East Ventures Releases AI White Paper on Southeast Asia’s Growth

East Ventures, a leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, has released a new white paper titled “AI-first: Decoding Southeast Asia trends”. The report offers an in-depth analysis of how artificial intelligence (AI), particularly Generative AI (GenAI), is reshaping the region’s business and innovation landscape.

The white paper forecasts significant AI adoption, with 25% of businesses expected to implement GenAI by 2025, a figure projected to rise to 50% by 2027. In Southeast Asia, AI is predicted to contribute a substantial 10% to 18% increase in the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030.

Despite the region currently accounting for only a small portion of global AI investment, East Ventures identifies strong growth potential in downstream applications, especially in leveraging GenAI. The firm has affirmed its commitment to investing in the AI sector, making AI-first startups a primary focus for 2025.

“We believe that innovation should be accessible to everyone. The emergence of GenAI has lowered barriers for founders from various backgrounds to create meaningful impact,” said Willson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures. “AI should not be adopted just to follow a trend, but rather to build solutions that are more intuitive, efficient, and scalable. Every region has its own strengths in the AI race, and we believe Southeast Asia’s strength lies in its ability to adapt and effectively apply ready-made AI models in a local context.”

East Ventures notes a healthy pipeline of startups and portfolio companies that are utilizing existing foundation models to build ready-to-use solutions. The firm believes that businesses must adapt and adopt AI to remain relevant and competitive in a constantly changing market.

The white paper, “AI-first: Decoding Southeast Asia trends,” is available in both English and Indonesian and can be downloaded from the East Ventures website.