Sea and Google ink partnership to develop AI-powered tools

[SINGAPORE] Sea and Google inked a partnership on Thursday (Feb 19) to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools for gaming, e-commerce and payments.

“This partnership with Google on AI will drive innovation in the business application of the technology at scale, and enable us to make AI more accessible to the digitally underserved in our markets,” said Forrest Li, chairman and CEO of Sea.

The partnership will look into equipping all three of Sea’s business units – Garena, Shopee and Monee – with AI-powered tools.

Garena aims to use Google’s AI solutions to enhance gamer experiences and improve productivity of game development and operations. It may also have the chance to take part in early-access pilots for Google’s latest AI research projects.

Shopee will work with Google to explore building an agentic AI shopping prototype that can be integrated across both platforms to enhance e-commerce discovery, engagement and transaction experience.

Monee and Google will collaborate on the US tech giant’s open-source framework Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), with Sea’s financial services unit providing feedback on AP2 to ensure its suitability in South-east Asia. They may also look to pilot an agentic payment experience on Google and Sea’s platforms.

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The Sea-Google partnership builds on Sea’s existing tie-ups with Google, including the YouTube Shopping Affiliate Programme with Shopee – which is running in all markets in South-east Asia, Taiwan and Brazil.

Sanjay Gupta, president of Google Asia-Pacific, said: “Together, we are accelerating the adoption of this transformative technology and unlocking the immense economic potential of South-east Asia’s digital landscape.”