Technology giant Google has formed a strategic alliance with Sea Ltd, a major Southeast Asian tech company, to create advanced artificial intelligence applications for online retail and video game development, the companies revealed Thursday.
The partnership will focus on creating what the companies describe as “an AI agentic shopping prototype” for Shopee, Sea’s popular online marketplace, according to their joint announcement.
This collaboration represents part of a broader industry trend where technology companies are working to expand their AI capabilities beyond basic question-and-answer functions, aiming to handle more complex tasks like automated shopping across multiple platforms and managing sophisticated business processes.
The competitive landscape is heating up, as Chinese tech giant Alibaba introduced a new AI system earlier this week, marketing it as designed “for the agentic AI era.” Alibaba’s Lazada platform directly competes with Shopee across Southeast Asian markets.
According to research firm Momentum Works, Shopee maintained its position as the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia throughout 2024, capturing 52% of the regional market.
The partnership will also extend to Sea’s gaming division, Garena, where both companies plan to implement AI technologies to “transform” how efficiently games are developed and produced.
This new agreement builds upon a previous collaboration established in 2024 between Shopee and Google’s YouTube platform, which targeted the Southeast Asian online commerce sector.
