By Brianna Ang, Tech for Good Institute

In June 2023, Omdia released its special report for the Asia Tech x Singapore Summit 2023, “The Generative AI Revolution: Understanding, Innovating and Capitalising”. 

The report explores the promise, current reality and potential perils of Generative AI (GAI) at a time of burgeoning global interest in novel technologies. It defines the GAI ecosystem and the foundational technologies needed for successful application, identifies opportunities and use cases across different types of industries, and key market players, drivers and barriers. Substantiated by AI expert analysis, insights are structured based on the ecosystem, technological considerations, and impact of value-driven use cases to provide a comprehensive overview of the complex and rapidly evolving GAI market.

Despite its nascency, new business opportunities abound as GAI fuels a multi-faceted ecosystem of users and solutions, with many businesses demonstrating fervent interest in tapping into its potential. For instance, companies are already experimenting how to best use GAI to enhance user experience. Use cases have also begun to emerge across diverse industry verticals and sectors, like in marketing, healthcare, enterprise IT and more, bringing efficiencies and transforming workflows.

Nonetheless, inherent problems are embedded in GAI, such as biases or inaccuracies in data, or new legal challenges in IP, copyright and privacy. The report critically emphasises the need to balance the high rewards and potential of GAI against the equally high risks it introduces, and recommends a deliberate and cautious approach to reap the full benefits that GAI offers. This view is similarly echoed in TFGI’s report “From Tech for Growth to Tech for Good”, stressing that transformative digital technologies should serve society and deliver positive impact – not only by solving complex societal problems, but also by preventing harms and optimising efficiency.

Both reports emphasise the importance of rethinking the governance of emerging technologies. Omdia’s report discusses how national governments are dealing with the implications of GAI, noting that many have taken up reactive responses. However, as current efforts are highly divergent, inconsistent, and fragmented on a state and/or country specific level, there remains great difficulty in keeping pace with GAI advancements. 

Recommended steps moving forward involve more proactive approaches, closer public-private collaboration in standards development, and closer consultation with GAI developers and users. Recognising that innovation and governance ought to be pursued in tandem, TFGI’s report offers a Southeast Asian perspective that builds on these recommendations; from strengthening regional cooperation and partnerships, to cultivating a coordinated and responsive regional regulatory environment.

Please click here to read the special report by Omdia (please note that user registration will be required to download the full report). 

At the Tech For Good Institute, we welcome the opportunity to work together with partners and all stakeholders, so that Southeast Asia may realise the full potential of this Digital Decade.