how the technology will impact traditional businesses in Southeast Asia (SEA).

William Zhou, vice president at iFLYTEK Group, highlighted the popularity of chatbots in the region, noting that their adoption has increased over the years, leading to improved service quality. He also mentioned the use of captioning technology by the event organiser, provided by iFLYTEK Group.

Despite the growing use of AI, barriers to adoption still exist for businesses in SEA. Edwin Loh, Founder & CEO of Imagine AI, pointed out that small to medium-sized enterprises face challenges due to resource limitations. To address this, Imagine AI offers an AI-as-a-service platform tailored for businesses to develop their own applications.

Zhou emphasized the lack of knowledge and understanding as the primary barrier to AI adoption, followed by fear of business loss. He suggested simplifying the adoption process and allowing concurrent use of the technology to overcome these challenges.

How AI helps advertisers reach their audiences

At the same panel discussion, Khanh P. Ngo, Head of Monetisation Strategy & Operations, APAC & MEA, at TikTok, shared how the platform uses AI to assist advertisers in reaching their target audiences.

Ngo discussed the challenge faced by advertisers in creating compelling content for platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, and how AI solutions are being developed to reduce creative production costs and improve advertising effectiveness.

Advertisers in SEA are eager for these solutions, particularly with the growing popularity of live commerce in the region. Platforms like TikTok play a role in providing data analytics to help small businesses in making informed decisions.

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