Grab and OpenAI bring practical AI skills to Southeast Asia
Grab and OpenAI launch a two-year programme to train 30,000 Southeast Asian partners in practical AI skills, starting in Singapore and expanding regionally.
Grab and OpenAI announced GO Forward with AI, a two-year initiative to equip 30,000 of Grab’s driver-, delivery-, and merchant-partners across Southeast Asia with practical AI skills tailored to their work. The programme begins in Singapore and will later expand to Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam, with workshops designed to address common business decisions faced by participants. The collaboration aligns with OpenAI’s mission to ensure artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity and Grab’s commitment to expanding economic opportunity in the region.
A Grab survey in Singapore found that half of driver and delivery partners already use AI tools, while 87% of those who do not expressed openness to trying them, with ChatGPT being the most familiar tool. The programme targets these groups by offering hands-on workshops where participants will use ChatGPT to explore business ideas, analyse sales data, plan promotions, and develop expansion strategies, with guidance from trained facilitators.
The initiative builds on a prior partnership between Grab and OpenAI, which introduced the Driver AI Assistant powered by OpenAI models to nearly 500,000 drivers, helping them optimise time and find demand. GO Forward with AI expands this effort by providing structured training to help partners apply AI to their own goals, whether managing a business or exploring new ventures, with a focus on practical, accessible learning.
The programme will run half-day, in-person workshops across Southeast Asia, using the OpenAI Academy curriculum adapted to local needs. Grab will also train its own trainers to sustain the initiative, ensuring long-term access to AI skills for merchants and platform workers seeking to enhance efficiency and create new opportunities in their work.