AI is rising, but we’re not out yet

Welcome to Tech in Asia’s Sunday newsletter, your weekend brief on the biggest moves in Asia’s tech and startup world. Not on the mailing list? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com.

In focus

• Putra Muskita on the billion-dollar bidding war for Windsurf
• Human agents’ continued edge as AI threatens to wipe out call center jobs
• The Sam Altman AI lookalike helping startups pitch

Hello reader,

As a tech journalist, I constantly think about AI potentially taking my job. But on top of the AI food chain, it’s a whole different world – one that involves a ruthless bidding war for talent.

Last week, coding startup Windsurf was caught in a 96-hour bidding frenzy. Google lured away over 40 of its engineers with eye-popping compensation, while Cognition swooped in to acquire the rest.

Big Tech no longer waits for M&A approvals – it targets talent directly, sidestepping red tape with licensing deals and acquihires. It’s efficient, if brutal.

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Meanwhile, the rest of us are left wondering where we fit in. And yet, there’s a sliver of hope.

My colleague Scott Shuey recently revisited the AI-driven “call center apocalypse.” But he found that, for now, humans still matter – especially in jobs that require real connection.

Still, the ground keeps shifting. As Samreen Ahmad reported, AI startup Lyzr just raised funds with a virtual CEO modeled after OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

Which reminds me: I recently watched Clash of Champions, Ruangguru’s excellent reality show that pits Indonesia’s brightest university students against each other. These kids have worked hard their entire lives for GPAs, physics olympiads, and the ability to solve a cryptarithm puzzle in seconds.

Will these things still matter once AI reaches maturity? Hard to say.

Putra Muskita, editor

Editor’s picks

1️⃣ Call center apocalypse fails as flesh beats AI economics

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