As the global artificial intelligence (AI) movement gains momentum, it is anticipated that by 2025, 25 percent of businesses will begin implementing Generative AI (GenAI), with projections rising to 50 percent by 2027, East Ventures said Wednesday.
The venture capital firm said in its white paper titled “AI-first: Decoding Southeast Asia trends” that this surge is driven by groundbreaking innovations that enable companies to improve efficiency, optimize operations, and unlock new growth potential.
In Southeast Asia (SEA), AI is expected to provide a 10 percent to 18 percent uplift in gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
However, it noted that SEA currently accounts for only a small share of global investment in AI.
While the AI ecosystem in the region is still in the early stages, East Ventures sees strong growth potential in downstream applications across key sectors, particularly in the use of GenAI.
In this context, East Ventures reaffirms its strong investment conviction in AI, positioning AI-first startups as one of its key focus areas in 2025.
East Ventures also believes businesses must adapt and adopt AI to remain relevant and competitive in a fast-evolving market landscape.
The firm has also observed a strong pipeline of startups and its own portfolio companies that are leveraging existing foundation models and building ready-to-use solutions on top of them.
“We believe innovation should be accessible to all. The rise of GenAI is lowering barriers for founders from diverse backgrounds to create meaningful impacts,
“AI should not be adopted just to follow the hype, but it should be leveraged to build more intuitive, efficient, and scalable solutions,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at East Ventures.
“Every region has its own strength in AI race, and we believe that Southeast Asia’s strength lies in its ability to adapt and apply ready-to-use AI models effectively within local contexts,” he added.
The white paper offers a deep dive into how AI, particularly Generative AI, is reshaping the business and innovation landscape across SEA.
The white paper highlights GenAI’s emergence of two main solution categories and provides real examples of how East Ventures’ portfolio companies are integrating AI into their operations.
Founded in 2009, East Ventures is a platform that provides multi-stage investment, from seed to growth stage investments, for over 300 tech companies across Southeast Asia.
The firm is an early backer of prominent tech companies in the region, such as Tokopedia, Traveloka, Ruangguru, ShopBack, waresix, Xendit, IDN, Sociolla, Fore Coffee, Tech in Asia (acquired by SPH), Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), and MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek).