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AI Presents Growth Opportunities for Malaysian eCommerce Sellers, Despite Adoption Challenges, Lazada Report Reveals
- On average, Malaysian online sellers have adopted AI in only 26% of their business operations, significantly lower than the SEA average of 37%.
- Indonesia and Vietnam lead average AI adoption in eCommerce in Southeast Asia, followed by Singapore and Thailand.
- Lazada’s new playbook provides sellers with best practices, actionable insights and resources to help integrate AI into their operations.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 8 April 2025 – Lazada, a leading eCommerce platform in Southeast Asia, today published its research report, Bridging the AI Gap: Online Seller Perceptions and Adoption Trends in Southeast Asia (SEA). Developed in collaboration with Kantar, the report surveyed 1,214 eCommerce sellers across Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam to examine AI adoption trends, challenges, and opportunities—shedding light on sellers’ readiness to integrate AI into their operations.
Knowledge, perception and implementation gap evident among online sellers
The research reveals that 69% of Malaysian online sellers show strong familiarity of AI, in line with the average for the region at 68%, indicating that they are aware of AI. While SEA sellers believe they have integrated AI into 47% of their business operations, actual adoption stands only at 37%. In Malaysia, this gap is even wider with sellers estimating adoption at 30%, while real implementation is lower at just 26%, underscoring a disparity between perceived and actual AI use in the country.
Online sellers face a dilemma in terms of assessing AI efficacy and its cost implications. While 89% of SEA sellers acknowledge AI’s role in boosting productivity, this sentiment is slightly lower amongst Malaysian sellers at 77%. This contrasts with the perceived overall usefulness of AI, where only 1 in 2 Malaysian sellers are sceptical about its utility, compared with almost two-thirds (61%) of SEA sellers who feel the same. Furthermore, although 87% sellers in Malaysia agree that AI can drive long-term cost savings, nearly two-thirds (64%) cite costliness and time-consuming implementation as barriers to adoption.
The research also suggests an implementation gap, where sellers understand the importance of AI but struggle with effective deployment. Highlighting the challenge of transitioning from familiar, manual processes to AI-driven solutions, nearly all sellers in SEA (93%) agree that it is important to upskill the workforce to use AI so that they can be more productive, yet 3 out of 4 sellers (75%) also concede that their employees still prefer to use tools they are familiar with, rather than new AI solutions. In Malaysia, the importance of upskilling for AI is slightly lower at 89%, although a high majority of sellers (67%) still indicate that their employees prefer to use tried-and-tested ways of working.
Comparing AI-readiness levels in Malaysia vs. SEA
Across the region, Indonesia and Vietnam lead with 42% AI adoption across business functions, while Singapore and Thailand follow closely at 39% and finally the Philippines at 32% and Malaysia at 26%. Based on the level of AI adoption across five core aspects of operations of a seller’s business, namely operations and logistics, product management, marketing and advertising, customer service, and workforce management, the report identifies three distinct seller archetypes – AI Adepts, AI Aspirants, and AI Agnostics[1], based on the average score they attained in each aspect of operations to represent their readiness level to embrace AI:
- AI Adepts: Sellers who have integrated AI across at least 80% of their operations, placing them at the forefront of adoption. Only 15% of Malaysian sellers belong to this category, significantly lower than the SEA average of 24%.
- AI Aspirants: Sellers who have partially integrated AI into their operations, but still face adoption gaps across key functions. This group comprises 43% of Malaysian sellers, aligning with half of the sellers in Southeast Asia (50%).
- AI Agnostics: This group lags in AI adoption, with most business functions still handled manually. Malaysians have a notably higher number of sellers in this category (42%), nearly double the Southeast Asia average of 26%.
Findings indicate that Thailand has the highest share of AI Adepts, with 30% of sellers in this category. Singapore (29%), Indonesia (29%), and Vietnam (22%) also demonstrate strong AI implementation despite knowledge gaps, while Malaysia (15%) and the Philippines (19%) face challenges related to internal buy-in and infrastructure limitations. 85% of Malaysian sellers fall into the AI Aspirants and AI Agnostics categories, signalling a pressing need for enhanced seller support (48%) and AI-powered tools (47%) to drive implementation.
“The findings from our research reveal a fascinating gap in Southeast Asia’s eCommerce ecosystem. While most sellers understand AI’s transformative potential, many are still navigating the path from recognition to implementation,” said James Dong, Chief Executive Officer, Lazada Group. “As a leading eCommerce platform in Southeast Asia, we aim to bridge the knowledge and adoption gap by developing accessible AI solutions that address the unique challenges faced by sellers across different markets, ultimately making technology more accessible and driving sustainable business growth regardless of a seller’s size or technical expertise.”
Leveraging Lazada’s AI-driven solutions to transform business operations
To support sellers in their AI adoption journey, Lazada is launching the Online Sellers Artificial Intelligence Readiness Playbook, designed to provide strategic guidance based on sellers’ AI maturity levels. The research reveals that sellers are already leveraging key AI-driven solutions on Lazada’s platform to enhance their efficiency, validating Lazada’s continuous investments into cutting-edge AI innovations and advanced tools that streamline eCommerce operations and drive competitiveness.
With 67% of sellers expressing strong satisfaction in existing Lazada AI features[2], Lazada is also releasing new Generative AI (GenAI) features that are designed to empower sellers and enhance their product listings, streamline operations, and boost customer conversions such as:
- AI Smart Product Optimisation: Powered by GenAI, this tool helps sellers identify improvements they can make to their product titles, descriptions, or even photos. It enables automated virtual try-ons, background modifications, and model adjustments, allowing sellers to produce professional product imagery quickly within minutes.
- AI-Powered Translations: This feature automatically translates product content into multiple local languages, enabling sellers to expand their reach across diverse markets efficiently and accurately.
- Lazzie Seller: A dedicated AI assistant within the Alibaba Seller Centre (ASC), providing instant responses to frequently asked questions, quick navigation to key features, store risk assessments, and business advice to boost seller efficiency and growth.
To find out more, download the Online Sellers Artificial Intelligence Readiness Playbook to understand how these solutions can offer a structured framework for sellers to integrate AI into their workflows to drive growth, efficiency, and innovation in an ever-evolving eCommerce landscape.
About the Research
Developed in partnership with Kantar, Bridging the AI Gap: Online Seller Perceptions and Adoption Trends in Southeast Asia provides a comprehensive analysis of AI adoption trends, challenges, and opportunities, offering insights into how sellers can leverage AI to drive growth and efficiency in Southeast Asia’s evolving eCommerce landscape. The report surveyed 1,214 eCommerce sellers across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam in February 2025.
This follows the Artificial Intelligence Adoption in eCommerce in Southeast Asia Whitepaper, another research conducted in partnership with Kantar, which surveyed more than 6,000 eCommerce users in the region in September 2024 to better understand AI awareness, trust and preferences, shopping behaviour, and consumer pain points in the region.
Annex
Lazada’s AI features for sellers:
- Lazada Business Advisor: AI-powered analytics tool that provides real-time insights to optimise sales and business performance. Almost seven in 10 Lazada sellers report strong satisfaction and almost half (48%) actively use this tool to track trends and make data-driven decisions
- Lazada Sponsored Solutions: A targeted advertising platform that boosts product visibility and maximises sales through AI-driven recommendations. Two in three (67%) sellers report strong satisfaction, and 46% actively use this tool, citing its positive impact on sales growth.
- AI Smart Listing: Generative AI tool that automates product listing by generating and pre-filling compelling attributes based on images or keywords. 64% of sellers report strong satisfaction in leveraging this feature to reduce listing time and improve content quality.
- Virtual Try-Ons: An AI-powered AR feature that allows shoppers to visualise products in real time, increasing purchase confidence and reducing returns. 62% of sellers express strong satisfaction with its effectiveness, with 42% of sellers using it actively.
- AI Selling Points: A tool that analyses product data and customer behaviour to automatically highlight key product features to drive conversions. 68% of sellers express strong satisfaction with this feature and 42% actively use it to attract more customers to their storefront online.
- Lazada IM Shop Assistant (LISA): An AI-powered tool that helps sellers enhance customer engagement by providing automated, AI-driven responses to inquiries, improving service efficiency and conversion rates. 65% of sellers express strong satisfaction with this feature and 38% actively use it.
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Lazada Group
Lazada Group is Southeast Asia’s pioneer eCommerce platform. For the last 13 years, Lazada has been accelerating progress in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam through commerce and technology. Today, a thriving local ecosystem links about 160 million active users to more than one million actively-selling sellers every month, who are transacting safely and securely via trusted payment channels and Lazada Wallet, receiving parcels through a homegrown logistics network that has become the largest in the region.
Graduate salary data provides useful guidance, but it should not be read in isolation. Starting salary is one indicator of return on investment. It should be considered alongside employment rates, full-time permanent employment, industry pathways, career support, programme fit and long-term skills relevance.
For students considering Singapore Institute of Management Global Education (SIM GE), SIM’s Graduate Outcome & Employability page provides a reference point for understanding graduate outcomes. The page explains how SIM graduates have performed in the Private Education Institution Graduate Employment Survey (PEI GES), where they have worked, and how SIM supports students in building career readiness.
Why the PEI Graduate Employment Survey matters
For students considering private education pathways, the PEI Graduate Employment Survey (GES) is an important reference because it provides employment and salary outcomes for graduates from registered private education institutions.
The 2024/2025 PEI GES focused on economically active fresh graduates who graduated between May 2024 and April 2025 from full-time Bachelor’s level External Degree Programmes. The survey covered about 6,150 full-time graduates across 26 private education institutions, with a response rate of 61.6 per cent, and was conducted from October 2025 to January 2026.
Among 2,600 economically active PEI fresh graduate respondents in the labour force, 78.9 per cent secured employment within six months of graduation. The median gross monthly salary for PEI fresh graduates in full-time permanent employment remained stable at S$3,500.
This makes the PEI GES useful for students and parents who want to compare graduate outcomes within the private education sector. It also allows SIM’s graduate outcome data to be read against a broader PEI sector benchmark.
What SIM graduate outcome data shows
SIM’s Graduate Outcome & Employability page reports that SIM fresh graduate respondents recorded 81.0 per cent secured employment, 77.9 per cent currently employed, 47.0 per cent in full-time permanent employment and a median gross monthly salary of S$3,565. The page attributes these figures to Skills & Workforce Development Agency 2024/2025 PEI GES.
| Indicator | SIM | Avg of All PEI (include SIM) |
| Secured employment | 81.0% | 78.9% |
| Full-time permanent employment | 47.0% | 46.9% |
| Median gross monthly salary | S$3,565 | S$3,500 |
This comparison places SIM’s graduate outcomes at the top spectrum of the PEI sector. It also shows why employability should be assessed through more than one indicator. Secured employment, full-time permanent employment and median gross monthly salary each provide a different view of graduate outcomes.
Secured employment indicates whether graduates entered work, accepted job offers or were taking steps to start a business venture. Full-time permanent employment provides a view of stable employment. Median gross monthly salary shows the middle salary point among full-time permanently employed graduates.
Where SIM graduates have worked
SIM graduates have entered a range of sectors, including aviation, aerospace and engineering, airline and tourism, banking and financial services, information and communications technology, cybersecurity, insurance, consumer services, public sector and government, consulting and professional services, healthcare, logistics, transportation, retail and manufacturing.
These employer destinations are relevant because students are not only selecting a degree. They are also considering possible pathways into industries, job functions and future career options. A business-related pathway may support roles in banking, consulting, retail, logistics or entrepreneurship. A technology-related pathway may lead to opportunities in information and communications technology, cybersecurity, data, digital services or business technology roles.
How students should compare salary, employability and ROI
A practical approach to comparing degree options is to consider four areas: relevance, return, readiness and resilience.
| Factor | What to consider |
| Relevance | Does the degree connect to industries that are hiring? |
| Return | What do employment and salary outcomes show? |
| Readiness | What career support, internship guidance and employer exposure are available? |
| Resilience | Can the skills support future career changes? |
This approach helps students avoid selecting a degree based only on the highest salary benchmark. While starting salary is an important consideration, long-term value also depends on whether the student can build relevant skills, gain experience and adapt to changes in the labour market.
How SIM supports employability
SIM supports students through career preparation and employer engagement, including résumé writing, interview preparation, job search guidance, career fairs, employer talks, recruitment events, internship search guidance and workshops that build communication, teamwork, problem-solving and professional confidence.
Such support is relevant to return on investment because employability is influenced not only by the qualification awarded, but also by how prepared students are to enter the workforce. Career readiness, employer exposure and workplace skills can support the transition from study to employment.
Conclusion
Graduate starting salary is an important consideration for students and parents assessing higher education options in Singapore. However, it should not be the only measure used to evaluate a degree pathway.
A more balanced assessment considers employment rates, full-time permanent employment, median gross monthly salary, industry pathways, career support and long-term skills relevance. This provides a broader view of how a higher education pathway may support employability and future career development.
When read together with the PEI Graduate Employment Survey, national salary benchmarks and SIM’s Graduate Outcome & Employability page, graduate outcome data can help students and parents make more informed decisions about salary expectations, employability and return on investment.
References
- SIM’s Graduate Outcome & Employability page – https://www.sim.edu.sg/degrees-diplomas/parent-resource-hub/graduate-outcome-employability
- SWDA PEI Graduate Employment Survey 2024/2025 – https://www.swda.gov.sg/home/skills-career-resources/private-education-resources/graduate-employment-survey/2024-2025
- Employment Outcome for PEI Graduates – https://www.swda.gov.sg/home/newsroom/employment-outcomes-for-private-education-institution-graduates-remain-stable-in-2024-2025
- SIM Career Service – https://www.sim.edu.sg/degrees-diplomas/life-at-sim/career-services
Hashtag: #SIMGlobalEducation #SIMGE #GlobalEducation #InternationalDegree #CareerReady #FutureSkills
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About SIM Global Education
SIM Global Education (SIM GE) is a leading private education institution in Singapore and the region. We offer more than 140 academic programmes ranging from diplomas and graduate diploma programmes to bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes with some of the world’s most reputable universities from Australia, Canada, Europe, United Kingdom, and the United States. SIM GE’s cohort is made up of 17,000 full- and part-time students and adult learners, of which approximately 41% are international students hailing from over 50 countries.
SIM GE’s holistic learning approach and culturally diverse learning environment aim to equip students with knowledge, industry skills and employability competencies, as well as a global perspective to succeed as future leaders in a fast-changing, technologically driven world.
For more information on SIM Global Education, visit www.sim.edu.sg
Media OutReach
SBI Global Asset Management and DigiFT Launch JX, Bringing a Japanese Asset Manager’s Equity Strategy On-Chain for the First Time
The launch comes as investor attention returns to Japanese equities, supported by the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s continued push for listed companies to improve capital efficiency and demonstrate greater awareness of share-price performance. It also reflects a broader evolution in tokenization: the value of tokenized RWAs distributed on public blockchains grew from USD 5.9 billion to USD 21.9 billion globally in 2025, moving the category beyond cash-like instruments and into actively managed public-market strategies. DigiFT was an early mover in this shift, launching a tokenized U.S. equity income fund developed with BNY in January 2026. This shift is now extending directly into Japan’s own institutional market, where SBI Group has been among the country’s most active builders of on-chain financial infrastructure.
DigiFT holds Capital Markets Services and Recognised Market Operator licences from MAS, as well as Type 1 and Type 4 licences from the Hong Kong SFC – a dual regulatory standing that has made it a tokenization and distribution partner for global and regional asset managers, including UBS Asset Management, Invesco, BNY and Franklin Templeton. DigiFT’s roster now extends into Japan, through SBI GAM’s participation, adding a Japanese listed-equity strategy to that lineup for the first time. DigiFT is launching the JX Token on Solana, further expanding the availability of regulated RWAs on-chain, with ecosystem participants including Solana Company, Huma Finance and Plume.
SBI Holdings brings its own substantial on-chain track record to the collaboration. The group reported consolidated revenue of JPY 1.90 trillion for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2026, with its Crypto-asset Business segment generating JPY 89.6 billion in revenue over the same period. SBI Holdings has taken direct stakes across the region’s tokenization infrastructure, including leading a $50 million investment in Startale Group to build a blockchain purpose-built for tokenized securities, and holding a majority stake in Osaka Digital Exchange, operator of a secondary market for security tokens in Japan.
JX is structured around the underlying strategy managed by SBI AM. This authorized, manager-referenced model is critical as regulators are increasingly distinguishing tokenized securities developed with issuer or manager alignment from products that provide only indirect economic exposure. In a joint staff statement issued 28 January 2026, the U.S. SEC staff drew a formal line between issuer-sponsored tokenized securities, which can represent true ownership, and third-party products that typically offer only synthetic exposure or custodial entitlements – signalling an intent to encourage the former while curbing the spread of the latter.
Henry Zhang, Founder and Group CEO, DigiFT: “Our mission at DigiFT has always been to bring real, institutional-grade assets on-chain through infrastructure that investors and asset managers can actually trust. JX extends that mission to Japan for the first time, opening regulated, on-chain access to Japanese equities. We’re proud to build this with SBI Group, one of Japan’s most forward-looking financial institutions, and excited about what this partnership signals for the future of tokenization across the region.”
Hashtag: #DigiFT
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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Smilegate LORDNINE Launches Pre-Registration for New Growth-Accelerated Server ‘Helena’ in Celebration of 1st Anniversary… 32,000 USDt Reward Event Underway
- Pre-registration for new server Helena opens July 14… Official launch on July 29
- Sweeping new server growth-support systems, including 50% additional EXP via Mastery Buff
- Rich rewards including a 32,000 USDt reward event, limited edition skins, and 1,111 summon tickets
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – EQS Newswire – 15 July 2026 – Smilegate announced on Tuesday, July 14 that pre-registration has begun for ‘Helena’, a new growth-accelerated server for the MMORPG 《LORDNINE: Infinite Class》 (developed by NX3 Games), in celebration of the game’s 1st anniversary.
Pre-registration for the new Helena server is available through the official LORDNINE page (https://l9asia.onstove.com/en), with the official launch scheduled for July 29 at 7:00 PM.
Helena is a growth-accelerated server designed to allow players to level up characters faster than on existing servers. Key features include a Mastery Buff that provides an additional 50% EXP gain and more than 40,000 ‘Fragments of Ancient Relics’ to support character progression, helping players settle in smoothly during the early stages.
To celebrate the launch of the Helena server, Smilegate has prepared a variety of events, including a 32,000 USDt reward event. Helena server users can participate in in-game attendance and mission events to obtain three Hero-grade avatars and three artifacts, as well as up to 1,111 summon tickets.
A pre-registration event will also be held. Users who sign up for pre-registration will receive a limited edition skin, and among users who refer 20 friends through the pre-registration page, a drawing will be held with winners receiving an iPhone 17 Pro.
In addition, a skin design contest will be held to celebrate the 1st anniversary. Participants can freely submit skin designs they would like to see released in LORDNINE. In-game rewards worth up to 80 million KRW are up for grabs, and notably, the grand prize-winning design will actually be released in-game.
For more information about the game, please visit the official page (https://l9asia.onstove.com/en).
| Contact Point | Office | Mobile Phone | ||||
| Sangjik Oh, Team Leader | 031-630-3142 | 010-5236-0571 | sj****@*******te.com | |||
| Hyeran In, Deputy General Manager | 031-630-3143 | 010-3291-6710 | hr****@*******te.com | |||
| Jiwon Hong, Deputy General Manager | 031-630-3144 | 010-4135-0298 | jw****@*******te.com | |||
| Taehyun Park, Assistant Manager | 031-630-3179 | 010-6805-1177 | th****@*******te.com |
Hashtag: #Smilegate
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
