Asia’s AI divide: Creators vs. experimenters

This article summarizes an episode of The Generalist’s video series featuring Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI.

Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI / Photo credit: Bernard Leong’s website

Bernard Leong, founder of Dorje AI, says that new markets are now moving faster than developed economies in being ready to use AI. This change questions what people thought about how technology spreads. It shows that the main thing slowing down its use is the lack of organized data.

Asia’s AI economy is splitting in two

A gap is growing between companies that get real benefits from AI and those that are just trying it out. Leong sees a clear division among companies.

The great AI divide
Leong states, “The two-tier AI economy is there: what you call the experimenters and the value creators. At this instant, there’s a very small set of value creators actually getting a lot of gains in AI, but mainly in back office operations.”

The hidden cost of entry
Leong notes, “What actually happens when we think about AI readiness is about first putting the data in the right place, having the correct connectors… the data readiness of enterprises across the world is about 15%.”

The lure of the quick fix
Because it is expensive and hard to get the data ready, many leaders take a shortcut. They are looking for an easy success instead of doing the hard work of updating their systems.

Leong explains, “When somebody wants to do AI… [they ask,] ‘Do you want to organize your data first? This is the cost to organize them into a data lake.’ … Then the CEO will look at the cost, like, ‘Okay, let’s revisit this later, but let’s give everybody ChatGPT first.'”

Emerging markets are leapfrogging developed nations

This difference in who is ready is showing up in surprising places. How different regions use new tools is being flipped around by this new technology.

A surprising regional reversal
Most people would think that big tech centers like Singapore would be the first to use AI. But what is actually happening is different, as other countries start to move faster.

Leong observes, “There’s almost like the haves and have nots… with Thailand and Indonesia almost looking like they’re ahead of Singapore. What I’m observing now is that the emerging markets are moving much faster.”

How legacy barriers are dissolving
For a long time, language differences were a big barrier that slowed down the use of new tech in many places. A main feature of new AI has made things more equal.

Leong argues, “One of the things that generative AI does is the leapfrogging. They [emerging markets] actually leapfrog the use of it because language localization or language translation to English is no longer a barrier of entry.”

Culture is the ultimate accelerator
People are also a big factor in making its use spread faster in unexpected places. The idea that teams in developed countries would be more eager for new tools is proving to be wrong because of the clear excitement elsewhere.

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