For the longest time, artificial intelligence (AI) was the playground of Silicon Valley giants and Chinese tech behemoths.
Across Southeast Asia (SEA) today, that narrative is evolving as a new generation of startups is proving that world-class innovation can emerge from local needs and speak the region’s many languages, literally and figuratively.
With 2025 slowly lowering down its curtains, Ai is no longer confined to experimental labs or high-end organisation tools. Now, AI is being utilised to alleviate the daily challenges of small businesses, educators, gig workers, as well as cross border e-commerce sellers.
Below are five AI startups to keep an eye out for across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam that are changing the region’s generative AI and innovation landscapes
WIZ.AI, Singapore: Giving conversational AI a truly local voice
If you’ve ever been victimised by a robotic voice on the phone that can’t pronounce your name properly, you’ll appreciate what WIZ.AI is doing. Headquartered in Singapore, the company builds voice agents that sound recognisably Southeast Asian, switching between English, Bahasa Indonesia or Tagalog with the kind of cadence you’d actually hear in daily conversation.
AI, automation and generative tools are now baseline in Southeast Asia’s startup playbook
Their flagship product, Talkbot, is utilised by banks, telcos and e-commerce platforms to handle tasks like payment reminders and customer service calls. What sets WIZ.AI apart isn’t just its technology; it’s empathy. The team has trained their models to capture the tone and politeness that are part of how humans here actually speak.
Earlier this year, WIZ.AI partnered with US’s Agora to roll out new multilingual agents for businesses expanding across the region. It’s a big step towards customer automation that feels human or at least, distinctly Southeast Asian.
Respond.io, Malaysia: Rethinking how businesses talk to customers
Kuala Lumpur-hailed Respond.io has quietly become one of the region’s most successful conversation-management platforms. In an era where customer interactions happen through built-in chat apps, the company helps brands manage conversations across WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, all from one dashboard.
In 2025, Respond.io launched an AI-powered TikTok integration that allows businesses to automatically reply to comments, manage leads and send follow-up messages. The feature might sound small, but in a region where millions of people shop directly through social media, it’s a game-changer.
What makes Respond.io stand out is its balance of automation and warmth. Its AI doesn’t just blast generic replies; it learns the personality of each brand and tailors the tone accordingly. For small and mid-sized businesses, it’s like hiring a virtual customer-care team that never sleeps, but still sounds human.
Luwjistik, Indonesia: Solving Southeast Asia’s logistics puzzle
If there’s one industry that needs AI’s help more than most, it’s logistics. Luwjistik, based in Jakarta, is capitalising it head-on. The startup built an AI-driven orchestration platform that helps e-commerce companies manage cross-border deliveries. Think of it as the brain behind the scenes, coordinating couriers, customs and warehouses in real time.
According to its 2025 industry report, AI is transforming how last-mile delivery works in the region, from predicting demand spikes to planning routes that dodge traffic and monsoon rains. Luwjistik’s platform pulls data from dozens of logistics partners and automatically recommends the most efficient delivery routes based on cost, reliability and location.
The clever part lies in localisation. The system accounts for factors that only Southeast Asians would think about; ferry schedules between islands, unpredictable weather and even the reliability of local couriers. In a region where infrastructure can vary wildly from one province to another, Luwjistik’s adaptive approach is proving indispensable.
Cinnamon AI, Vietnam: Making paperwork a thing of the past
Vietnam’s Cinnamon AI is less flashy but equally transformative. The startup focuses on document and data automation, building AI that can read, extract and make sense of information buried in invoices, contracts and even handwritten forms.
The company’s technology is already used by major banks and insurance providers across Asia to cut down processing time and human error. Earlier this year, Cinnamon raised over US$15 million to expand its platform into healthcare and government services, two key sectors still weighed down by paperwork.
What makes Cinnamon’s story compelling is how it aligns with Vietnam’s own digital-transformation journey. The country is rapidly moving from paper-based administration to digital governance and Cinnamon’s tools are right at the centre of that change. Their AI isn’t glamorous; it’s practical. In emerging economies, that’s often what matters most.
TeamSolve, Singapore: Bringing generative AI to the field
Most people associate generative AI with art or text generation, but TeamSolve is taking it somewhere entirely different: the industrial field. Backed by SGInnovate and Burnt Island Ventures, this Singapore-hailed startup uses generative AI to support field teams in industries like construction, maintenance and utilities.
The platform pulls data from on-site sensors and worker reports to create predictive maintenance schedules, generate checklists and provide suggested solutions in real time. For workers dealing with complex or hazardous environments, it’s like having a digital co-worker that’s always one step ahead.
TeamSolve’s biggest impact may be cultural rather than technological. It’s helping blue-collar sectors, often the last to benefit from digital tools to work smarter, safer and more efficiently.
Laying down the regional blueprint for AI-driven productivity
What unites these startups isn’t just their use of AI, it’s their perspective. They aren’t merely copying Western playbooks; they’re creating new ones based on the lived realities of their markets. Their products understand accents, weather and informal economies.
Collectively, these companies are writing a new chapter for the region’s tech ecosystem, one that values accessibility over flashiness and localisation over scale for scale’s sake. Their message is clear: AI does not have to replace people; it can empower them.
In Southeast Asia, that means tools that help teachers grade faster, businesses talk smarter and delivery riders navigate smarter routes. As more investors turn their gaze towards the region, 2025 might just be the year that SEA starts leading the global AI conversation in its own language; one that will resonate across its communities to further empower them