Tag: Artificial Intelligence

Delivering personalised and impactful customer experiences at scale is a critical challenge for industry leaders. Consumers expect seamless, relevant interactions across multiple platforms, from social media and mobile apps to websites and in-person engagements. 

However, the complexities of cross-platform engagement require businesses to integrate advanced data analytics, AI-driven personalisation, and agile marketing strategies to ensure consistency and effectiveness. Companies that master this approach can deepen customer relationships, enhance brand loyalty, and drive long-term growth.

From leveraging real-time data insights to optimising omnichannel marketing efforts, businesses must adopt a holistic, customer-centric mindset to remain competitive. By understanding these complexities and implementing tailored engagement strategies, organisations can position themselves as market leaders in the era of digital personalisation.

These aforementioned objectives are what industry leaders from across Southeast Asia discussed in the recently concluded What’s NEXT in Marketing: Customer Engagement in 2025, which equipped marketers with transformative insights and strategies to meet evolving customer expectations.

How brands can engage with AI-powered customer engagement

Kicking off the webinar was a keynote presentation from Ranya Arora, senior strategic business consultant at Braze as she discussed the latest trends in customer engagement and how these strategies can help brands in their engagement strategies amidst a constantly changing online environment for consumers.

In the presentation, Ranya highlighted that proper customer engagement online is important, citing data from Deloitte which states that around 50% of Gen Z consumers are concerned that too much device usage is negatively affecting their physical and mental health. For Ranya, businesses should be wary when navigating this ongoing online fatigue from consumers.

“I think we all can agree that customer life cycle strategies are important in reducing that fatigue and the key benefits of doing that come into place because they allow you to have a better customer experience which helps you improve your marketing efficiency, as well as the core component of driving retention and profitability,” she explained.

To properly navigate the needs of customers online, brands must tackle these four particular challenges:

  • Marketers struggle with obstacles to both creativity and strategy in customer engagement
  • Many marketers still don’t have a clear view of their customers
  • Teams need more collaboration to close the customer engagement feedback loop
  • Most brands haven’t built a foundation for successful cross-channel marketing

“We believe that the fundamentals of growth will truly remain constant, which means if you acquire and activate your customers more efficiently and you engage and keep them around for longer, you will eventually make more money from the customer,” she added.

Ranya also added that the ‘secret sauce’ for consistent growth amongst businesses remains the same: consists of acquisition & activation, engagement, and monetisation. Moreover, she also stressed the importance of AI-powered strategies, stating that tools are designed to create (work smarter in crafting memorable customer experiences), personalise (tailor experiences, content, recommendations and journeys – all at scale), and optimise (automate experiences and maximise the potential of every touchpoint).

“AI-powered tools can recommend items that are most likely to resonate with every customer for different industry verticals–this could be products, games, songs, meals, and content among others. This links into orchestration and helps you serve up the right campaign or journey variant to the right person based on everything you know about them,” she further stated.

Integrating digital strategies across multiple platforms

Next up taking the spotlight is a fireside chat with Rajesh Grover, group vice president of AI, digital & omnichannel at Kanmo Group to discuss how their company enhances customer engagement by integrating digital strategies across multiple platforms for a seamless omnichannel experience. 

Moreover, the session–which was moderated by Fatima Baduria, regional journalist at MARKETECH APAC–also delved into how brands should leverage digital innovations to adapt to evolving customer expectations and maintain competitiveness in a dynamic market.

For Rajesh, regardless of the size of the business is knowing your customer–meaning who pays the business for products or services. Moreover, he also stressed the importance of making colleagues in the company understand why omnichannel is important for them–but also offering a piece of advice about using these technologies.

“There is no magic wand in terms of technology, which you can deploy in your companies or your business that will turn around your business if you don’t have a clear idea of what your customers need. And then it is all about mapping out your roadmap, not getting too ambitious, understanding and implementing it slowly, but fool-proof,” he explained.

In addition, he also highlighted how strategic implementation is also important, which means that brands should focus more on depth over breadth (i.e. better to execute a few things well rather than spreading too thin). Also, a strong feedback loop is essential where brands must think from the customer’s perspective to assess if their systems are truly working.

He also highlighted that many businesses mistakenly focus on adding multiple sales channels without properly integrating data and teams. For him, siloed data – different channels often operate independently without shared insights, leading to poor customer experience. Hence, personalisation should be a key strength in a brand’s customer engagement strategy.

“If you’re still relying on discounts to drive engagement, you’re missing the point of true personalisation. Personalisation isn’t just about using a customer’s name in an email. It’s about knowing what makes them feel valued,” he added.

On leveraging modern marketing technology to enhance customer engagement

Next up on the webinar was a panel discussion featuring industry leaders Dian Paskalis, country director of growth & regional vice president of online marketing at Cove Indonesia; Jogent Emmanuel Tan, marketing director at Domino’s Pizza Philippines; and Caroline Wee, vice president of brand and strategy at Loob Holding (Tealive) as they emphasise the importance of cross-platform engagement, discussing common challenges and effective strategies for seamless implementation across multiple channels. The session was moderated by Ranya Arora.

In the discussion, Karen emphasised the need for brands to be ‘real’ and authentic,’ ensuring that engagement is based on genuine customer needs rather than assumptions. Meanwhile, Jogent highlighted ‘personalisation’ as the key to capturing attention, as customers now expect tailored experiences rather than generic marketing. Lastly, Diyan focused on ‘connection,’ explaining that brands must shift from talking to customers to talking with them, fostering deeper relationships through meaningful interactions.

The discussion also highlighted how data and AI are transforming customer engagement by enabling personalisation at scale, but brands must use them wisely. Companies like Domino’s Pizza and Tealive leverage CRM tools and AI-driven insights to analyse customer behaviour, predict preferences, and tailor marketing strategies. 

It is worth noting, however, that scaling personalisation comes with challenges—over-reliance on data can lead to misleading assumptions, as what customers say they want often differs from what they actually buy. In order to avoid hyper-personalisation pitfalls, brands must balance automation with human intuition, ensuring that personalisation efforts remain practical, cost-effective, and genuinely beneficial to customers.

“Marketing today isn’t just about running ads—it’s about being where the customers are. People engage with brands across multiple platforms: social media, food delivery apps, e-commerce sites, and even offline stores. The key challenge? Making sure that branding, messaging, and promotions are consistent across all these touchpoints. That’s where data-driven marketing becomes so valuable,” Jogent said.

Carol also echoed these sentiments, stating, “A common mistake brands make is relying too much on first-party data without questioning it. We have to remember that what customers say and what they actually do are often two different things. Instead of making drastic changes based on survey results, we overlay multiple data points—transaction history, market trends, AI insights—to make better-informed decisions. The future of engagement isn’t just about collecting data—it’s about knowing which data actually matters.”

Speaking on the aspect of personalisation strategies for brands, Diyan offers up his advice, “There’s always a fine line between effective personalisation and over-complication. The effort needed to hyper-personalise can sometimes become too costly or too complex, and the return might not justify it. For example, in the rental market, people take anywhere from one week to six months to make a decision.”

He added, “If we invest too many resources into micromanaging their preferences in the first week, we might lose efficiency. Instead, we focus on prioritising the most impactful personalisation efforts—things that actually lead to higher conversions, rather than just making the experience more complicated for the sake of it.”

The webinar was attended by 187 attendees representing brands across Asia-Pacific such as 2GO Group, ALL IT Hypermarket Sdn Bhd., AboitizPower, Bayer, Burger King Malaysia, Carsome, Filinvest Land, Inc., Fitness First Singapore, Home Credit, Jollibee Foods Corporation, JustCo Global, Lamudi, Malaysia Aviation Group, Mastercard, Minor Hotels, National Heritage Board (NHB), Philippine Bank of Communications (PBCOM), Power Mac Center, PT. Nutrifood Indonesia, Reckitt, and Westpac, amongst others.

If you missed attending it, you can catch the on-demand access to the webinar, where brands explore strategies to boost customer engagement and loyalty. Register HERE for free.

In 2024, global losses from fraud exceeded $1 trillion USD as AI-powered scams, deepfakes, and data breaches escalated. But while security is critical, trust today extends far beyond protection. Consumers now expect reliability, convenience, and seamless experiences at every touchpoint. In an increasingly digital world, trust isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the ultimate differentiator.

One misstep—a misleading claim, a confusing checkout process, or unresponsive support—can erode trust instantly. And once it’s gone, it’s almost impossible to rebuild. Trust influences every purchase decision, yet it isn’t something brands can sell. It’s something they must prove through consistent, credible, and customer-first experiences.

Marketers play a pivotal role in earning and maintaining that trust—not through louder ads or flashier campaigns, but by creating intentional interactions that demonstrate value and authenticity. In industries where differentiation is tough, trust drives loyalty. Brands that prioritize trust won’t just attract customers—they’ll keep them.

To thrive in this “Trust Economy,” marketers must embrace three core principles:

  1. From Selling to Listening: Value Speaks Louder Than Volume

In crowded digital landscapes, attention is fleeting. Too many brands default to shouting louder—bigger ads, sharper slogans, endless content. But attention alone doesn’t create trust. Value does.

Consumers don’t want more noise; they want useful, reliable information that empowers them. Educational content, transparent messaging, and human storytelling are the tools that build long-term trust. The shift from selling to solving is key: marketers who guide rather than push will position their brands as trusted advisors, not just vendors.

To achieve this, content should be:

  • Informative: Provide educational resources that help customers make informed decisions.
  • Actionable: Share how-to guides, case studies, or success stories that offer real-world value.
  • Authentic: Reflect real customer experiences, not just marketing claims.

Whatever the format, the goal remains the same: deliver something useful. By proving expertise and sharing honest insights, marketers can foster deeper relationships and build credibility over time.

  1. Personalization That Respects, Not Overreaches

AI-powered marketing has unlocked unprecedented personalization, but it comes with a caveat: just because brands can use data doesn’t mean they should.

Consumers appreciate tailored experiences, but not at the expense of privacy or trust. Hyper-personalized recommendations and predictive marketing only work when they feel helpful, not invasive. The key is balance—using AI to enhance human connection, not replace it.

To build trust through personalization:

  • Use AI to anticipate needs, not manipulate behavior.
  • Be transparent about data collection and usage—trust grows when customers know what’s happening behind the scenes.
  • Empower customers to control their experience—personalization should feel like a service, not a sales tactic.

When done right, personalization fosters loyalty by showing consumers that brands truly understand and respect them.

  1. Building Community, Not Just Transactions

Trust doesn’t come from one-off campaigns—it’s built through consistent, meaningful engagement over time. In a digital world, consumers don’t just buy products; they buy into relationships, shared values, and a sense of belonging.

The rise of Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) models is proof of this shift. Traditionally, companies relied on intermediaries or third-party retailers to reach their audiences. With D2C, businesses can now bypass those layers, owning the customer experience end-to-end. This direct connection creates emotional bonds that drive long-term loyalty.

Yet trust doesn’t stop at individual relationships; it thrives within communities. Marketers must lean into active participation in broader industry conversations, fostering peer-to-peer trust and collaboration. To do this:

  • Engage in industry forums and events to showcase credibility and leadership.
  • Leverage user-generated content, reviews, and testimonials—consumers trust other consumers more than ads.
  • Create spaces for customers to connect, whether through online forums, live events, or social communities.

By investing in community-driven marketing, brands can position themselves as integral parts of their customers’ lives, not just vendors of products.

Trust: The True Currency of Brand Success

In an era of AI-driven fraud, digital misinformation, and rising consumer expectations, trust isn’t just a business imperative—it’s the foundation of sustainable growth.

Marketers have moved past the challenges of simply selling security. Now, their mission is to embed trust into every aspect of the customer journey. The brands that prioritize transparency, human connection, and consistent value creation won’t just capture consumer attention—they’ll earn the kind of loyalty that lasts.

By embracing this evolution, marketers can position themselves as architects of trust, building relationships with digitally savvy consumers in ways that go beyond traditional marketing. In the “Trust Economy,” trust isn’t just a differentiator—it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.

This thought leadership piece is written by Claire Weston, chief marketing officer of Coda.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT in Marketing 2025, a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for 2025 and beyond.

Southeast Asia is a hot market for AI adoption. With competition among major players heating up and technology providers increasingly integrating AI into their offerings, AI is now more accessible to mid-market retailers as well as major enterprises. The region is also well-suited to AI integration, as this market typically moves quickly to implement new technologies once they are proven.

While affordable AI technologies and the appetite to harness them exist among retailers, there is a key challenge that is often absent from the frantic discourse found online or in the press: determining specific use cases that add value. 

From chatbots to retrieval augmented generation systems (RAG) and autonomous AI agents, organisations are still working out how to implement AI effectively and efficiently. The excitement around AI’s potential is clear, but businesses need to ensure any implementation delivers tangible value, rather than just being there for the sake of it.

This leaves retailers in a challenging position. The pressure to adopt AI is significant and technologies are maturing fast. Companies must balance that pressure and identify practical applications that create real value for their business and customers.

What AI Adoption Looks Like in Retail Marketing

There are many ways a retailer could potentially integrate AI applications into its operations, depending on its size and needs. 

For example, a retailer might sign up for one of the many generative AI platforms available to produce promotional images and graphics for marketing purposes.

If the company operates an online presence, another entry point might be an LLM-driven chatbot that can handle customer inquiries around things like opening hours, item availability, specials and return policies.  

One increasingly popular and proven way that retailers in Southeast Asia can integrate AI into their operations is through solutions that leverage customer data to improve the shopping experience. We’re talking about authentic personalisation. 

Personalisation makes a retail store so much more. It allows brands to provide a shopping experience that is tailored to each customer’s individual preferences. 

Consider the following example. In the future, before setting foot in the store, customers of Cold Storage in Singapore might receive completely personalised product recommendations that consider not only their past purchases, dietary preferences and lifestyle, but also real-time contextual factors like the weather or local festivals.

These recommendations could be delivered through an app, via email, or even social media. The app could also create shopping lists based on weekly patterns and trends or upcoming holidays, helping customers save time while ensuring they don’t forget any regular staples. 

Another key pre-shopping AI opportunity is in personalised offers and promotions, including challenge offers. Challenge offers provide a gamified experience where customers are increasingly rewarded for meeting specific targets, such as spending a certain amount over a set period. These challenges can again be tailored to a customer’s preferences, presenting goals or targets for product groups they like or buy often.

Personalisation also extends to the in-store experience, where recommendations might pop up in the app based on where customers are in the store. Customers might also be scanning products with their phones to receive reviews and recipes that they might like. Taking this a step further, supplier-funded personalised ads for attractive items could also be generated on a customer-by-customer basis.

A Proven Way to Bring AI to Retailers in Southeast Asia

Personalisation and gamification solutions for retail can help retail brands increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Retailers don’t even need to have an existing loyalty program to get started.

In the case of Eagle Eye’s offering, for example, a retailer in Southeast Asia could get started delivering personalised challenge promotions, powered by AI, in as little as five weeks. This represents a speed to market that matches the region’s hunger to roll out technology solutions quickly.

Such solutions have already been delivered in other markets to great effect. For example, in the United Kingdom, major grocery brand Tesco has adopted AI and is using it to bring benefits to its customers.

Tesco launched Clubcard Challenges in May 2024. This is a loyalty-integrated gamification initiative that utilises AI to create customised, shopper-specific challenges. 

Loyalty members are invited to participate in the game, and they are then served 20 distinct challenges, like spending £20 on summer BBQ supplies, for the chance to collect up to £50 in Clubcard points. Once all tasks are completed, they can win additional rewards.

In other markets, major coffee chain Starbucks is leveraging its Deep Brew technology to analyse customer preferences and contextual data, enabling personalised recommendations like suggesting cold drinks to specific customers during warm weather. 

Similarly, French supermarket chain Carrefour has partnered with Eagle Eye to gamify its MyClub loyalty program, creating customised challenges and goals based on individual shopping patterns and purchase history data.

Make it Happen with AI

The examples and real-world case studies presented above demonstrate how retailers in the region can create powerful customer experiences, drive loyalty and increase profitability, all without extensive lead times or long implementation timelines. 

Rollouts can be done quickly and cautiously. Pilot programs can be run to test effectiveness before moving to full-scale adoption. 

Taking the first steps in AI-driven personalisation with a partner like Eagle Eye means retailers in Southeast Asia can get started with innovative solutions like challenge offers quickly and easily, taking the anxiety out of being left behind in the AI race and joining other early adopting global brands in reaping the benefits. 

This thought leadership piece is written by Aaron Crowe, Regional Director, Eagle Eye, Asia

Australia – Salesforce has announced a landmark investment of $2.5 billion in Australia over the next five years, reinforcing its commitment to AI innovation, workforce development, and sustainability initiatives. The announcement was made at Agentforce World Tour Sydney, Salesforce’s largest local event to date, which has attracted over 10,000 customers, partners, employees, and stakeholders.

This significant investment aligns with Australia’s vision to harness artificial intelligence for economic growth and technological leadership. By expanding its AI capabilities and supporting local industries, Salesforce aims to contribute to a more prosperous future for all Australians.

Salesforce has been a key player in Australia’s digital economy since establishing its presence in the country in 2004. With over 2,400 employees and a vast ecosystem of partners, the company continues to drive AI advancements that enhance productivity and customer experiences.

The company’s venture capital arm, Salesforce Ventures, has already invested over $6 billion in more than 630 companies worldwide, with Australian investments surpassing $12 billion in market capitalization. Notable AI investments include Airwallex, GO1, Culture Amp, Reejig, and Q-Ctrl.

Frank Fillmann, EVP & general manager at Salesforce Australia and New Zealand, said, “Australian business leaders are challenged by low productivity growth, a tight labour market and higher than ever customer expectations. Empowering their employees with Agentforce and limitless digital labour is the breakthrough they need.”

As part of its mission to prepare Australian businesses for the AI revolution, Salesforce has appointed Anne Templeman-Jones as the first Australian member of its Global Advisory Board. Her expertise will help guide business leaders in adopting AI-driven strategies.

To further support skills development, Salesforce will launch a series of Agentforce Learning Days and Hackathons in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. These events will help employees from over 270 companies build and deploy AI agents, ensuring they stay competitive in the evolving digital economy.

Salesforce is also backing workforce diversity initiatives, such as the Deloitte Digital Career Compass program and the FW Jobs Academy. These programs aim to equip women and diverse communities with in-demand Salesforce AI skills, contributing to the Australian government’s goal of creating 1.2 million tech jobs by 2030.

Beyond AI and workforce training, Salesforce continues to champion sustainability efforts in Australia. By fostering collaboration with government agencies, universities, vocational education providers, and non-profits, the company is playing a pivotal role in shaping a sustainable digital future.

With 21 years of experience in Australia, Salesforce’s continued investment underscores its dedication to helping the nation become a global leader in AI-driven economic growth. Through strategic investments and partnerships, the company is set to empower businesses and individuals to thrive in the era of artificial intelligence.

The new follows the recent partnership between Salesforce and Google where Agentforce will be able to use Google’s Gemini models, allowing agents to work with images, audio, and video, handle more complex tasks using Gemini’s multi-modal capabilities and two-million-token context windows, and act using real-time insights and answers grounded in Google Search with Vertex AI.

Indonesia –Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade, in collaboration with Google Indonesia, has introduced the ‘Gemini Academy,’ an initiative to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations and improve competitiveness.

The Gemini Academy will support both export and non-export local SMEs, with the goal of fostering innovation and helping businesses expand into international markets, Business Times reported.

The program will offer training in three categories—Potential Exporter SME, Basic Export SME, and Advanced Export SME—aimed at improving business processes and market expansion.

Minister Budi Santoso stated that the academy is expected to help SMEs streamline operations, lower costs, and enhance their competitiveness.

“By integrating AI into their business strategies, they will gain valuable insights into market trends and consumer preferences, which will enable them to refine their product offerings and improve marketing efforts,” the minister said in a statement, as quoted by Business Times.

Alongside SME-focused training, Google Indonesia will also provide 500 scholarships for Google Career Certificates, giving civil servants at the ministry access to AI-related courses.

Putri Alam, director of government affairs and public policy at Google Indonesia, said, “Indonesia is the first country globally to offer the Gemini Academy training program for SMEs, and the Ministry of Trade is our first government partner in Indonesia.”

She further noted that Gemini, an AI chatbot aimed at supporting creativity and productivity, can be accessed through the Google Play Store, App Store, or its official website.

China – Apple and Alibaba Group are reportedly forming a partnership that will integrate Alibaba’s artificial intelligence technology into iPhone services in China.

Alibaba Group chairman Joe Tsai announced the partnership during an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Bloomberg reported.

The report states that Alibaba’s technology will power the iPhone’s AI services in China.

“Apple has been very selective, they talked to a number of companies in China, and in the end they chose to do business with us; they want to use our AI to power their phones,” Tsai made the remark in the interview, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Tsai further explained that Apple has yet to roll out its full suite of AI features in China due to regulations that require the company to partner with a locally accredited firm.

In a separate report, Reuters highlighted that Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares surged as much as 9.2% to HK$124.3, their highest level since January 2022. The stock later pared its gains, closing up 2.6%.

According to Reuters, the landmark deal puts an end to months of speculation about Apple’s AI strategy in the region, as the iPhone maker had been in talks with Chinese tech giants such as Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent.

It remains unclear whether Apple’s partnership with Alibaba will follow a similar model to that of iPhones outside China, which use a combination of Apple’s proprietary AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

This partnership is seen as a significant win for Alibaba, which is currently competing with major domestic rivals in China’s highly competitive AI market. It is worth noting that Alibaba has recently intensified its efforts in the AI race with the release of its Qwen 2.5 models, which the company claims can rival the leading open-source AI models available.

Taiwan – Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) has banned the use of DeepSeek’s newly launched AI service from China in the public sector, citing concerns over data privacy and security risks.

According to a report by the Taipei Times, MODA has advised government agencies and critical infrastructure to avoid using DeepSeek, stating that it “endangers national information security.”

MODA’s ban covers employees of government agencies, public schools, state-owned enterprises, semi-official organisations, critical infrastructure projects, and government-endowed foundations. However, it did not provide details on enforcement. 

The ministry also referenced the ‘Principles on Restricting the Use of Products That Endanger National Cyber Security,’ a 2019 Executive Yuan regulation that bans government agencies from using IT and communication technology products or services deemed a national security risk.

“DeepSeek AI service is a Chinese product. Its operation involves cross-border transmission and information leakage and other information security concerns,” the Taipei Times reported, quoting the ministry.

Taiwan’s ban on DeepSeek comes amid growing global concerns about how the service collects and handles personal data.

South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission plans to send a written request to DeepSeek seeking clarification on how user data is managed, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, authorities in France, Italy, Ireland, and other countries are also investigating DeepSeek’s handling of personal data.

DeepSeek has recently gained attention in the AI industry, with its free AI assistant model surpassing U.S. rival ChatGPT in app store downloads. The company’s claim that it matches the capabilities of leading U.S. AI models for a fraction of the investment have also stirred interest among global investors.

China – Alibaba, the Chinese tech and e-commerce giant, has officially joined the AI race with the launch of Qwen2.5-VL, an open-source multimodal model that builds on the capabilities of its predecessor, Qwen2-VL.

In a blog post, Alibaba shared that Qwen2.5-VL shows impressive multimodal capabilities, excelling at understanding texts, charts, diagrams, and layouts in images. It can also analyse videos longer than an hour, answer related questions, and pinpoint specific segments.

Additionally, the model can also convert unstructured data from invoices, forms, or tables into organised formats like JSON, making it useful for automating tasks such as processing financial or legal documents.

Alibaba also claimed that by combining parsing and localisation features, Qwen2.5-VL can act as a visual agent, helping users perform tasks like checking the weather or booking a flight by guiding the use of different tools on computers and mobile devices.

The company further revealed that their flagship model, Qwen2.5-VL-72B-Instruct, performs competitively across a range of benchmarks, including document and diagram reading, visual question answering, college-level math, video understanding, and visual tasks.

It’s also worth noting that Alibaba and the Qwen team are developing Qwen2.5-Max, a large-scale MoE model they claim outperforms DeepSeek V3 in key areas like coding, general tasks, and human preferences. They also stated it has shown competitive results in other assessments, including tests on college-level knowledge.

“Qwen2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B,” Alibaba’s cloud unit said in an announcement on its official WeChat account, referencing OpenAI and Meta’s leading open-source AI models, Reuters reported.

Both Qwen2.5-Max and Qwen2.5-VL are now accessible via Qwen Chat, Alibaba’s conversational AI platform, where users can interact with the models, explore features, and perform tasks like searching. Additionally, developers can access the Qwen2.5-Max API through Alibaba Cloud.

The release of Alibaba’s Qwen2.5 comes after DeepSeek launched its AI assistant powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model on January 10, followed by the January 20 release of its R1 model, which has sparked significant discussions around the AI boom and the pressure for AI firms to upgrade their own model. 

United States – Brightcove has announced the launch of its AI Content Suite, which ntroduces a range of AI-powered tools to increase the impact of video content while also improving business productivity, making it a seamless and easy experience for content creators to get more from their content and drive greater engagement across their audiences.

The Brightcove AI Content Suite includes three AI-powered capabilities – content creation, metadata optimisation, and translation – which simplify video content production by automating the creation and optimisation processes.

The AI Content Suite empowers companies to fully utilise their video content by offering a range of advanced features. It enables the rapid and automated transformation of long-form videos into engaging short-form clips, highlight reels, and theme-based chapters, optimizing content for maximum reach across multiple channels. 

Additionally, it converts horizontal video formats into vertical layouts, enhancing engagement with mobile audiences and improving visibility on social media platforms. To further increase discoverability, the suite automatically generates metadata, including titles, tags, and descriptions, ensuring that relevant content reaches the right audience. Moreover, its upcoming universal translation capabilities will support dozens of languages, making content more accessible and expanding global reach.

The Brightcove AI Content Suite is part of Brightcove’s broader AI product strategy and roadmap. It was built in close collaboration with customers across various industries to create solutions that address their business needs, such as deepening audience engagement and improving efficiencies in creating, editing and distributing video content.

The Brightcove AI Suite will continue to launch new products based on customer feedback. These include the addition of text-to-video capabilities and AI-powered automated video interactivity, personalization, and recommendations to engage audiences and build loyalty.

Scott Levine, chief product officer at Brightcove, said, “The AI Content Suite is a force multiplier for anyone looking to expand the impact of their video content without increasing their workload. Embedded within our video platform, the AI Content Suite easily and quickly enables a video creation multiplier effect without going to other tools and platforms. This allows our customers to maximize their content reach and engagement.”

Singapore – A new report from IDC has predicted that by 2028, consumers will spend $32b via AI agents that run independently on their smartphones to programmatically shop for goods, services, and considered purchases. It also highlighted that CX executives will adjust their business strategies based on such initiatives and seek to incorporate a more AI-infused approach in their campaigns.

It also highlighted that around 40% of CX vendors will shift to new, outcome-based, pricing models making the value exchange for their clients more transparent and improving the monetisation of their AI investment.

Moreover, as AI implementations scale, human-in-the-loop approaches will be eliminated, resulting in 25% of CX teams creating new, dedicated roles for the systemic governance of AI by 2028.

The report also predicts that seeing value in referral growth and in controlling costs, by 2028, 30% of A2000 companies will have restructured and aligned their customer-facing teams under a CRO to optimise CX outcomes.

Lastly, around 20% of B2C A2000 companies by 2028 will enable real-time IoT-product data to notify customers of future failures, issue resolution recommendations, and help customers self-solve proactively.

Abhishek Kumar, associate research director and head of AP Enterprise Applications & CX at IDC Asia-Pacific, said, “Tech-driven CX enhancements have always been AP retailers’ top go-to differentiator in a highly commoditised market with indistinguishable products and services. A key challenge for them is to refocus IT and digital initiatives to improve operational efficiencies. Many look to AI to modernise and unify their underlying data infrastructure, breaking down existing organisational silos, moving towards a holistic experience-orchestrated (X-O) approach that creates meaningful value for all key stakeholders and not just customers.”