AVPN, Asia’s largest network of social investors, has partnered with the Asean Foundation to enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help their businesses.
Called the AI for MSME Advancement in Asean (Aim Asean) Program, the two partners, with support from Google.org and the Asian Development Bank through the AI Opportunity Fund: Asia Pacific, will train at least 100,000 MSMEs across the region learning materials that would reflect real-world challenges and goals of business owners.
In an exclusive interview with The Manila Times, AVPN Director for Special Projects Young Park said that the AI Opportunity Fund is a “training initiative to help communities across different regions in Asia Pacific to keep pace with the rapid change of AI advancement.”
“AI is just changing really rapidly, changing the nature of jobs, business landscape [and the] job market. But a lot of people are not actually aware of upskilling training opportunities for them. So, we wanted to make all the training content the most fundamental and basic AI training content accessible and available for all the workers, including MSMEs,” Park said.
She added that MSMEs were specifically chosen for this program due to their potential to contribute to the region’s economic growth, noting that it has become an official initiative to support their growth in alignment with Asean Vision 2045.
Park said that with the AI training, businesses can do more efficiently without overwhelming them, which is why they are giving them not only the knowledge but also the motivation to use the technology through easy and concrete steps.
Among the nine organizations that would be implementing the AIM Asean fund is Limitless Lab, a social enterprise founded in 2018 that uses design, creativity and technology to help the public sector, entrepreneurs, startups and young professionals in the Philippines.
Joie Cruz, founder and chief executive of Limitless Lab, said that they aim to help around 17,500 MSMEs in the country in the use of AI in improving their operations.
“That includes different aspects of the business from customer support, marketing, financial management, and so on. We are partnering with the Department of Trade and Industry, and we would like to utilize our Negosyo Centers which are located in key cities and municipalities in the Philippines,” Cruz told The Manila Times.
She said that these Negosyo Centers are a “great platform” to reach MSMEs including those in the far-flung communities, and training business counselors as master trainers on the use of AI in their businesses.
Cruz hopes that with the program, they would help MSMEs leapfrog in terms of digital transformation with the aim of reducing their costs through the use of artificial intelligence.
“So our hope and vision is, once we’re able to capacitate our MSMEs, it would help them to reduce their costs, to increase their productivity that would eventually lead them to growing their businesses and contributing more growth as well to our economy,” she said.