Anthony Tan, co-founder and CEO of Grab, is going all-in on artificial intelligence, believing that those who fail to embrace it will inevitably fall behind. Speaking with CNBC’s in Singapore, he emphasized the transformative power of AI in both his business and everyday life.

“Humans who don’t embrace AI in a company will be replaced by humans who do. The same goes for businesses. AI doesn’t just enhance productivity—it makes both individuals and companies superhuman.”

$GRAB Grab Q4 FY24:

💰 GMV +20% Y/Y to $5.0B.
🏍️ Group MTUs +17% Y/Y to 44M.

• Revenue +17% to $764M ($6M beat).
• Adj. EBITDA +173% to $97M ($3M beat).
• FY25 Revenue +21% to $3.37B ($0.3B miss). pic.twitter.com/1N2h5WyFz3
— App Economy Insights (@EconomyApp) February 20, 2025

Grab embracing AI

Since its humble beginning in 2012, Grab has evolved and blossomed into one of Southeast Asia's leading tech company. As the company continues to grow, the company is committed to integrating AI across all of its operations.

One of such initiatives is Grab Academy, an educational platform equipped with an AI assistant that helps drivers get more jobs with other companies and reduces waiting times for riders.

“AI shouldn’t be feared, AI should be embraced, helping all of our workers, all our everyday entrepreneurs become superhuman."

Discovered GrabAssistant today or as I’d like to call it, GrabCoco! 🤤🤤

- Newest grab service where you can ask the driver to go to establishments and buy stuff for you 👍🏼
- They can shoulder up to 1,000 pesos of your pabili - just pay them on top of the fee. pic.twitter.com/CaoXEEYeoQ
— Lord (@lordnicolas_) June 19, 2018

Grab's app started as a ride hailing app. Today the app offers more than that, with a variety of services from food, grocery deliveries and financial services such as payments, lending and digital banks.

Last year, Grab and OpenAI have announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration in Southeast Asia to integrate advanced AI solutions into Grab’s services.

Cool way to use OpenAI o1 we haven't seen yet: Lead data scientist Christian Coffrant was part of a team at @GrabSG that combined GPT-4o (for writing SQL) and o1 (for data labeling) to build an AI data analyst called Jarvis. It looks through a vector database, retrieves examples,… pic.twitter.com/o7E3hSPFkw
— OpenAI Developers (@OpenAIDevs) September 30, 2024

The partnership will focus on improving accessibility, customer support, and mapping by leveraging OpenAI’s tools. This includes AI-powered voice and text features to assist visually impaired and elderly users, smarter chatbots for faster customer support, and enhanced map-making through automated data extraction.

Grab also plans to pilot ChatGPT Enterprise for select employees. Both companies see this partnership as a step toward using generative AI to drive innovation and improve user experiences across the region.

Grab's AI sprint project

Many tech companies, such as Microsoft Apple, and Google, are downsizing their workforce, stating the AI as one of the main reasons why.

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 40% of employers anticipate downsizing due to AI, while 86% expect AI-driven transformation by 2030. Rather than resisting change, Tan has actively incorporated AI into his workflow, even using an AI coding assistant for research and internal projects.

🚨 AI & the Future of Jobs! 🚨

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 reveals which careers AI will replace, assist, or leave untouched.

🔴 Most at risk: Data analysts, writers, marketers, junior developers (up to 87% substitution potential).

🟠 AI will assist… pic.twitter.com/uzJbe1HJuh
— Nigel D'Souza (@Nigel__DSouza) February 18, 2025

In the interview, Tan explained how he was experimenting with the use of AI in his own worklife. He said that AI has completely changed the way he spends his time and boosts his productivity as it allows him to build on projects and explore different ideas.

Recognizing the potential of AI, he has decided to extend its benefits to Grab's entire workforce. He has also revealed an initiative called the generative AI sprint, where he would stop all of Grab's routine operations for nine weeks in order to integrate AI into the system. In the interview he said

“People thought I was crazy—maybe I am—but it made a real impact.”

One major outcome of this AI sprint was the AI-powered Merchant Menu Assistant, which enables vendors to digitize their menus simply by uploading a photo.

“Imagine a single mother running a food business in Jakarta. Now she has an AI assistant that acts as a sous chef, a packaging helper, and even a chief revenue officer—all in one. This not only supports small businesses but also fulfills our mission of empowering everyday entrepreneurs.”

By embedding AI into its ecosystem, Grab is setting the stage for a future where technology enhances human potential rather than replacing it.

Addressing the Elephant in the room

One of the biggest elephant in the room is the impact of AI on the workforce. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI research firm Anthropoic predicts that within six months, AI could write 90% of all code.

This forecast has triggered a debate about the future of software engineers. While some argue that AI can never replace humans because it lacks the creativity and problem solving skills of human developers, others see this phenomenon as an opportunity as it allows developers to venture into more strategic based roles that focus on oversight, system design and ethical programming.

Arvind Krishna, IBM's executive officer, offers a more measured outlook on AI's impact on coding. He pushed back against such projection and argued AI would generate only 20-30% of all codes, not the speculated 90%.

The IMB leader sees AI not as a job killer but as a productivity booster. He argues that with the help of AI, it would increase the overall productivity of the company and push up the company's profit.

Just as calculators didn't replace mathematicians and photoshop didn't eliminate artists, AI is unlikely to render programmers obsolete. Instead, it promises to elevate their capabilities, making them more efficient and valuable than ever before.

Embrace AI or Fall Behind

As the AI revolution unfolds, businesses face a clear choice: leverage its power or risk obsolescence.

Visionary leaders like Tan and Krishna emphasize that AI is not about replacing humans but enhancing their capabilities. At Grab, AI is driving efficiency and creating new opportunities for workers and entrepreneurs, while in software development, it is reshaping workflows and redefining engineers' roles.

Though concerns about job displacement persist, history shows that technological progress often paves the way for new opportunities. But Tan believes that AI shouldn’t be feared, but embraced.