Oracle to tap deepening AI adoption in South-east Asia

[LAS VEGAS] The race for companies in South-east Asia to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) will drive Oracle’s business in the region.

“A lot of Asian customers we are working with have started realising that this race is pretty much on, and they need to be in that race – and not just watching the race,” said Sunil Wahi, vice-president, solution engineering, applications, Oracle Asia Pacific.

These conversations with customers about AI are happening now, with customers who were not as interested in the technology six months ago, he noted. These are also not just happening in the realm of large enterprises, but also mid-sized companies as well.

Wahi sees a relatively level playing field in AI between mature and emerging markets. But he said there is a certain agility that emerging markets have that mature markets lack.

“They can move a little bit faster, but I still see a lot of opportunity in the developed markets as well,” he said.

Oracle is seeing interest across all sectors. Wahi said he has met customers from logistics to banking to ports; every industry wants to do something with AI.

“There are so many use cases today and you can go ahead and build what you want,” he said.

Internally, too, Oracle has benefited from using AI, with 80 per cent of employees saying that it has already proven to work well. For instance, in finance, the tech company uses expense automation and invoice matching, cutting payment cycle times and saving several days of work per quarter.

Oracle co-chief executive Mike Sicilia said real-time alerts and accurate estimated times of arrival are “keeping goods moving and cutting delays” in supply chain; in support, AI ticket-handling and autonomous problem-solving are “cutting resolution times by more than half”.

Chris Chelliah, senior vice-president, technology, Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific, said the focus over the next 12 months for Oracle in Asia-Pacific will be in engaging customers and prospective customers on what the tech company has to offer.

The key would be in educating customers and prospects alike on the lowered barriers of entry to AI and the value that it can bring to the organisation.

This would also require Oracle to turn to AI internally to be able to effectively sell it to customers and prospects. Chelliah encourages his teams to use AI in order to be comfortable with it, going beyond just talking about it to customers.

“I need to take all of this innovation we’ve got at Oracle and make sure my entire crew is not just talking about it – not just (being) aware – but using it every single day,” he said.