S2E65: Why Grab-type firms are the way for SE Asia to thrive in AI era

How South-east Asia can navigate the age of AI and its impact on the economy and employment. Synopsis: Every second Friday of the month, The Straits Times' senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 45 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests. Artificial Intelligence is impacting the world at a pace far greater than that of previous general-purpose technologies, such as the steam engine, electricity, and computing. As the world adjusts to the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution, marked by tremendous advances in automation and robotics, it now faces the Fifth Industrial Revolution, the era of AI and its impressive ability to perform cognitive tasks normally performed by humans. In this episode, host Ravi Velloor speaks with the eminent economist Dr Khor Hoe Ee, who witnessed the Latin American debt crisis and the Asian financial crisis. Dr Khor, formerly Chief Economist at AMRO, has also seen how events like Covid-19 have had a major impact on the economy. They discuss how the US and China dominate the AI space, the speed of disruption, which South-east Asian economies are most exposed and what firms in the region can do to cope with the impact of this new technology. They also cover other topics, for instance: What happens to employment as we know it? Is there a threat of widespread deflation? Should we consider a universal basic income? Highlights (click/tap above): 4:19 The Fifth Industrial Revolution of AI is like no other period in history 7:56 South-east Asia's options when US, China lead in AI 11:34 Jobs at risk; from radiology to business process outsourcing 12:00 Prospects for Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines 16:52 Is there a case for Universal Basic Incomes with future disruption in the market? 18:41 Who'll win the AI race and how the region should position itself Read Ravi's columns: Follow Ravi on X: Sign up for ST's weekly Asian Insider newsletter: Host: Ravi Velloor ( velloor@sph.com.sg ) Produced and edited by: Chen Junyi and Fa'izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: Apple Podcasts: Spotify: Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: Get more updates: The Usual Place Podcast YouTube: --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: Google Play: ---

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S2E65: Why Grab-type firms are the way for SE Asia to thrive in AI era is an episode from Asian Insider by ST Podcast Team.

This episode is 22:17 long.

This episode was published on Mar 12, 2026.

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