DBT Bureau
Pune, 28 August 2025
Today at its “AI Asia: Building Beyond Borders” conference, Google Cloud unveiled transformative innovations that will help advance Singapore’s AI ambitions, and serve as the launchpad for Asian companies to scale and succeed with AI.
These innovations include: data residency guarantees that empower organizations to innovate to the fullest extent in the public cloud; advancements in Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) that bring the power of Gemini on-premises; and agentic applications that elevate customer experiences across touchpoints.
At AI Asia, Google Cloud also showcased new and expanded partnerships with Singapore organizations, including the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT), DBS Bank, FairPrice Group (FPG), the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech Singapore), the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), and the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Mrs. Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, was guest-of-honor at the conference, which was supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). In her welcome address, she reinforced Singapore’s commitment to mutually beneficial partnerships, highlighting how joint initiatives with open technology providers like Google Cloud have helped accelerate the creation of novel and practical AI solutions for Singapore, and from Singapore to the world.
Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive Officer, Google Cloud, said: “Singapore is the launchpad for AI in Asia, and today we’re making Google’s most capable models and AI tools available here. By bringing Gemini everywhere – in the public cloud with data residency guarantees, in on-premises or disconnected environments, and at the edge – we are unleashing a wave of innovation for both public sector organizations and businesses across industries. With AI, we are providing a potent catalyst for transformation and creating new economic opportunities.”
Expanded data residency guarantees in Google’s Singapore cloud region
Google Cloud’s Singapore cloud region is among the first globally to offer expanded data residency guarantees for the company’s most in-demand enterprise AI services, including Gemini 2.5 Flash, Google’s thinking model optimized for low latency and cost efficiency, which can be accessed through Vertex AI; Vertex AI Search for embedding agentic search into websites, apps, and intranets; and NotebookLM Enterprise, a Google-built agent for summarizing and extracting information across complex sources.
With this development, organizations across all sectors can now not only store their data at-rest but also perform machine learning processing for their AI workloads entirely within Singapore.
Google Cloud brings the power of Gemini models on-premises
Until now, organizations with strict sovereignty, ultra-low latency, or large data volume requirements faced a critical dilemma: compromise on security and performance or be unable to access the latest AI models.
Addressing this challenge, Google Cloud today announced the general availability of Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud (GDC) air-gapped and the preview of Gemini on GDC connected, enabling organizations to leverage the full power of Gemini models while keeping their sensitive data under their control, in their own data center.
GDC is a fully-managed on-premises and edge cloud solution that is offered in both air-gapped and connected configurations. Gemini on GDC complements the integrated technology stack that is already available on GDC, which includes Vertex AI, Database as a Service (DBaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), end-to-end security controls, and more.
Singapore public sector agencies including CSIT, GovTech Singapore, and HTX, will be the first in Asia, and among the first worldwide, to get access to Gemini on GDC air-gapped. With this technology, they can accelerate the development and deployment of agentic AI while keeping highly sensitive data within their on-premises data centers, fully disconnected from the public internet. It opens up entirely new use cases for government agencies, helping them build AI agents with leading multimodal reasoning and “working memory” capabilities to assist with national security, public safety, policy modeling, and more.
Loh Chee Kin, Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies, said: “As a key GDC collaboration partner in shaping the GDC air-gapped product roadmap and validating the deployment solutions, we’re delighted that this pioneering role has helped us grow our cutting-edge capabilities and establish a proven deployment blueprint that will benefit other agencies with similar requirements. We’re excited about the availability of Gemini on GDC, and we look forward to building on our partnership to develop and deploy agentic AI applications for our national security mission.”
Ang Chee Wee, Chief AI Officer, Home Team Science and Technology Agency, said: “HTX is scaling our development of innovative AI solutions for the Home Team. GDC’s secure, managed platform is one of the key solutions HTX is leveraging to address evolving challenges in the realm of public safety, without compromising our strict data residency and compliance requirements. This will include fine-tuning Gemini models on GDC for Home Team-specific use cases.”
Customer Engagement Suite now available across Asia
Google Cloud’s Customer Engagement Suite, an end-to-end application for customer service and contact center operations, is now generally available across the Asia Pacific region. It combines Google Cloud’s most advanced conversational AI products with contact center as a service (CCaaS) to deliver exceptional customer experiences at every touchpoint. Companies using Customer Engagement Suite have seen a more than 40% reduction in average call handling times, more than 60% of incoming calls handled by AI-powered conversational customer service agents, and higher customer satisfaction scores.
Reinforcing Singapore’s leadership in digital government and applied AI research
Directly enabled by Google Cloud’s newly announced data residency guarantees, GovTech Singapore is unlocking a new class of AI capabilities on its Government on Commercial Cloud (GCC) platform.
Specifically, government agencies can now use Gemini 2.5 Flash and Vertex AI Search to develop AI-driven, Cloud Confidential Eligible (CCE) applications. Through Vertex AI, they can also securely and interchangeably use industry-leading models from Google Cloud and its partners, as well as a wide variety of open models. This gives government agencies the freedom to evaluate these models side-by-side and select the best fit for any given use case—without the need for disruptive application overhauls.
GovTech Singapore will also make Google Agentspace available to a select group of public officers. Agentspace allows an organization’s employees to utilize agentic intranet search, custom AI agent creation tools, and Google-built agents to easily retrieve information across common work applications and automate complex tasks. Within Agentspace, IT administrators can apply role-based access controls and identity and access management controls to ensure employees’ use of AI agents are aligned with their organization’s data governance and security policies.
To ensure the safe, secure, and responsible deployment of agentic AI, Google, GovTech Singapore, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) are exploring the establishment of a dedicated AI agents sandbox to test agentic solutions for public sector use cases. As part of the collaboration, Google will provide GovTech Singapore with access to a new browser control tool via the Gemini API through its trusted tester program. This prototype tool, which is based on Google’s Project Mariner, can reason, plan, and take action on a user’s behalf. Within the sandbox, all four partners will rigorously evaluate and refine agentic solutions, and jointly issue recommendations for autonomous agentic AI in Singapore.
Goh Wei Boon, Chief Executive, GovTech Singapore, said: “One of our priorities is to harness the potential of AI while ensuring that our systems and the services citizens and businesses rely on remain secure. Google Cloud has demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting the public sector with initiatives that enable the agile and responsible adoption of AI. We look forward to working more closely with Google Cloud to deliver technology for the public good.”
Google Cloud’s expanded data residency guarantees have also unlocked a new area of collaboration between Google and NUS: applied AI research for life sciences. The organizations’ research and innovation center can now use Vertex AI Search for Healthcare and Life Sciences to develop and validate assistive, multimodal AI solutions for analyzing genomics data, medical images, and clinical information. Such solutions can potentially help NUS researchers uncover new connections between patients’ genetic predispositions and disease progression, ultimately speeding up clinical trial design and paving the way for advances in precision medicine.
AI Cloud Takeoff program helps Asian enterprises go global from Singapore
Asian enterprises with global growth ambitions are increasingly setting up operational headquarters in Singapore. While these companies have deep engineering talent and existing digital offerings, they face a key challenge: navigating the diverse data compliance frameworks of international markets.
Building on its expanded data residency guarantees, Google Cloud today announced the expansion of its AI Cloud Takeoff (AI CTO) program, organized in partnership with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) under the Singapore Government’s Enterprise Compute Initiative. Designed to help companies boost their competitiveness and unlock new revenue opportunities, the expanded program will see Google Cloud and its partners enabling international companies to establish a Data Boundary for their AI-driven offerings to meet Singapore’s data compliance requirements. From there, they can leverage Google Cloud’s Assured Workloads to extend their offerings to regulated markets in the Americas, Europe, or the Middle East.
Through AI CTO, DISG and Google Cloud will provide each company with Google Cloud credits, Google Cloud Skills Boost licenses, and partner consultancy support worth up to SG$500,000, to help them address high-value AI use cases. Additional Google Cloud partners appointed by DISG to support the program include Aimazing, Cloud Ace, Endava, NCS, Onepoint, OniGroup, PointStar, and Tridorian. They join existing AI CTO partners like Accenture, AsiaPac, CloudMile, Deloitte, Kyndryl, and NTT Data.
Empowering prominent homegrown enterprises to lead their industries in AI innovation
Supported by Google Cloud, Singapore’s homegrown enterprises are leading examples of how AI can impact the lives of Singapore citizens and residents.
AI in Financial Services: DBS Bank
DBS’s strategic collaboration with Google Cloud is one of the partnerships that has been instrumental in advancing the bank’s AI-powered capabilities and strengthening its market competitiveness. Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform is also one of the solutions integrated with DBS’s self-service data platform (i.e., ADA, or Advancing DBS with AI), which has helped automate infrastructure management and data processing as it scales up its AI use cases.
Nimish Panchmatia, Chief Data and Transformation Officer, DBS Bank, said: “At DBS, we strongly believe in the transformative power of AI and the profound impact it will have on banking. We expect more than SG$1 billion in economic value from our AI initiatives this year. Central to this is our strong investment in AI and working with leading technology partners like Google Cloud to industrialize its use and further unlock the potential of generative AI for our employees and customers.”
AI in Retail: FairPrice Group
Google Cloud and FPG today announced their expanded collaboration to pioneer agentic solutions that help FPG customers shop smarter and save more. This collaboration, part of FPG’s Store of Tomorrow program, involves launching a suite of agentic AI assistants developed using Google Cloud’s Agent Development Kit (ADK). At the FairPrice Finest outlet in Punggol Digital District, which opened today, shoppers can take advantage of a Smart Cart assistant, a wellness assistant, and a digital wine sommelier, among other Google Cloud-enabled AI innovations.
Extending the collaboration further, FPG is deploying Agentspace to transform how its employees work, collaborate, and serve customers, complementing their ongoing use of Google Workspace. In addition, FPG developed a custom creative agent to support its price and promotion teams. Built using Google’s generative media models like Imagen 4 and Veo 3 on Vertex AI, the creative agent has been used to automate ad creation for recent Price Drop, Buy Now and Durian Buffet campaigns, reducing the time and cost associated with creating these ads by 10 times and 100 times, respectively.
Vipul Chawla, Group Chief Executive Officer, FairPrice Group, said: “At FairPrice Group, our purpose is simple: to make every day a little better for our customers. Our collaboration with Google Cloud and the launch of our Store of Tomorrow are testament to this commitment. The new AI-powered tools, from the smart shopping assistant to the personalized wellness assistant, are designed to make a shopper’s journey more seamless and intuitive. These innovations don’t just ‘wow’ our shoppers, they also empower our employees to work more efficiently, so as to uphold our promise of providing affordable daily essentials for all. We believe technology should work for the good of our customers and we’re excited to use it to bring shoppers an even better experience at what we consider to be a first-of-its-kind store in Southeast Asia, with Google Cloud’s partnership and technology as a powerful enabler.”
Starting today, Google Workspace customers like FPG can tap new Google Vids features powered by Veo 3 models. These features allow users to transform photos into dynamic eight-second video clips with sound by using a text prompt; write a script and select an avatar to deliver their message – ideal for creating training, demo, and employee onboarding materials without having to step in front of a camera; and use automatic transcript trim, which removes filler words and pauses with just a few clicks.
Customer success in every industry
In addition to DBS and FPG, local household names like Bitsmedia, Carousell, Carro, Doctor Anywhere, Endowus, Frasers Hospitality, Gill Capital, Grab, Hepmil Media Group, Ninja Van, PropertyGuru, Prudential, Sea Limited, SISTIC, Singapore Press Holdings, StarHub, Syfe, Trust Bank, UOB Asset Management, YCH Group, and ZALORA are innovating with Google Cloud’s industry-leading AI platform services to better serve their customers, enhance productivity, and reimagine processes at a scale previously unimaginable.
