Generative AI set to take off in Asia this year as more companies roll out pilot projects

“We believe this year is when a lot more momentum will be gained, with some of these [initiatives] becoming bigger in terms of projects,” Siva Ganesan, head of AI cloud business unit at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), told This Week in Asia.

Some projects are set to involve faster integration of AI with business operations such as production, Ganesan said. The roll-out is expected across sectors including financial services, retail, travel, transport, life sciences and healthcare, he added.

More companies have launched pilot projects using AI, according to a report by TCS, which is based on a survey of 1,300 senior executives in 24 countries about the impact of the technology on their businesses.

About 57 per cent of the respondents in the report expressed optimism about AI’s potential to transform their businesses while 55 per cent said they were planning to change their business models and offerings.

Generative AI employs machine learning models to generate new data by identifying and replicating patterns from existing data and efficiently handles tasks such as creating text, images, and other types of content.

Some companies and organisations in Asia are already early adopters of generative AI.

Last year, Singapore bank OCBC said it was launching a chatbot based on the technology for use by its global staff in areas such as writing and research. OCBC’s partnership with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI aims to improve productivity and customer service.

The University of Tokyo is partnering with search giant Google to use generative AI to tackle the challenges of a shrinking workforce in communities in Japan such as refining employment searches for job seekers, according to a report by The Mainichi on Wednesday.

The TCS survey found