DRAFTED BY AI

It’s time to embrace the hype and start drafting

This article provides a window into a key development in the Asia-Pacific region, detailing the trend’s anatomy, why it is relevant now, what brands are driving the movement, and of course, your key takeaway.

Our full 2023 APAC Trend Report features nine Asia-specific trends and over 50 innovations - exclusively available to members of Amplify, our Trend Intelligence Platform.

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Ready. Set. Prompt!

Tech-loving APAC consumers are being introduced to a new generation of AI that’s rapidly making its way to the region. Likened to the mobile phone revolution, this generative AI can develop basically anything with simple prompts.

The ability to quickly move from initial idea to final draft has amplified self-expression and democratized creativity across the region. With several countries in Asia having made it their core priority to build AI-driven societies, it’s not a surprise that advancements into generative AI have accelerated.

Why Now?

FAMILIARITY FLUCTUATIONS
In Japan and China, AI is high on the governments’ agenda – China seeks AI dominance by 2030 and Japan aims to build a smart Society 5.0. In these countries, the technology has already become a core foundational layer, powering myriads of products and services that the average middle-class consumer interacts with on a daily basis: think e-commerce, mobile payments, entertainment and news, companion robots... even robotaxis and robowaiters. AI investments and adoption are ramping up across the region, but consumer familiarity with AI remains less pronounced in South and Southeast Asia.

GEN-AI DEPLOYMENT
A new generation of AI models is poised to reshape consumer lifestyles in the region. Chinese tech giants are entering and fueling the global ‘generative AI’ revolution – an umbrella term for AI that analyzes existing data and generates novel content – that was sparked by OpenAI’s DALL·E and ChatGPT. Beyond Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, startups from India, South Korea and beyond are entering the market. And while we’re in the early stages of generative AI deployment and market building, 2023 will see an uptick in investments and consumer adoption of generative AI in the region.

Trip.com

Trip.com users receive instant travel advice via ChatGPT

Consumers seeking advice from the China-based online travel agency, Trip.com no longer need to wait for a virtual customer service representative. As of February 2023, their questions will be answered by a ChatGPT-powered bot called Tripgen. Trip.com believes the integration will make travel more accessible than ever, with the tool being able to digest both vague or highly specific questions before responding with instant advice on in-trip arrangements in English, Japanese, Korean or traditional Chinese.

Government of India

AI chatbot helps farmers access government schemes through WhatsApp

A chatbot to help rural farmers in India access government subsidies is being developed on WhatsApp using ChatGPT. The technology enables farmers to ask ChatGPT queries via WhatsApp voice message. The development team, from the Government of India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT, launched the Bhasha Daan initiative to crowdsource vast datasets in multiple local languages, helping to train the AI chatbot with voice samples, typed sentences and translations. As of February 2023, the chatbot was in testing phase and supported 12 languages.

TME

Legendary Chinese music artists resurrected using AI

Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) announced that it had created and released over 1,000 tracks containing vocals created by AI that mimics the human voice. The so-called Lingyin Engine is able to quickly and vividly replicate singers’ voices to produce original songs of any style and language. TME used the AI engine to pay tribute to legendary deceased Chinese and Taiwanese singers, such as Teresa Teng and Anita Mui. According to Tencent, one of the songs created by the AI has been streamed over 100 million times. In May 2023, the company reported 5.4% year-over-year growth for the first quarter of the year.

Your key takeaways

As with other AI systems, generative AI is prone to bias, racism, and other ethical issues. At the same time, the hype surrounding these tools can quickly spread across regions, providing both opportunities and challenges. Are you alert to every scenario?
Whether it’s resurrecting old ‘voices’ or creating entirely new music from simple prompts, it’s possible with generative AI! How might you leverage the technology to resurrect powerful stories from the past? This could appeal to consumers looking for nostalgia, which is of particular interest to consumers in Asia.
A common way to use ChatGPT and similar tools is to give the AI a role: ‘act as my therapist’, ‘act as a marketing expert’ or, in this case, ‘act as a Buddhist scholar’. What role could your customers give an AI that’s linked to your brand and products? Just beware of the tension between high-tech and heritage. Not everyone will welcome this approach.

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