Grab outlines AI approach to expand access and economic opportunities

Grab co-founder and chief executive Anthony Tan said businesses should use artificial intelligence (AI) not only to improve organisational efficiency, but also to help ordinary people access technology and create economic opportunities.

Speaking at Cable News Network’s (CNN) Global Perspectives: In Bangkok event on the topic “Can AI be Global?”, Tan put Grab’s annual transacting user base throughout the region at about 138–139 million.

The company aims to use AI to support driver-partners and small businesses, with an approach that considers both business and social outcomes.

Driver AI Coach helps drivers plan to earn more

One example is Driver AI Coach, which had been available in Thailand for about eight to nine months before his appearance at the event.

Grab has about 120,000 driver-partners in Thailand and millions throughout the region.

The tool helps drivers identify opportunities to take jobs, plan their work and estimate how to make the best use of their time to improve earning potential.

The aim is to make AI a practical tool for drivers’ daily lives, rather than technology accessible only to specialists.

My Merchant AI, meanwhile, is designed to help small shops manage their businesses.

Acting like a chief financial officer (CFO) and chief marketing officer (CMO) in a shopkeeper’s pocket, the tool makes financial and marketing advice more accessible without requiring the specialist teams available to larger businesses.

Research conducted with Tsinghua University, Harvard Business School and other organisations found that shops using the tool increased their revenue by about 10–15%.

AI support for visually impaired people and older users

Grab is also using AI to address barriers to accessing services, particularly for visually impaired people and older users in Singapore.

The company found that general AI systems could struggle to understand Singlish, the local form of spoken English.

To address this difficulty, Grab collected Singlish voice data from about 140,000 people to train AI to understand local speech more effectively and make it easier for visually impaired users to book rides by voice.

For older users, the company is working with the government to expand AI applications that support more confident, independent travel and reduce the need to rely on children, grandchildren or other family members whenever a journey is necessary.

Changing workplace culture as AI reshapes work

Alongside services for customers and partners, Grab has changed its internal working practices.

About two years ago, the company temporarily set aside usual working routines so employees throughout the organisation could experiment with creating projects using generative AI during working hours.

This included both engineers and sales staff without technical backgrounds.

Initially, more than 47% of employees were worried that AI would replace their jobs.

After nine weeks, however, about 70–80% felt that the technology helped them work better.

The experience highlighted the importance of allowing staff to experiment with and learn about AI through practical use, rather than viewing it solely as a threat to their careers.

Although he does not have an engineering background, Tan helped the team build My Merchant AI and said he held a patent in his own name.

The co-founder also experimented with building a dashboard for electric vehicles using natural-language instructions and an approach known as vibe coding, which allows people who are not professional programmers to try developing tools.

OpenAI partnership to offer free ChatGPT Pro to over 30,000 partners

Grab’s partnership with OpenAI is another way it is expanding access to AI.

The company announced the GO Forward with AI programme to give more than 30,000 driver-, delivery- and merchant-partners free access to ChatGPT Pro.

The initiative also promotes training and the use of AI for financial planning, budgeting, creating financial tools and identifying opportunities to earn additional income.

One example presented at the event involved a partner whose earnings from Grab were several times the minimum wage.

Using ChatGPT and Imagen to create Instagram content as a Grab Creator helped increase that partner’s income by about 20%.

Workers warned about replacement by people with AI skills

Tan’s central message to workers was that AI might not directly take their jobs, but people who know how to use it could replace those who fail to learn or adapt.

Personal development should begin with an eagerness to learn and an effort to improve by 1% each day, the chief executive said, to prepare for technological change.

Hands-on experience has also helped Tan understand partners’ needs.

This included taking the test for a Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) in Singapore and personally taking on driving work.

A customer once criticised him for delivering coffee late and remained dissatisfied even after receiving two coffees bought as compensation.

The experience highlighted the importance of listening to users’ feedback.

Another encounter that left a strong impression involved a driver who thanked Tan for founding Grab with the words: “You are a life giver.”

The co-founder almost could not hold back tears, recognising how the company’s work could change people’s lives.

The aim of promoting AI therefore extends beyond improving business efficiency.

Giving drivers, food delivery partners and small businesses access to tools that strengthen working capabilities and earning potential also enables more people to participate in the changes brought about by AI.