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Xinmei Shen

DeepSeek’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models have lowered the cost of adopting the technology for Southeast Asia’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to experts, although many businesses still must contend with a lack of talent and outdated digital infrastructure.
“I think this [development] is quite a good thing for SMEs in Malaysia,” Leo Liu Binxing, vice-president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said in a panel discussion at the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2025 event hosted by the South China Morning Post in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
“These start-ups can get going [with] very, very low cost to pursue innovation.”
With access to powerful models provided through cloud services, start-ups will “only need to focus on their ideas”, Liu said. Alibaba Cloud Intelligence is a unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.
That positive assessment reflects the worldwide attention gained by start-up DeepSeek over the past few weeks for releasing two advanced open-source AI models, V3 and R1, at a fraction of the cost and computing power that major tech companies typically require for large language model (LLM) projects.
LLM is the technology underpinning generative AI services like ChatGPT and DeepSeek’s namesake chatbot. Open source gives public access to a software program’s source code, allowing third-party developers to modify or share its design, fix broken links or scale up its capabilities.

Major cloud computing services providers – including Alibaba, Huawei Technologies, Tencent Holdings, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services – already offer DeepSeek on their platforms.
Cloud computing technology enables enterprises to manage or distribute over the internet a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service, just like electricity from a power grid. These resources are stored inside data centres.
“For start-ups, this is a huge plus, but they need time to get to it,” said Sarah Lim, investment partner at OSK Ventures International.
“I think in the next year or so, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of our portfolio companies come back and tell us: ‘Yes, we’ve already incorporated DeepSeek.’”
Still, many businesses across Southeast Asia may not be fully prepared to embrace AI, as they face a range of issues including data governance, lack of talent and outdated infrastructure, according to the panellists.
While Malaysia’s launch of a national AI office in December was “a good start”, the country needs more talent to help the industry move forward, said Jacky Cheong, head of enterprise data governance at CelcomDigi, the country’s largest mobile network operator.
Such talent is “always missing in the picture when we have a grand plan”, Cheong said. “We don’t have people to implement” goals to help “future-proof” Malaysia and the wider Asean region.
Organisations must get their digital infrastructure ready before embracing AI and take steps to educate the people, according to the panellists.
According to Cheong, many businesses face data-interoperability challenges. He said a lot of corporate data still resides in spreadsheets and information management systems that were not connected to other such systems.
“Get your data right at the very first place,” he said. “We do not want to fail because our data is not ready.”


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Many businesses across Southeast Asia stand to benefit from DeepSeek’s powerful, low-cost artificial intelligence models. Photo: Shutterstock 

Panellists in a discussion on artificial intelligence innovation at the China Conference: Southeast Asia 2025 event include, from left to right: Jacky Cheong, head of enterprise data governance at CelcomDigi; Sarah Lim, investment partner at OSK Ventures International; Leo Liu Binxing, vice- president of international business at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence; and moderator Zhou Xin, technology editor at the South China Morning Post. Photo: Nora Tam

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Many businesses in the region still must contend with a lack of AI talent and outdated digital infrastructure


Many businesses in the region still must contend with a lack of AI talent and outdated digital infrastructure.


DeepSeek lowers cost of AI adoption for businesses across Southeast Asia: experts

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Many businesses in the region still must contend with a lack of AI talent and outdated digital infrastructure

Many businesses in the region still must contend with a lack of AI talent and outdated digital infrastructure