Recently, Singapore carried out its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS) 2.0, which includes tripling its AI expert pool and pioneering the development of the first regional Large Language Model (LLM), catering to the region’s diverse cultures and languages.

A National Effort

It has long been discussed that most leading LLMs originate from Western countries, whose cultures, values, and norms differ from those in Asia and other regions. Back in September this year, governments like UAE and Japan already announced their efforts to build regional LLMs that represent cultural and linguistic subtleties.

Unlike other countries where efforts are led by local business giants, Singapore’s effort is on a national level. The plan is to allocate S$70 million to develop multimodal and localized LLMs for Singapore and the region in the next two years, with joint efforts from research, engineering, governance, computing, and innovative enterprises.

“This national effort underscores Singapore’s commitment to become a global AI hub. Language is an essential enabler for collaboration. By investing in talent and investing in large language AI models for regional languages, we want to foster industry collaboration across borders and drive the next wave of AI innovation in Southeast Asia.” said Dr Ong Chen Hui, assistant chief executive of IMDA’s Biztech group.

A Balance between Innovation and Accountability

As the technological hub of the region, Singapore possesses a well-developed startup ecosystem, policy support, and financial resources, attracting a large number of AI companies to establish and grow there.

Unlike the EU and China, which take a regulatory approach to AI governance, Singapore adopts an advisory approach and develops the Model AI Governance Framework, focusing on trust and innovation by nature.

Accoding to Lawrence Wong, the Prime Minister of Singapore, “the approach is to find the balance between encouraging experimentation and innovation while putting in place the necessary guardrails.”

In fact, Singapore has established an advisory council which focuses on the ethical use of AI and data back in 2018. The council provides policy, guidance and governance regarding areas impacted by AI systems along the way.

According to data from Crunchbase, there are over 900 AI enterprises in Southeast Asia, with an average founding year of around 2017, and the vast majority of these companies are headquartered in Singapore.

These startups span a variety of domains, such as ADVANCE.AI, which is dedicated to providing digital solutions using AI, big data, and cloud computing technologies, and WIZ.AI, a Generative-AI solution provider focused on conversaiontal AI since 2019, who is committed to transforming customer experience and accelerating growth.

According to the 2023 Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index released by Salesforce, Singapore leads the index for launching many decisive AI-led initiatives, with an emphasis on building an AI-led future by safeguarding the responsible use of AI.

This year alone, the government carried out initiatives including the “AI Trailblazers” Initiative, aiming to accelerate the development and adoption of AI across both the public and private sectors; and AI Verify, an AI governance testing framework and software toolkit that advocates for the responsible use of AI.

A Booming Market for AI Innovation

Though most Southeast Asian countries are still in the early stages of adopting artificial intelligence, the potential for growth is immense. Nations like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand are becoming hotbeds for AI innovation, attracting increasing investment from both local and international investors.

Statista forecasts that the Southeast Asian AI market will reach $7.56 billion in 2023, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 19.87%, culminating in a market size of $26.89 billion by 2030.

Enterprises in Southeast Asia also plan to increase their investment in AI and machine learning technologies by 67% compared to the previous year. According to Tech in Asia, a briefing released this year by Dataiku and commissioned by IDC shows AI platforms will be the fastest-growing software category between 2022 and 2026. In Southeast Asia specifically, spending on AI solutions is predicted to increase from US$174 million in 2022 to US$646 million in 2026.

AI’s integration is becoming more pronounced across various domains, from robotics intelligence and intelligent automation to natural language processing. The applications of AI in Southeast Asia are expanding well beyond the financial sector, encompassing E-commerce, Retail, and Catering.

In the e-commerce industry, for example, which is thriving in Southeast Asia, leading platforms often grapple with issues like underserved sellers, delayed parcel deliveries, and subpar customer experiences. One such platform has collaborated with WIZ.AI, implementing our Gen-AI powered talkbots to enhance operational efficiency and improve service coverage throughout the seller and customer journey. Looking ahead, we anticipate that AI technology will increasingly automate tasks across the e-commerce spectrum with minimal human involvement, thereby enabling personalized, one-to-one customer experiences.

How Will NASI 2.0 Impact Regional AI Ecosystem?

In a statement by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the National Multimodal LLM Programme will boost the below three areas in particular:

• Build skilled AI talent
• Foster a thriving AI industry
• Enable Singapore to build a trusted environment using AI

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Jennifer Zhang, the CEO of WIZ.AI shared her views on how NASI 2.0 will provide more opportunities with local startups like WIZ.AI.
“The Singapore government’s national AI Strategy presents startups like WIZ.AI with expanded opportunities to explore the possibilities of Large Language Model (LLM) applications with other institutions, academic and industry experts together, to propel the LLM and AI innovation in the region.”

In fact, as the first company to launch the Domian-Specific Enterprise Large Language Model in the region, and the first company to launch 13B Large Language Model in Bahasa Indonesia, WIZ.AI has been pioneering in bringing AI innovation to regional enterprise customers, and amplifying regional language and cultural representation into the mainstream LLMs.

With deep roots in Southeast Asia markets, WIZ.AI has consistently demonstrated its commitment to the region through its innovation advancements and business expansion in the market. To date, WIZ.AI has provided and deployed AI-powered enterprise solutions to over 200 clients across Southeast Asia, spanning key industries including banking and finance, insurance, telecommunications, FMCG, and E-commerce, empowering customers to resolve the challenges in last-mile AI adoption and delivery.

How Do Regional Generative-AI Companies Like WIZ.AI Contribute to Building a Trusted AI Environment?

WIZ.AI places a strong emphasis on ensuring the safe and responsible development of AI, particularly during the development of Large Language Models (LLMs). This commitment aligns with the long-term goals of NASI 2.0. WIZ.AI is particularly dedicated to the following three areas, aiming to balance innovation with ethical considerations to maximize benefits and minimize potential risks associated with AI technologies:

• Transparency: We believe that transparency is crucial for AI systems, especially in conversational AI, given its significant impact on both consumer and enterprise customers. It’s essential for users to be able to track the process of their interactions, identify where drop-offs occur, examine the data used for training, and distinguish whether they’re communicating with an AI agent or a human. Such transparency is vital for seamless adoption in highly regulated industries like banking, healthcare, insurance, and retail.
• Safety and Resilience of AI Systems: We provide end-to-end encryption and masking for both enterprise and user-related data, ensuring comprehensive protection throughout the application and for customer businesses. Our multi-layer guardrails, combined with LLM-powered smart inspections of both user input and AI output, ensure that our generative AI solutions are secure, reliable, strictly access-controlled, and robustly evolved.
• Inclusiveness: To ensure that conversational experiences are inclusive and unbiased for people of all backgrounds, we address potential biases, hallucinations, or other unhealthy behaviors right from the start. We are continually innovating to democratize AI access and make AI solutions inclusive for all. This involves providing hyper-personalized and culturally sensitive AI solutions for Southeast Asia customers.

AI Potential in Southeast Asia

The AI sector in Southeast Asia is rapidly evolving, driven by supportive government policies and enticing market opportunities. This dynamic environment attracts a multitude of tech companies, keen to establish and expand their presence. Notably, fierce competition between Chinese and American firms is intensifying, each eager to secure a significant share of this growing market.

A key indicator of this trend was Singapore’s recent call for bids to build new data centers, which saw two Chinese and two American companies emerging as winners. This outcome underscores the deep interest from these global players in Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure.

The region’s digital landscape is further enriched by the Digital Silk Road initiative (DSR), encompassing 5G, AI investments, and more. Chinese firms, in particular, are actively building data centers and expanding their AI operations, significantly contributing to the sector’s vibrancy.

A significant milestone in this journey was marked earlier this year when Alibaba Cloud declared its plans to escalate overseas investments. They’re setting up an international capability center right in Singapore, signaling a major upgrade in their service systems outside China.

Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, during his recent visit to Singapore, highlighted the country’s dynamic AI ecosystem and its strategic role as a major data center hub for many Asian markets. Singapore’s favorable regulatory environment, vibrant AI ecosystem and strategic significance to both China and the U.S. underscore the region’s potential as a leading AI hub. It’s also plausible to expect a regional homegrown openAI rival in the near future.