Tag: Artificial Intelligence

Sydney, Australia – Kantar has announced the launch of the Kantar AI Lab, which brings together the company’s AI teams across its entire business. This new centre of expertise for the development of AI Technologies, products, and collaborations incorporates AI into all aspects of Kantar’s business. 

This approach aims to disrupt the insights sector on a broad scale by integrating Kantar’s AI capabilities with its expertise and extensive data to provide clients with an improved experience. 

The Kantar AI Lab includes the Kantar AI Assistant (KaiA), a conversational generative AI assistant that allows marketers to interact with data more intuitively by just asking questions. KaiA integrates proprietary data, models, and analytical frameworks to create insights in seconds, and it is initially available to Kantar Brand Tracking clients. 

One of the features of Kantar AI Lab is Text AI, a novel, proprietary generative AI-based method intended for large-scale analysis of thousands of open-ended survey answers. In massive amounts of text-based responses, it finds, classifies, and comprehends common patterns while upholding data security and privacy norms. More probing questions can lead to a more in-depth understanding. 

The next innovation from Kantar AI Lab is Text AI, a brand-new, in-house generative AI method that can evaluate tens of thousands of survey replies with open-ended questions at once. In massive amounts of text-based responses, it finds, classifies, and comprehends common patterns while upholding data security and privacy norms. More probing questions can lead to more in-depth understanding. 

For video, LINK AI Creative Insights integrates media effectiveness evaluation with creative thinking. Brands may now make comprehensive judgments about media planning because of this connection. 

A newly developed hybrid metric that predicts an advertisement’s impact on brand awareness, consideration, and purchase intent inside digital advertising is introduced via the predicted brand lift function in LINK+ digital creative testing. 

Advertisers can track campaign adherence to channel or brand rules with automated creative tagging for ads tested with LINK AI in addition to LINK AI’s creative effectiveness data. Deeper meta-analyses that determine which creative components tend to produce desired results for advertisers and their clients are made possible by this combination.

The hybrid market transfer function in LINK AI provides AI-based forecasts of ad success in secondary markets by leveraging LINK+ results from the primary market. This tool assists brands with the problem of developing memorable advertising while maximising effect by identifying creative executions fit for global deployment. It offers to save time, maximise ad ROI, and boost advertiser confidence when expanding campaigns abroad. 

ConceptEvaluate AI is a new tool created with Kantar’s innovation database to provide brands with precise estimates of in-market success for their concepts. It aims to reduce time to market and increase cost-effectiveness by providing early input on up to 100 proposals. By finding higher-performing concepts, the tool reduces risk in the innovation process and indicates which concepts should be tested further. 

Speaking about the launch, Ashok Kalidas, global chief AI scientist at Kantar, said, “We’re focused on the impact that AI can have in enhancing fraud prevention, the role of synthetic data, and fast and flexible data sourcing. For clients, our work is enabling everything from data connectivity to campaign optimisation, pushing the boundaries of how we understand people and help shape the brands of tomorrow.” 

Meanwhile, John Cucka, head of analytics and AI for Kantar Australia, said, “Streamlining our processes, improving data quality, and maintaining cost control for our clients aren’t the sexy news businesses usually shout about. The launch of AI Lab is an opportunity to shout about the new AI tools we’ve developed that are getting into our client’s hands.” 

He added, “Leveraging our world-leading frameworks, proprietary databases, and an army of data science, statistics, and technology experts, we’ve developed tools across the entire marketing landscape based on world-leading technologies. The depth and breadth of our AI-powered portfolio are like nothing else available in Australia. Whether the need is in Creative, Media, Innovation or Branding, AI-powered tools now exist from idea generation through to testing, refinement, optimisation, and forecasting.” 

“This is just the beginning of the AI evolution of the industry. As we can continue to train up our AI agents, speed and quality will continue to rise, and accessibility will continue to open. AI is fundamentally changing how we work, but it’s not replacing humans. It is freeing up our incredibly talented and experienced team to focus on leveraging the tools to our client’s advantage, generating better insights to ultimately drive better strategic and tactical decision-making,” Cucka concluded. 

Against the backdrop of the post-pandemic recovery, consumers across the Asia Pacific region have been adapting to many challenges: inflation, a cost-of-living crisis, and supply-chain-related instability of product availability, to name a few.

The pandemic has disrupted traditional in-store shopping patterns for three long years, but a recent return to a more ‘normal’ shopping environment has put into focus how much consumers driven online over that time would return to stores.

Amid the current saturated e-commerce landscape, as well as the current climate of economic uncertainty, there is therefore an even greater need for retailers to know how to better engage consumers to gain market share, particularly as consumers recalibrate their spending.

KPMG and GS1’s latest research of 7,000 consumers across 14 markets in the region reflects multiple patterns and expectations among consumer groups, but one over-riding conclusion is clear: The era of seamless commerce has arrived and while both online and offline channels remain popular throughout the region, traditional retail business models are unlikely to meet the expectations of many consumers today. Retailers and brands will have to adapt or face potential consequences of not moving with the market.

From omnichannel to seamless retail

We’re witnessing a third wave of digital disruption in the ever-evolving retail landscape. Previously, multichannel approaches—such as online and brick-and-mortar stores—operated independently within the same retail umbrella. However, the omnichannel era, fuelled by data analytics and AI, has prompted retailers to build bridges across these silos, encouraging collaboration.

Now, with seamless commerce, we’re entering a new evolutionary phase. The seamless commerce approach recognises that consumer interactions span multiple channels, blurring the lines between online and offline. To deliver a truly seamless experience, retailers must adopt an end-to-end perspective, making decisions through a fundamentally different lens. If they don’t deliver a truly seamless experience and don’t adapt their businesses to meet the expectations of the next generation of consumers, they will struggle to survive.

Innovative retailers are striving towards seamless commerce – which recognises a brand’s customer journey across multiple platforms and services, encompassing social media, delivery innovations, apps, websites, automated messaging, and other digital interactions, all seamlessly integrated within traditional physical stores.

The concept of seamless retail was fuelled by the pandemic, where consumers across all generations were driven to shop online, unable to visit physical stores due to movement restrictions. Not only did they head online to purchase food, groceries, and other essential goods, but the migration from working in offices to working from home saw demand in categories such as apparel and home furnishing.

With this shift, seamless commerce – once a differentiator – is now a baseline expectation from consumers; retailers and brands will have to adapt or face potential consequences of not moving with the market.

It’s never a one-size-fits-all in Asia-Pacific

In recent decades, the Asia-Pacific region has been at the forefront of retail transformation, notably in its early and extensive adoption of online platforms which have played a much larger role compared to the rest of the world.

Although COVID has accelerated online shopping across the region, results tell us that consumer habits in terms of how, where, and when they shop remain highly varied. On average, 45% of respondents preferred the ‘omnichannel’ approach, while in a boost for physical-first retailers, relatively few respondents said they could live with only shopping online.

In fact, the e-commerce landscape in the region is marked by a lack of a dominant platform – although various solutions and marketplaces are prevalent in individual markets. There is intense competition among platforms to capture the consumer’s dollar, and these figures identify a wide variety of products and fast, reliable delivery as two of the top three priorities for consumers when choosing a platform.

In terms of desired improvements, competitive pricing ranked as the foremost expectation in Asia-Pacific, cited by 38% of respondents, while promotions and discounts ranked third at 25%, highlighting the need for retailers to implement price strategies that ensure they remain competitive in the market.

Despite these aggregated results, the study reveals that although online is now more important than ever as a retail shopping channel, others such as livestreaming and social shopping are growing at differing rates in many locations. Marketplaces, once at the vanguard of retail transformation, are now coming under attack from new players, including department stores and other multi-brand retailers developing sophisticated, personalised platforms to recover market share they may have lost online.

More notably, a one-size-fits-all retail strategy – if ever it made sense – is becoming less and less meaningful.

How AI is shaping customer experiences and driving sales

With consumer preferences in Asia-Pacific being ever-varied, retailers are embracing AI at an unprecedented speed, resulting in improved customer experiences and increased sales.

In fact, our interviews with senior executives suggest that the adoption of AI by retail enterprises is faster than any previous technology – both at customer-facing points and behind the scenes. Analysis from Stocklytics predicts the generative AI market will hit US$1 trillion in value by 2031, representing a cumulative annual growth rate of 48.05%.

Front-of-house, AI is being used to refine customer experiences in automated chat platforms by developing a better understanding of consumer experiences and behaviour to provide more accurate responses and information.

Responses to customer enquiries can be based on relevant help centre content – directly provided within the conversation, rather than just sharing relevant FAQ responses as is typically done.

Back-of-house, AI has become an indispensable tool in functions such as demand forecasting, supply chain management, and developing marketing content. We have seen how ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, with a user base of more than 180 million people in November 2023.

There is a huge opportunity for AI to help companies understand purchasing trends – sudden spikes or drops in volume, for example – to maintain optimum inventory levels. It can contribute to significant efficiencies in sourcing, shipping, and inventory optimisation by predicting product demand, thereby mitigating issues like out-of-stock inventory or overordering. Currently, such decision-making processes may be delayed or predominantly manual, but the leverage and scalability that AI brings can greatly amplify the output traditionally managed solely by human personnel.

Incorporating seamless commerce strategies for sustainable business growth

Across Asia-Pacific, retailers who limit themselves to one channel face significant risks. Online-only retailers may lack the personal touch and might encounter difficulties in establishing reliable delivery systems, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores are not only missing out on reaching a broader audience but also on leveraging their physical presence for innovative solutions like ‘click and collect’ services or using their locations as local distribution hubs.

To meaningfully address these dynamics, focusing on a frictionless customer experience as the ultimate benchmark for measuring success is crucial. Insight-driven retailers need to utilise data and analytics to predict, strategise, and tailor their product offerings and service delivery, backed by a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs.
Technologies such as AI and Gen AI are increasingly helping retailers to yield actionable insights and interventions that improve customer experiences – from enhanced demand forecasting and customer service to optimising product availability and fine-tuning pricing and promotions.

Indeed, a seamless online-offline customer experience has now become a baseline expectation. Only by excelling in this domain can retailers expect to lead the market.

This thought leadership is written by Anson Bailey, Head of Consumer & Retail, for KPMG in Asia Pacific

MARKETECH APAC is leading the conversation on the future of e-commerce marketing strategies this 2024 and beyond with the E-Commerce Marketing in Malaysia 2024 conference on July 25, 2024 at Sheraton Petaling Jaya and the E-Commerce Marketing in the Philippines 2024 conference on August 14, 2024 at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. Join us and become an integral part of a dynamic community committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and fostering unparalleled growth in the e-commerce domain.

Omnichannel solutions have become essential for organisations hoping to provide smooth and consistent consumer experiences in today’s quickly changing digital market. In contrast to conventional multichannel methods, which frequently function in isolation, omnichannel tactics incorporate every consumer interaction point—website, physical store, social media, and mobile applications—into a single and seamless experience.

In more recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) to these solutions has been monumental in terms of effective reach to customers by brands. By leveraging AI, brands can analyse vast amounts of data from various touchpoints to gain deep insights into customer behaviour and preferences. This data-driven understanding enables brands to personalise interactions at an unprecedented scale, offering tailored recommendations, targeted marketing campaigns, and proactive customer support. 

To learn more about the role of AI in optimising current omnichannel strategies for both brands and marketers, we sat down with Asnawi Jufrie, Vice President & General Manager of Southeast Asia at SleekFlow as part of our Expert Up Close interview series to discuss the trends and technologies influencing the future of omnichannel, and how is SleekFlow contributing into developing new measures for effective omnichannel strategies.

What will influence the future of omnichannel

To begin the discourse on improving omnichannel experiences, Jufrie stressed that the use of AI in omnichannel experiences is based on doing more with less, as brands are looking to increase their revenue while also reducing costs.

For him, there are three key trends for the future of omnichannel: all-in-one, referring to unified and integrated communication channel solutions for brands; AI-powered conversations that refer to smart choices made by AI model integrations to deliver appropriate messaging to customers; and automated workflows that refer to the seamless communication to customers through integrated messaging like call-to-action and quick replies.

Much of these trends for the future of omnichannel are rooted in the rising success of social commerce, with Jufrie citing a Statista study of how global social commerce sales is forecasted to reach USD$8b by 2030–and certainly a promising space to watch out for.

“Since the e-commerce industry has been growing on a monumental scale, social commerce has been a game-changer, it has reshaped the way people discover, engage with and purchase products online. Consumers are now more than ever inclined to interact with brands on social messaging platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, because that’s where most of their daily personal interactions take place,” he said.

How SleekFlow is responding to omnichannel trends and challenges

Jufrie further noted in the interview that SleekFlow’s strength in providing efficient omnichannel relies on hitting the marketing and sales aspect of the ideal customer persona (ICP). In order to hit the target of ICPs for businesses, he enlists three things that should be on top of mind for marketers: lead generation, lead qualification, and lead nurturing/engagement.

These key takeaways–which are part of the overall omnichannel experience–revolve around the ideal acquisition of a potential customer, sorting out using AI on quality leads for sales, and having current customers stay for the longer run through retention and loyalty strategies.

Meanwhile, the three things that should be on top of the mind of marketers in terms of sales revolve around the SCD acronym: speed to lead, collaboration, and data ownership. As sales teams chase quality leads to convert them into retaining customers, there should also be a system where there is a unified solution that encourages collaboration within an organisation in terms of support and marketing.

“Besides sales and marketing, we also recognise the impact that customer support can bring in lead procurement, engagement, conversion and customer retention. SleekFlow aims to help businesses stay competitive and be closely connected with customers from the beginning to the end, and maintain healthy repeat customer cycles,” he said.

Interestingly, he also shares data that customer conversion from a landing page only accounts for 2%, and only 17% converted from those opening an EDM. However, in the case of chat channels, opening rates on WhatsApp specifically account for almost 98%. The question is: how do you execute an omnichannel strategy that will get addressed immediately by the customer?

“The most important thing here is to make sure [that] you’re giving the right copies, the right people with the right messaging. If you can infuse [with] AI as well, you’re saving a lot of time which reduces your cost [and] enables you to increase your revenue, because you are giving people relevant things,” he explained.

By having an effective chat-driven omnichannel strategy, it relieves the business’ pain point in having to switch between different platforms or tools, so employees can focus on faster, more accurate, and streamlined communication on one single platform. On the other end, customers will also experience a smooth journey from discovery to purchase, increasing sales conversions and brand loyalty.

“SleekFlow incorporates both automation workflows and AI chatbot, along with other AI features such as writing assistant, smart reply and data-driven AI insights and analysis. Sales & marketing teams and customers can benefit from this, as it saves a significant amount of time on all ends, enhancing productivity, optimised engagement, and the overall chat experiences,” Jufrie further explained.

Engaging with customers effectively to build loyalty through AI integration

When there’s a discussion about building loyalty, Jufrie stresses the importance of having the support team also aiding in the process, as they will be responsible for promoting repeated purchases–the ultimate goal of loyalty. For that to happen, brands need to understand customers and let their voices be heard, whether through ratings, surveys and even direct messaging.

“We should be building and improving products and services based on the voice of the customer so we can continually evolve, and continually give the customers what they want so that we promote the whole idea of repeated purchases which allows brands to have better lead procurement, engagements, conversions, as well as retention,” he stated.

Bringing up his previous points, he then stresses how AI integration for these solutions will help brands focus on making data-driven decisions for their omnichannel strategies for customers, adding that leveraging AI data analytics allows brands to gain exclusive insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and market trends. This will then enable brands to make informed decisions and anticipate changing consumer needs.

Moreover, he shares that brands can also invest in AI talent and partnerships, to build a team with AI expertise or partner with AI service providers to embrace newer technologies and place greater attention to the implementation of AI solutions.

“My last advice is “better late than never”. I believe brands should continually position themselves at the forefront of AI integration, drive innovation, and meet the evolving needs of their customers in a rapidly changing market landscape,” he concluded.

Learn more about his insights on omnichannel strategies by checking out the full interview below:

Singapore – The majority of marketers in Singapore are embracing AI, with 78% having experimented with or fully implemented AI into their workflows, according to a report by global technology company and AI customer relationship management platform Salesforce.

However, data from Salesforce’s report also suggests that many Singaporean marketers lack a solid data foundation, which hinders their success optimising their AI usage with only 21% being fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources.

Going into more detail, the majority of Singaporeans using AI are focused on generating content, automating customer interactions, and improving customer segmentation or lookalike audience modelling.

On the other hand, this quest for unified, real-time data is more critical and challenging for marketers, with only 42% having access to real-time data to execute a campaign – the lowest globally, and with 57% needing the IT department’s help to do so.

In terms of other key local insights, there is no shortage of data sources, but putting that data to work is a challenge for marketers in Singapore, especially when it demands a holistic or long-term view of data. 49% of these marketers are tracking customer lifetime value (CTV), whilst 84% say they have a clear view into marketing’s impact on revenue.

Companies are also increasingly turning to strategies like ABM and loyalty programs for better acquisition and retention. Yet many of these programs’ information sources remain disjointed, as does the customer experience.

60% of Singaporean marketers say that loyalty data is fully integrated across all touchpoints, whilst only 35% say loyalty program functionalities are accessible across all touchpoints. Meanwhile, 50% of B2B marketers use ABM for customer acquisition, around half use it for upselling (50%) and cross-selling (53%).

To meet rising customer expectations around personalisation, marketers are moving beyond broad audience segmentations, like location or age, to more specific identifiers like individual preferences or past interactions. There is also a difference between how the highest and lowest performing marketing teams adapt. High performers fully personalise across an average of 6 channels, compared with underperformers who fully personalise across 2.

Lastly, the report stated that marketers in Singapore are most concerned about improving marketing ROI in a highly competitive landscape, yet their biggest struggle lies in both measuring results and engaging with customers in real time.

Talking about the report, Wendy Walker, vice president of marketing for Salesforce ASEAN, said, “As Marketers, we are used to the pressure of needing to do more with less whilst meeting the increasing expectations of consumers – especially around personalisation. And so it’s no wonder that we are leading the way with integrating AI. AI makes personalisation at scale a reality, while also driving greater opportunity for brand consistency and storytelling at every touchpoint and fuelling efficiency for our teams.”

“However, as we embrace this technology, what becomes critical is the need for the data we work with to be unified across systems, to give us a comprehensive view of customer engagements. Technology should empower creativity, allowing marketers to deliver meaningful and relevant content to their audiences; this is only possible with trusted data,” she added.

Paris, France – Ahead of the Cannes Lions Festival which will kick off on June 17, global advertising company Publicis Groupe has taken a stance to remove exaggerated promises about artificial intelligence (AI) implementation on the advertising scene with the launch of ‘BSBot’.

With the BSBot, clients will be able to record audio or upload images and text from keynote speeches, meetings, presentations, articles and press releases about AI. Once inputted, they will receive an immediate analysis that translates AI hype and jargon to real talk, and highlights critical questions that should be asked.

For Publicis, at a time when AI buzz is still setting agendas everywhere, they are taking a stand to remove the BS from AI. From tech titans promising the creation of new worlds, and destruction of old industries, to legacy companies using AI as a catch-all solution, everyone has a prophecy to push.

The bot will be launched on Monday 17th June and made available exclusively to the Groupe’s clients. Moreover, Publicis will also host more than 30 closed-door sessions, delivering the real deal on AI for its clients: what’s real, what’s ready and what’s relevant for their industry-specific business challenges and marketing imperatives.

Arthur Sadoun, Chairman & CEO of Publicis Groupe commented: “The only thing more widespread than AI at the moment is the noise surrounding it. Cannes will only amplify it further. AI is already helping to deliver some outstanding creative work and I’m sure we’ll see more of that on the Croisette. But as an industry, we are at risk of trying to make AI everything, everywhere, all at once.”

He added, “Unlocking its full power means basing it on real data, making it ready for 1:1 marketing, and ensuring it is relevant to specific business needs by designing for outcomes, not output. Through our closed-door sessions, we will set out exactly how we can deliver that, through CoreAI, to accelerate our clients’ business and marketing transformation. But don’t tell the bot I said that.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – China’s ByteDance, the parent firm of the social media app TikTok, intends to invest around 10 billion ringgit (US$2.13b) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) hub in Malaysia. As part of the agreement, ByteDance will also invest 1.5 billion ringgit to develop its data centre facilities in Malaysia’s Johor state. This is also part of the company’s several goals of expanding its IT services into Southeast Asia.

Speaking about the investment, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Trade and Industry Minister, said, “This additional investment by ByteDance will undoubtedly help Malaysia achieve its target of growing the digital economy to 22.6% of Malaysia’s gross domestic product by 2025.” 

In line with investments to develop artificial intelligence in Malaysia, Microsoft recently invested US$2.2b to develop Malaysia as a hub for cloud computing and related technologies like generative AI. Through the investment, Malaysia is set to become a hub for cloud computing and related technologies like generative AI. It will also help Malaysia to capitalise on the significant economic and productivity opportunities presented by AI technology.

Meanwhile, TikTok also recently launched new business solutions to enable businesses to explore new ground on TikTok, such as a new suite of creative AI tools, performance and measurement solutions, and improvements to high-impact branding placements. In line with the expanded commercial solutions, TikTok also established the ‘TikTok Media Buying Certification’ program to help businesses choose the ideal partner to power their TikTok campaigns. This global accreditation allows digital marketers to demonstrate and authenticate their TikTok advertising experience while also strengthening advertisers’ networks of trustworthy TikTok partners.

Furthermore, Tiktok has established a new leadership development program called ‘TikTok Academy: Elevate’ in Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The programme provides challenges for participants to complete, with the goal of either encapsulating the session’s theme or leveraging participants’ strengths, enhancing their understanding of the evolving marketing landscape, emerging platforms such as TikTok for advertising and marketing, and providing space for self-reflection on their career growth. 

Singapore – People in the Asia-Pacific are recognising the changes AI will bring, with almost three-quarters (73%) of people across APAC said AI will profoundly change their life in the next year three to five years. Moreover, around 66% said AI would change how they do their job in the next five years. This is according to the latest data from global market research company Ipsos.

According to the data, most people (62%) in the regions said they were excited for the products and services that use AI; interest is greatest in China (80%), Indonesia (76%), Thailand (76%) and South Korea (73%). 

However, English-speaking countries, including Australia and New Zealand, feel the need for caution with the approach to AI – just 39% of Aussies and 43% of Kiwis said they were excited for the technology. Both countries are more likely to feel trepidation about AI, with 66% of New Zealanders and 64% of Australians saying AI makes them nervous. 

Meanwhile, most people across APAC (66%) said AI would change how they do their job in the next five years. Indonesia (87%), Thailand (81%) and China (80%) are the most likely to say AI will change how they do their job. At least half of Australians think AI will change their job – 16% said it was very likely to affect their work, while 34% said it was somewhat likely. 

However, more Aussies think AI will improve their job (29%) than those who think it will make it worse (20%). Just under half (46%) expect it to make the job market worse. 

Moreover, Indonesia is leading the charge in understanding AI – 86% of those surveyed said they understand it. In Australia, 63% said they had a good understanding of AI. The figure is lower than the global average of 67%. 

Hamish Munro, CEO for APEC at Ipsos, said, “People are still firmly divided over whether AI will be a friend or foe in the coming years. Across the APAC region, Asian countries are leading the charge for embracing the technology, showing both a strong understanding and excitement about the technology. English-speaking countries, including Australia and New Zealand, remain sceptical about AI, particularly its impact on their day-to-day life and employment.”

Singapore – Regional fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform ZALORA has announced the launch of its AI-powered customer service chatbot, designed to provide seamless and personalised support to customers across Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

ZALORA’s new customer service AI-powered chatbot is the result of a partnership between ZALORA’s technology team and Forethought, a provider of customer-first AI experiences. 

The chatbot leverages AI that is programmed to learn and understand the intent behind customer inquiries, to provide relevant, accurate responses in a highly intuitive and visual format. For simple queries, it leverages generative AI and draws from an ever-growing comprehensive knowledge base of FAQs, while for more complex questions, it utilises natural language processing to grasp the customers’ intentions before providing useful answers. 

Moreover, the chatbot can adapt and respond to any language communicated with it, for instance, an entire conversation can be started in English and ended in Mandarin or any of the local languages seamlessly. 

In addition to delivering a seamless customer experience, the chatbot is envisioned to support and augment the capabilities of our human customer service representative. Across the e-commerce industry, millions of customer service inquiries have to be answered each year, which traditionally requires a human customer representative to address.

For ZALORA, what makes its AI-powered app to other ones in the industry is that it has a deep integration with our consumer core services. This means, once customers sign into their ZALORA shopping profiles, the chatbot can directly access and offer personalised information linked to their accounts, this includes information about the status of their orders, deliveries, and returns.

Liam Hutchinson, director of product at ZALORA Group, said, “As a fashion company at heart, we want to help our customers discover great products and brands that make them feel great and confident. ZALORA is known and loved for its industry-best customer service and we’re continuously exploring ways to improve that experience, especially in a more scalable and digital-first way.”

He added, “The innovation around generative AI and large language models (LLMs) has given us access to more capabilities and partnerships to deliver experiences to give our customers an elevated fashion shopping experience.”

Meanwhile, Sumit Jain, chief technology officer at ZALORA Group, commented, “The chatbot sits as part of our broader investments in automation & artificial intelligence under TITAN, our proprietary platform intended to lead fashion e-commerce innovation in maintaining a safe and seamless experience for customers and taking the online shopping experience to the next level.”

Australia – Global adtech Quantcast has introduced a self-service platform (SSP) to make open internet advertising more accessible to independent agencies and advertisers. This project enables businesses of all sizes to reach new audiences by providing tools and data previously only available to large ad spenders. 

The new offering from Quantcast offers a remedy for the changing environment of digital marketing, as old cookie-based advertising techniques are being phased out due to privacy concerns. With the support of the new platform, independent agencies and advertisers may transition to cookieless advertising and maintain their competitiveness and efficacy in marketing campaigns. 

The key aspects of Quantcast’s new self-serve platform include AI-driven insights, which offers users access to AI and machine learning capabilities that enable high-performance advertising. The technology also provides simplified campaign management via an easy interface, making programmatic advertising accessible to everybody and facilitating campaign setup, management, and analysis. Additionally, the platform provides comprehensive cookieless solutions, which include new and proven measurement and targeting solutions that do not rely on third-party cookies. 

The open web is where most consumers spend their time, and while many small and midsize businesses are skilled at using social media marketing platforms to reach potential customers, this launch offers the same access to it. 

Speaking about the launch, Konrad Feldman, CEO of Quantcast, said, “Today’s legacy DSPs are too complex, too time-consuming, and too dependent on third- party cookies. Our goal is to empower businesses of all sizes to effectively reach their audiences, bringing the simplicity and efficiency of the walled gardens to the expansive and diverse open internet. There is a huge opportunity for marketers to improve their advertising performance and drive meaningful results.” 

Meanwhile, Clare Rogers, business director at This is Flow, stated, “Thanks to Quantcast, we’ve been able to efficiently target our key audience segments, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates. Their innovative approach to advertising without third-party cookies has given us a competitive edge. We’re extremely satisfied with the performance and results, and so are our clients.”

Singapore – Grab and OpenAI has announced a partnership, as both companies will design and deliver enhanced experiences for Grab users, partners and employees using state-of-the-art AI capabilities. This marks the first time a partnership like this has happened in Southeast Asia.

This partnership uniquely combines the development of AI tools for Grab users and partners with an initial pilot deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise for Grab employees. Moreover, Grab will access OpenAI’s technical and strategic expertise to partner on solutions tailored to the specific needs of users in Southeast Asia.

In terms of accessibility, Grab will leverage the use of state-of-the-art text and voice capabilities to make Grab’s services more accessible to all users, particularly the visually impaired or elderly who may otherwise find it challenging to navigate the on-screen app interface.

Moreover, Grab will explore using AI technology to build customer support chatbots that can better understand user problems and help resolve them faster.

Lastly, Grab will seek to leverage OpenAI’s vision capabilities to enhance its map-making efforts through greater automation and higher-quality data extraction from visual images. This means GrabMaps can be updated even faster, delivering a better experience to consumers and driver-partners.

Philipp Kandal, chief product officer at Grab said, “We’ve been a pioneer of AI adoption in the region, and believe that generative AI has a lot of potential to further transform the way we solve problems for our partners and users. We’re excited to work with OpenAI as a partner to help accelerate the exploration and use of this technology within Grab. Our goal with any new technology has always been to use it to solve real problems, at scale. Equipped with the latest tools, we look forward to building novel and delightful experiences for our customers while improving the way that every Grabber works.”

In addition to developing advanced AI solutions for its users and partners, Grab also intends to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise among select employees through an initial pilot, complementing existing efforts to drive wider use of AI tools across its employee base to boost productivity. 

Meanwhile, Brad Lightcap, chief operating officer at OpenAI commented, “We’re excited to work with Grab and together explore how advanced AI can benefit Grab users, partners, and employees across Southeast Asia.”

This partnership follows a slew of partnerships OpenAI had including with the Financial Times, Reddit, and News Corp.