Dutch multinational brewing company the Heineken Company has on Wednesday announced the launch of its first global Generative AI (GenAI) lab in Singapore.
The firm said in a statement that this initiative aims to transform how GenAI enhances growth, productivity, and customer engagement across the company’s global operations.
Established in collaboration with AI Singapore, the Heineken GenAI lab marks a significant milestone in Heineken’s journey to becoming the world’s best-connected brewer.
“Heineken aims to be the world’s best-connected brewer. GenAI will play an increasingly important role in understanding consumer needs, enhancing customer engagement, and improving productivity throughout the company,
“The establishment of the global GenAI lab marks a significant milestone in HEINEKEN’s digital transformation journey, highlighting our strategic focus on advanced GenAI technologies as essential drivers for growth, efficiency, and innovation,” said Ronald den Elzen, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Heineken.
Kenneth Choo, Managing Director, Asia Pacific (APAC), Heineken, said that this lab will serve as a global center of expertise, driving AI innovation at a local level while enhancing the firm’s operations on a global scale.
“By taking this significant step, Heineken is strategically positioning ourselves for a resilient and thriving future, reaffirming our commitment to Singapore and the Asia Pacific region,
“By harnessing Singapore’s exceptional AI ecosystem, skilled talent, and supportive government policies, we are excited to drive the development of innovative solutions that will transform the beverage industry for years to come,” he added.
According to the statement, the lab will lead the development of advanced scalable GenAI solutions across critical business areas, including sophisticated agentic systems that can autonomously solve complex problems — from automated marketing content creation to intelligent financial reporting and next-generation customer support and knowledge management systems.
Heineken’s approach combines human expertise with AI capabilities to ensure our practices are responsible while creating standardized solutions for global implementation.
The lab is also uniquely established as an ongoing collaboration between Heineken and AI Singapore, fostering continuous knowledge transfer and talent sharing.
By the end of 2025, the lab aims to assemble a highly specialized full-time team of experts.
This team will integrate Heineken’s digital and technology specialists with talent recruited from AI Singapore.
Additionally, this core team will have access to AI Singapore’s talent pool, enabling them to connect with top AI professionals and leverage the most innovative approaches in the field.
Laurence Liew, Director, AI Innovation, AI Singapore, said that Heineken is the first organization to work with AI Singapore in building an AI lab and center of expertise for AI innovation.
“By combining Heineken’s industry expertise with AI Singapore’s cutting-edge AI capabilities and talent, we are creating a powerful model for how private and public sector collaboration can drive innovative solutions with real-world impact,” he added.
Chan Ih-Ming, Executive Vice President, EDB, said that the opening of Heineken’s global GenAI lab capitalizes on Singapore’s position as a talent and innovation hub for companies to pioneer AI solutions.
“This initiative will allow Heineken to unlock new business value from Singapore, while concurrently serving as a valuable platform to level up on AI talent and capabilities,” he added.
According to the statement, the Heineken GenAI lab builds on the firm’s proven track record of successful GenAI implementations, including its financial insights platform that provides instant access to a decade of financial data, and its innovative knowledge and insight management (KIM) solution, which revolutionizes how the marketing teams access consumer and market insights.
These successes demonstrate the firm’s commitment to GenAI-powered innovation and set the stage for the lab’s ambitious research agenda.