WHAT'S BUZZING
Gen AI could boost Apac’s annual GDP growth by 0.7% over next 15 years
According to Accenture, generative AI (gen AI) could add US$4.5 trillion ($6.08 trillion) in economic value in Asia Pacific (Apac), equivalent to a 0.7% boost in annual GDP growth, over the next 15 years. This can be achieved if the region takes a people-centric and responsible approach to adopting the technology at scale.
Currently, only 4% of business leaders in Apac have rolled out gen AI training at scale. This is despite the majority of business leaders in the region (96%) acknowledging the significant impact of gen AI and most Apac workers (91%) indicating interest in acquiring new skills to work with the technology.
Similarly, 89% of Apac businesses plan to increase their spending on gen AI technology this year, but only 35% are prioritising investments in their workforce’s development.
“For businesses to maximise gen AI benefits and drive growth, leaders must extend their focus beyond the immediate tasks and roles and embrace a long-term, people-centric approach to adopting gen AI. They need to pair gen AI investments with workforce training and development. Enterprises need to invest in transforming work, workflows and their workforce so they can reinvent themselves for success in the age of AI,” says Vivek Luthra, data and AI lead for Accenture Growth Markets.
See also: Younger consumers in Singapore more receptive towards AI agents
To fully leverage the potential of gen AI, Accenture recommends leaders to lead and learn in new ways. They need to immerse themselves in the technology, effectively changing how they learn by embedding learning into the flow of work.
They should also gain a clear view of where gen AI can be most impactful, aligning it with business goals for better efficiency and innovation across the enterprise and collapsing silos in a lasting, meaningful way. From there, they can re-focus on how the work needs to change to better serve customers, support people and achieve business outcomes.
Additionally, organisations need to prioritise continuous talent reinvention. Tools such as skills mapping can help facilitate smoother transitions from declining to emerging roles. Besides helping workers acquire market-relevant technical skills and the capability to collaborate with machines, they will also need to focus on soft skills.
See also: Nearly four in five Apac retailers will increase their tech investment in 2025
Espionage attacks dominate Apac’s cybersecurity landscape
Verizon Business analysed 2,130 security incidents and 523 confirmed breaches in the Asia Pacific (Apac) region in 2023. It found that the majority of the attacks (25%) were motivated by espionage.
Besides that, system intrusion, social engineering, and basic web application attacks represent 95% of breaches in Apac. The most common types of data compromised are credentials (69%), internal (37%), and secrets (24%).
“Since so much of cyber espionage can be defined as an advanced persistent threat, it’s especially important for Apac organisations to continuously refresh their security protocols to thwart the long-term collection of sensitive data by threat actors. It is equally important to review one’s third-party network since sensitive information with national security implications can sometimes be accessed via organisations with more lax cybersecurity practices, such as academic institutions and research facilities,” says Chris Novak, senior director of Cybersecurity Consulting at Verizon Business.
Analysis of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalogue revealed that it takes organisations 55 days on average to remediate 50% of critical vulnerabilities following the availability of patches. Meanwhile, the median time for detecting the mass exploitations of the CISA KEV on the Internet is five days.
Verizon Business’s report also reveals that 68% of breaches involve a non-malicious human element, which refers to a person making an error or falling prey to a social engineering attack. One potential countervailing force is the improvement of reporting practices: 20% of users identified and reported phishing in simulation engagements, and 11% of users who clicked the email also reported it.
“The persistence of the human element in breaches shows that there is still plenty of room for improvement in cybersecurity training, but the increase in self-reporting indicates a culture change that destigmatises human error and may serve to shine a light on the importance of cybersecurity awareness among the general workforce,” says Robert Le Busque, Verizon Business’ regional vice-president for Asia Pacific.
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