New York, USA – Publicis Sapient has announced a global partnership with Google Cloud to rapidly increase adoption of generative AI and scale Google’s technology to enterprise customers.

Through this global partnership, Publicis Sapient will create a dedicated Google Cloud business unit to address demand for Google’s AI technology, with dedicated resources to help customers successfully plan, deploy, and manage generative AI projects. 

The fusion of Google Cloud’s technologies and Publicis Sapient’s deep industry knowledge and expertise across its ‘SPEED’ – Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data and AI – capabilities will enable solutions that drive efficiency, innovation and growth for clients across industries, including BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), consumer products, healthcare, retail, telecommunications, media & technology, transportation & mobility and travel & hospitality.

This collaboration will focus on several key areas, including a strengthened joint go-to-market strategy. By aligning their sales, marketing, and engineering teams, the partnership aims to provide customers with seamless access to the resources needed for the efficient deployment and management of AI projects.

Additionally, Publicis Sapient plans to leverage its proprietary AI tools alongside Google Cloud’s Gemini models to develop innovative generative AI solutions for marketing and sales. These solutions are designed to help businesses modernize their operations, streamline marketing efforts, and enhance product and service delivery to end customers.

To support this initiative, the Google Cloud Center of Excellence will be staffed with Publicis Sapient experts trained in the latest generative AI technologies, ensuring clients can maximise the potential of AI tools and services.

Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient, said, “As consumer expectations continue to evolve, new business demands are calling for strategic collaboration throughout their AI and digital business transformation journey. Our expanded partnership with Google Cloud represents a significant leap forward in our ability to deliver transformative solutions across industries, ultimately empowering our clients to achieve unparalleled growth and success. By tapping into the power of Google Cloud’s technologies, we can help businesses stay ahead of the curve in the age of AI.”

Publicis Sapient and Google Cloud are already working with a large bank to modernize its infrastructure and enhance the software development lifecycle with gen AI, aiming to boost efficiency by up to 40%. This project included the design and integration of a comprehensive generative AI framework tailored specifically to the customer’s risk and compliance requirements.

Meanwhile, Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, commented, “To realise the full potential of generative AI, customers need a combination of expertise and leading technology to fundamentally improve their business operations. Through this partnership, Publicis Sapient will increase its expertise in Google Cloud and scale its consulting offerings to develop new solutions and AI services that help customers solve complex industry challenges and unlock new growth opportunities.”

Publicis Sapient’s partnership with Google Cloud will enhance some of its key business offerings, including legacy modernisation, application modernisation and development, generative AI, data analytics, cloud migration and database/infrastructure modernisation. In addition, this partnership will enable Publicis Sapient to elevate AI applications within marketing through offerings such as Retail Media Networks (RMNs), Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), Content Supply Chain and Data Modernisation and Monetisation. 

Singapore – Prudential plc has launched its AI Lab in Singapore to promote AI-powered health solutions.

Launched in collaboration with Google Cloud, the Prudential AI Lab integrates advanced technology into the company’s operations and services. Through its end-to-end support, Prudential aims to enhance customer experience.

The Lab is prioritising consumer’s access to quality healthcare, streamlining Prudential’s operations through AI solutions.

Staffed by a team of AI engineers and data scientists, Prudential’s financial representatives will be equipped with more informed advice to serve customers better. 

Prudential collaborated with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, the Economic Development Board of Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for the development of the lab.

Additionally, Prudential is also forging partnerships with institutes of higher learning to provide students with experiences in the field.

Anil Wadhwani, chief executive officer at Prudential plc, said, “Data, advanced analytics and AI are crucial to the delivery of our strategic priorities. The AI Lab will supercharge the development of exciting applications such as predictive analytics, hyper-personalised customer engagement, and real-time guidance for agents. I believe we are just beginning to explore the vast possibilities and value this technology offers. Prudential’s AI Lab will significantly enhance our ability to deliver exceptional experiences for our customers, agents and financial representatives, across all markets.”

“Singapore was selected as the location of Prudential’s global AI Lab for its robust infrastructure and supportive environment for AI innovation, highlighted by its National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0)1. Our partnership with EDB and MAS allows us to tap into Singapore’s rich network of resources and talent from academia, business and government. This collaboration will greatly support our ability to develop innovative solutions that address customer and business challenges while building even stronger AI capabilities,” Wadhani  added.

Gillian Tan, assistant managing director (development and international) and chief sustainability officer of MAS, said, “Prudential’s AI Lab is aligned with Singapore’s Smart Nation 2.0 goal to encourage businesses to utilise AI and technology to raise productivity, transform and serve customers better. MAS will continue to support financial institutions as they develop capabilities and harness AI to enhance their customer and advisory services, fraud detection, and risk insights generation.”

India – Netcore Cloud has announced the expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud to elevate its product discovery, AI-powered search, merchandising and customer engagement marketing platforms. Engineered using Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies, Netcore’s offerings will help brands deliver more impactful hyper-personalised experiences that boost customer retention and revenue growth. 

By combining Google Cloud’s expertise in data analytics and generative AI with Netcore’s deep experience across sectors like ecommerce, banking, finance, securities, insurance, and travel, Netcore wants to create solutions that ensure every brand touchpoint delivers maximum value and enhances the overall customer experience.

Moreover, brands will benefit from Google Cloud’s AI technologies alongside Netcore’s product discovery and marketing solutions, robust data sets, and AI-powered tools that deliver superior customer engagement and, ultimately, drive revenue growth.

The collaboration aligns with Netcore Cloud’s strategic goal of doubling its ARR by 2027 and expanding its footprint across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

The partnership enhances Netcore’s ability to provide deeper insights into consumer behavior by integrating tools like Google Analytics, BigQuery, and Ads Data Hub. These connections allow for enriched customer intent data analysis and sentiment evaluation of product catalogs, empowering brands to better understand and address consumer needs.

Google Cloud’s enterprise search tools will also optimize search relevance and product recommendations on Netcore’s platform, enabling precision handling of complex queries. Additionally, AI-driven conversational agents will streamline customer journeys, guiding users to desired products efficiently and improving conversion rates.

Kalpit Jain, Group CEO at Netcore Cloud said, “With our sights set on doubling our ARR, this partnership forms a critical part of our growth strategy. By creating such powerful synergies we are confident about unlocking new growth opportunities collectively thereby redefining customer engagement and delivering exceptional value to our clients worldwide. Together with Google Cloud, we are building the future of customer engagement, one where every interaction creates value, fosters loyalty, and drives sustainable growth for brands.”

Meanwhile, Siddharth Gopalkrishnan, chief operating officer at Netcore Cloud, commented, “Our partnership with Google Cloud has evolved tremendously over the years, and with this new chapter, we are doubling down on our commitment to unlock unprecedented value for our customers. We are excited to leverage this strengthened collaboration to rapidly scale our presence across SEA, the Middle East, and the US, driving growth at an accelerated pace.”

The partnership also enhances Netcore Cloud’s Co-Marketer platform, delivering powerful scenario planning tools to forecast key metrics such as purchase frequency, average order value (AOV), and replenishment cycles. Additionally, the platform provides insights into the relationship between online and offline behaviour, empowering brands to build seamless omnichannel strategies that enhance engagement across every marketing touchpoint. 

Bikram Singh Bedi, vice president and country MD at Google Cloud India, stated, “Netcore Cloud and Google Cloud have been collaborating over the past few years, exploring various avenues for customer and product data enrichment to drive personalised experiences. The expanded partnership deepens this collaboration, with Netcore integrating Google Cloud’s generative AI technology, powered by state of the art infrastructure, into its  product discovery and customer engagement solutions.”

Singapore – Prudential has forged a partnership with Google Cloud, utilising MedLM—Google’s specialised foundation models for healthcare—to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of its medical insurance claims process.

Among the first insurance providers globally to implement MedLM, Prudential is harnessing this technology—typically used by healthcare organisations—to create solutions that improve the experiences of healthcare providers and their patients.

Beginning in Singapore and Malaysia, Prudential will deploy MedLM to analyse documents submitted with health insurance claims, including diagnostic reports, prescriptions, and invoices. MedLM enhances human decision-making by accurately extracting and coding relevant information from these documents, significantly reducing the risk of errors associated with manual data entry. This technology enables faster and more precise claims processing.

This partnership comes after Prudential’s proof-of-concept tests, which demonstrated that using MedLM doubled the automation rate of claim reviews and assessments. This improvement increased the accuracy of claims decisions, enabling Prudential to process more claims quickly while enhancing the customer experience.

“Prudential’s early tests with MedLM demonstrate that generative AI can play a major role in efficiently tackling the growing volume of health insurance claims, resulting in more frictionless processing and a faster turnaround time for customers,” said Arjan Toor, CEO for Health at Prudential plc. 

“We’re proud to pioneer this innovative approach to using MedLM to support our operational efficiency as we continue to expand our health insurance offering while delivering our mission to be the most trusted health partner for customers in Asia and Africa,” added Toor. 

Prudential will implement MedLM for selected medical insurance claims in Singapore and Malaysia over the next 3-4 months, evaluating the AI’s analysis against existing decision-making processes. This approach aims to identify ways MedLM can boost productivity and offer valuable insights to claims assessors while ensuring a “human in the loop” at critical decision points.

“In a fragmented and often confusing healthcare landscape, data and AI are enabling us to provide care beyond coverage for our customers. Our strategic partnership with Google Cloud has given us a valuable first-mover advantage in adopting generative AI to improve the customer experience at an important moment of truth. This is just the first step in using generative AI to deliver seamless, digitally enabled healthcare experiences at every step of our customers’ health journey, from the point of diagnosis through treatment, recovery, and prevention,” Toor further explained. 

Karan Bajwa, vice president of Google Cloud in Asia Pacific, said, “Prudential has taken a truly innovative approach by adapting MedLM’s advanced healthcare and medical-specific capabilities to one of its core business processes. This collaboration exemplifies how our strategic partnership with Prudential can empower its workforce to drive confident decision-making, improve the overall experience for policy holders, and create meaningful innovation in healthcare and finance.”

Singapore – Klook, a platform for experiences and travel services, has expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to enhance its platform’s capabilities through generative artificial intelligence (AI). 

Through the partnership, Google Cloud will equip Klook with AI capabilities that will boost its productivity. The companies will co-develop an AI infrastructure layer to ensure the accuracy and reliability of outputs. 

The partnership expansion builds on Klook’s progress through Google Cloud, including the creation and localisation of content for Klook’s travel pages. While substantially reducing production time, it has also ensured accurate translation across pages. 

The shared AI infrastructure enables Klook to attend to travellers’ and merchants’ needs efficiently. It will drive Klook’s innovations over the next year, focusing on customer and partner needs. 

For customers, the platform’s upcoming ‘shopping guide’ feature will simplify the process of comparing similar experiences. By summarising reviews and identifying common factors between experiences, the platform will aid travellers’ choices. For partners, Klook is introducing tools to gather business insights and enhance operational efficiency. 

Klook’s AI strategy will leverage traveller feedback and merchant insights to develop an AI-powered conversational commerce approach. This chat-based interface will offer personalised recommendations and streamline trip planning and booking. 

Klook engineers are also using Gemini Code Assist for testing and code generation. Its other teams are also exploring ways to streamline tasks like search engine optimization and bill reconciliation using AI.

Additionally, Klook will also leverage Google Cloud’s expertise to ensure responsible AI practices in its operations.

Bernie Xiong, chief technology officer and co-founder of Klook, commented, “Even in our earliest explorations with Google Cloud, generative AI has improved Klook’s ability to drive greater efficiencies at scale as we expanded our global footprint, while enabling our teams to innovate and operate more efficiently. Our expanded collaboration with Google Cloud pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with AI in travel, creating a competitive edge that translates into faster, more impactful improvements to customer experience, merchant operations, and internal productivity for the long haul.”

“Klook’s shared AI infrastructure layer will maximise the impact of innovations in any part of its business, while minimising the risks of duplicated effort and data fragmentation of more siloed approaches to AI development. This puts Klook in a strong position to solidify its first-mover advantage on generative AI, and translate its wealth of travel experience into immense value for its customers and partners, no matter where their journey takes them,” Karan Bajwa, vice president at Google Cloud in Asia-Pacific, said.

Singapore – Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) and Google Cloud have partnered to launch new initiatives that will accelerate AI adoption and innovation in Singapore, enabling high-growth startups to develop proprietary AI products and helping SMEs boost workforce productivity through AI.

As part of the partnership, Google hosted the ‘AI First’ event at its Asia Pacific headquarters, showcasing the first cohort of graduates from the ‘Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore’ and unveiling new AI initiatives in collaboration with the Singapore Government. This event was attended by deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry Gan Kim Yong as the guest of honour.

“AI is a key driver of the Singapore economy, and it is critical for organisations of all sizes to embrace and deepen their use of AI to grow their businesses. The initiatives unveiled today at Google Cloud’s AI First event aim to advance AI adoption for startups and SMEs,” Gan stated. 

“Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore supports the growth of AI-orientated startups based in Singapore, and SMEs can leverage the Gemini for Google Workspace Program (SMEs) to kickstart their AI journeys and boost productivity. These initiatives demonstrate how public-private collaborations with technology leaders like Google Cloud can accelerate AI adoption and advance our national AI strategy goals,” he added. 

The inaugural cohort of ‘Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore,’ which ran from April to August 2024, included 25 early-stage startups from sectors like adtech, e-commerce, fintech, and climate tech. Selected from hundreds of applicants, startups such as Atlas, Eezee, and Lytehouse developed proprietary AI products addressing key challenges like accounting fraud detection, solar power capacity, food safety, and SME productivity, using top-tier technologies and resources from the program.

Meanwhile, another four AI startups—Kookree, Lytehouse, Staple, and UI-licious—received additional support from EnterpriseSG’s Startup SG Tech scheme, which accelerates the commercialisation of proprietary tech solutions. 

Following the program’s success, Google has opened its applications for the second cohort, starting in February 2025. The expanded three-month program will accept 35 startups, offering up to US$350,000 in Google Cloud credits, access to an AI innovation sandbox, mentorship, technical support, and opportunities to connect with investors at a Demo Day. Eligible startups may also receive further funding through Startup SG Tech.

Philbert Gomez, executive director for digital industry Singapore, said, “The success of the inaugural cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore reflects our commitment toward enabling promising AI startups with the means to turn innovative AI concepts into reality and commercialise them for local and global markets.”

He added, “The creativity and sophistication of the AI products developed by the graduating startups is a testament to the talent in our local ecosystem and its potential to deepen Singapore-based tech expertise, paving the way for long-term AI-powered growth. We look forward to deepening our partnership with Google Cloud as we continue supporting local organisations in their AI journey for growth in the digital economy.”

Also commenting on the event, Serene Sia, country director for Singapore at Google Cloud, explained, “Google Cloud has been a prolific contributor to the growth of Gen AI startups, with more than 60% of all funded Gen AI startups and nearly 90% of today’s Gen AI unicorns leveraging our infrastructure and capabilities. Through Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore, we’re providing locally-based founders with access to our broad choice of foundation models and developer tools, as well as resources, support, and routes-to-market for early-stage companies that are in line with regional nuances, so they can build and scale new AI products from the ground up in a matter of weeks.”

At the AI First event, Google Cloud and EnterpriseSG also launched the ‘Gemini for Google Workspace Program,’ offering SMEs up to 50% off license costs for 12 months. Gemini for Google Workspace, designed for small businesses, helps teams streamline workflows, enhance meetings, and boost productivity using AI-powered tools like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more.

The program aims to boost productivity and creativity for small businesses by providing access to Gemini’s AI-powered tools. It also offers SMEs access to Google’s advanced multimodal AI models with built-in data protections. In addition to cost savings, it provides dedicated training, consultations, and hands-on workshops to help businesses effectively deploy and maximise the benefits of Gemini in their daily operations.

This launch follows a successful pilot program in August 2024, where early adopters like Big Tiny, IKARI Services, and Koufu quickly realised measurable benefits from Gemini for Google Workspace. They used its features for competitive analysis, faster deal closures, creating marketing content, and personalising customer service responses.

“The Gemini for Google Workspace Program (SMEs) makes it easier for small business owners and their employees to adopt and extract value from gen AI, given that these companies typically operate with a tighter pool of resources that may see one person doing the job of many, and they would benefit from having time freed up to focus on important work and innovation. Alongside other initiatives like AI Trailblazers and Skills Ignition SG, the developments announced today fall under the programmatic and intentional approach that Google Cloud has been undertaking with the Singapore Government since May 2023, reinforcing our commitment toward helping organisations of all sizes thrive in an AI-enabled digital economy,” Sia stated.

Geoffrey Yeo, assistant managing director at Enterprise Singapore, added, “Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore and Gemini for Google Workspace Program (SMEs) underscore EnterpriseSG’s efforts to boost Singapore’s fast-developing AI ecosystem and deepen our companies’ capabilities to simplify work processes and improve efficiency. We will continue to collaborate with AI ecosystem partners like Google Cloud to spur AI innovation and adoption among businesses to strengthen their competitiveness, build new capabilities, and capture emerging opportunities.” 

Seoul, South Korea – Google Cloud announced that NCSOFT, a global game developer and publisher, will be using Google Cloud’s AI infrastructure to power its in-house large language model (LLM) set, VARCO LLM.

Through Google Cloud’s LLM, NCSOFT will be developing a variety of AI-powered game services such as dynamically generated game content, enhanced player engagement, and customer service chatbots. 

This latest collaboration builds NCSOFT’s long-standing relationship with Google Cloud, and the company has continued to steadily expand its global services and advance technology using Google Cloud solutions such as Vertex AI and BigQuery.

Previously, NCSOFT leveraged Google Cloud Tensor Processor Units (TPUs) to develop VARCO LLM and has been training its models for the past year. By utilising Google Cloud TPUs, NCSOFT was able to optimise performance and cost of large-scale AI training workloads.

Speaking on this partnership, Lee Yeon-soo, head of NLP Center, NCSOFT, said,  “NCSOFT has been a leader in bringing AI technology to the gaming industry for over a decade. We are committed to using AI to create new and innovative experiences for our players. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Google Cloud to further explore the potential of generative AI in games.”

Meanwhile, Jack Buser, director for games, Google Cloud, commented, “Through this partnership, NCSOFT is able to bring new kinds of immersive experiences to players, underpinned by our powerful AI infrastructure that makes it easy to train and scale VARCO LLM.”

Singapore – NCS and Google Cloud announced today their strategic partnership to accelerate AI-led transformation for public and private sector organisations across Singapore, Australia, and the wider Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

NCS has also integrated its Google Cloud expertise across its service offerings and teams. This enables APAC clients to harness AI and cloud technologies to transform and innovate at greater speed and scale. 

Clients can also tap into NCS’ extensive experience and capabilities and its 100-strong APAC Google Cloud team to confidently navigate the full spectrum of innovation, security, and AI transformation.

The integrated offering will help businesses unlock new opportunities, improve operations, and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market. They will also be able to deploy AI capabilities for data-driven decision-making, with cloud providing the infrastructure to support AI applications at scale.

Howie Lau, managing partner of corporate development and partnerships at NCS, said, “We are seeing a revolution in digital experiences and innovation led by the convergence of AI with cloud computing. By combining NCS’ end-to-end system integration expertise with Google Cloud’s trusted AI and cloud technologies, we are empowering our clients to harness the transformative potential of AI and cloud.”

He added, “Together, we will co-create the next generation of resilient and secure AI-powered applications that our clients need to advance their businesses and the communities they serve. Our partnership with Google Cloud will not only accelerate innovation and expedite time-to-market but also enable our clients to leverage the growth of AI in the APAC region.”

Meanwhile, Anthony McMahon, managing director for partners and alliances for Asia-Pacific at Google Cloud, commented, “Google Cloud is committed to providing the industry’s most open cloud, as well as enterprise-grade data management and AI development platforms, to help customers accelerate their digital transformation.”

He added, “Through our collaboration with NCS, organisations can take advantage of Google Cloud infrastructure and services to power new capabilities that can improve operations and create real-world value.”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Klook, Asia’s leading platform for experiences and travel services, has recently announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to harness the company’s content production and generation capabilities through an automated language translation and AI chatbot.

In this collaborative endeavour, Klook seeks to understand the intricacies of the local market as well as its distinct brand voice, using Google Cloud’s PaLM 2 to translate its activity content in ten languages. It then extends its capabilities, encompassing content creation and K.AI chatbot.

Said project focused on ensuring that Google Cloud’s generative AI translation activity is accurate, facilitating language proficiency on the materials including Bahasa Melayu and simplified Chinese that were increasingly tailored to the team’s desired outputs.

As a result, the local nuance and efficiency of translations improve with every iteration, giving Klook the confidence to scale its efforts across all activity-related content. It also excelled in preserving the nuanced tones and voices specific to each local market, a success recognised and scored by Klook’s team of linguists and brand marketers specialising in localization. 

Talking about the collaboration, Bernie Xiong, CTO and co-founder at Klook, shared his insights about the collaboration, stating, “We take great pride in being in-destination experts, from the moment our travellers begin their discovery of their dream holiday to the moment they book with Klook and ultimately throughout their in-destination experience. We are committed to make this entire journey seamless, effortless, and in the language that best suits our travellers’ preferences.”

“Our pilot proved that with Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities, we can deliver this complete brand experience at scale without any compromise on content quality or accuracy. We will continue to innovate, bring new advancements for a more engaging platform, and solidify our standing as the brand of choice for travellers in Asia and beyond,” he added.

Furthermore, Klook aims to extend its use of Google Cloud’s generative AI beyond translation, incorporating the K.AI chatbot to enhance data security and interaction accuracy in diverse customer services.

This is in line with the company’s goal to implement PaLM 2 for content generation, streamlining vendor onboarding by automatically generating concise descriptions and details about activities. These advancements aim to improve overall internal employee productivity and contribute to a more efficient operational workflow at Klook. 

Meanwhile, Kathy Lee, managing director at Google Cloud in North Asia, said, “Klook’s use of generative AI has the potential to significantly boost both internal productivity and customer engagement, enhancing the uniqueness of their brand and value proposition while also strengthening trust and security for their customers.”

“They’ve already gained a crucial first-mover advantage in personalising and localising travel experiences with generative AI, and we look forward to our continued collaboration to further strengthen their digital leadership with cloud and AI across their business,” she concluded.

Manila, Philippines – Local livestreaming platform Kumu and Google Cloud have announced a partnership in order to build AI tools to assist content creators in terms of entertainment, education, and customer service.

This collaboration between Kumu and Google Cloud aims to encourage more startups and enterprises alike to embrace the power of generative AI and to understand how this technology can best complement and strengthen their businesses. 

At a showcase event at the Google office in the Philippines, Rexy Dorado, co-founder and president at Kumu, showcased a live demo of “Crisostomo A.I. Barra”, Kumu’s first AI streamer who can respond to questions about Philippine history (even beyond what’s written in “Noli Me Tangere”, the novel that his character and personality was based on), the Kumu app, and general pop culture. Dorado also gave the attendees a sneak peek into other AI avatars in the pipeline: AI game show hosts, fortune tellers, tutors, tour guides, and customer support agents. 

An early adopter of Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities for businesses, Kumu has been building its AI streamer and other AI avatars using Google Cloud’s PaLM 2 for Text and Chat first-party models, Embeddings for text and images, and Generative AI Studio – all of which can be accessed through the Vertex AI platform.

For the company, it has always sought ways to make Filipino content more fun and engaging with innovative technology. They added that as soon as generative AI started gaining traction, Kumu looked to an AI-first company like Google Cloud to explore how the technology could be applied to enhance its live content experiences.