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On 31 August, the European Commission did something no regulator had done before: it looked at a generative AI chatbot and decided it was, legally speaking, a search engine. ChatGPT was designated a “Very Large Online Search Engine” under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), placing OpenAI’s flagship product in the sam
Southeast Asia’s agritech problem is not a lack of ideas. Across Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, founders have spent the past decade building tools for farm finance, market access, input distribution, traceability, climate resilience and supply-chain efficiency. Many have proved that technology can wo
Biochar is easy to dismiss as a climate-tech curiosity. It shouldn’t be. Across Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, it sits at the intersection of five problems regional governments already spend money on: agricultural waste management, seasonal haze, soil degradation, industrial wastewater, and
Southeast Asia’s venture capital market is no longer in freefall. But calling it a recovery would miss the more important story. The region’s startup funding landscape in 2025 has split into two very different markets, according to the “Southeast Asia Startup Funding Report for 2025” by DealStreetAsia and Kickstart Ven
There is a contradiction emerging in the way we talk about AI and the future of work. As AI gets better at execution, human judgment, critical thinking, context and domain expertise become more valuable. But where exactly is a 22-year-old supposed to get domain expertise and judgment? Historically, the answer was work.
Last quarter I sat in a review with a consumer brand team going through their best month on record. Live commerce had carried it. The gross merchandise value chart, the total value of everything sold, was close to vertical, and the room could feel it. Then the operations lead opened the second file. Delivery outcomes.
In February 2024, Klarna’s CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told the world that the company’s AI assistant had taken on the work of 700 customer service agents. Headcount fell from 5,500 to 3,800. The story became the most cited example of AI replacing humans at scale. Boards across Asia, Europe, and the US used it to justi
Southeast Asia’s venture capital map fractured further in 2025. Singapore alone accounted for 78.1% of the region’s equity funding value (US$4.2 billion) and 61.4% of deal volume, according to a new DealStreetAsia-Kickstart Ventures report. The city-state’s share intensified in the second half of the year, with funding
For much of the past decade, Southeast Asia’s venture capital story was sold as a regional one. Singapore provided the capital base, legal infrastructure and headquarters location; Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand supplied the young consumers, rising digital adoption and growth markets. That f
The most important change AI is making to employment may not appear first in layoffs. It may appear in the people companies quietly decide not to hire. A survey of 651 Indian technology firms found that 65 per cent said AI had reduced hiring. In Britain, government and LinkedIn data found 30 of 38 tracked […] The post
Two years ago, Chocolate Finance built its name on a simple pitch to Singapore consumers: park your spare cash with us instead of a savings account, and we’ll try to get you a better return. It worked well enough that the fintech now manages roughly US$1.3 billion in assets across more than 150,000 customers. Now […] T
For many Filipino households and small businesses, solar power still looks like something built for wealthier homeowners: panels on a roof, a sizeable upfront bill, permits, installation work, and the assumption that the customer owns the property in the first place. Lumio Solar is betting that the next wave of adoptio
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