Key Takeaways
- Grab and OpenAI’s two-year ‘GO Forward with AI’ program will train 30,000 driver, delivery, and merchant partners across Southeast Asia, launching in Singapore before expanding to Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
- Half-day, in-person workshops built on the OpenAI Academy curriculum teach practical ChatGPT Work tasks such as turning sales records into dashboards, with human judgment as the final review step.
- APEC’s Nanjing statement elevates AI literacy and reskilling to regional labor policy, raising the stakes for whether platform-led training converts AI curiosity into durable economic leverage.
Table of Contents
A Direct AI Skills Injection Hits Southeast Asia’s Gig Economy
Grab and OpenAI are launching a two-year regional program to train 30,000 driver, delivery, and merchant partners across Southeast Asia in practical artificial intelligence skills.
The initiative, called ‘GO Forward with AI’, opened in Singapore on September 23 and will reach Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines later this year.
Malaysia and Vietnam are scheduled to follow in 2027, making this one of the largest platform-led AI skilling pushes in the region.
Inside the GO Forward with AI Curriculum and Existing Driver Tools
OpenAI’s official announcement frames the curriculum around the practical decisions that gig workers and small merchants face daily, rather than abstract AI concepts.
Workshop participants will use ‘ChatGPT Work’ to convert sales records into visual dashboards, construct basic websites, and map out expansion strategies.
Each exercise ends with participants reviewing what the AI produced and deciding whether to act on it, preserving human judgment in the final step.
The design reflects a Grab survey in Singapore that found 50 percent of driver and delivery partners already using AI tools.
Among the rest, 87 percent said they would be willing to try them, with ChatGPT ranking as the most familiar option.
The program will run as half-day, in-person sessions based on the ‘OpenAI Academy’ curriculum, adapted to each country’s local needs.
GrabAcademy trainers will also be upskilled to deliver the sessions more widely, extending the program’s reach beyond the initial cohorts.
This builds on a 2024 collaboration on Grab’s Driver AI Assistant, which now serves close to 500,000 drivers with demand insights and routine answers.
APEC’s Nanjing Statement Makes AI Literacy a Labor Policy Imperative
Two days before the Singapore launch, APEC economies adopted a joint workforce agenda that moves AI skilling from corporate initiative to regional labor policy.
Reporting from ETHRWorldSEA confirms that ministers at the 8th APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting in Nanjing endorsed three priorities: productive employment, vocational investment, and stronger social-security systems.
The statement explicitly calls for greater investment in reskilling, upskilling, AI literacy, digital-skills training, and workplace-based learning.
It also ties AI adoption to workers’ rights, employment quality, occupational safety, and social protection, rather than treating technology as a purely efficiency issue.
APEC ministers further called for monitoring how emerging technologies change occupations, tasks, and skills so that occupational standards can be updated.
That policy shift aligns with market signals across Southeast Asia, where workforce intelligence indicates that roughly half of employees already use AI at least a few times per year.
At the same time, 55 percent of organizations have started moving toward skills-first workforce models, while 84 percent of executives report difficulty finding local skilled talent.
Demand for learning and development specialists has reportedly climbed 42 percent, alongside sharper demand for people analytics and strategic workforce planning roles.
These figures are directional rather than precise benchmarks, but they expose a clear gap between AI curiosity and structured AI capability.
Not every worker perceives the change. One in five workers across the region report seeing no AI impact on their current jobs, which makes precision training more valuable than broad exposure.
Why Localized Training Is the Real Economic Test
For Grab and OpenAI, the long-term question is whether partner-specific training can convert AI curiosity into durable economic leverage.
If it works, the model could be replicated across other platform economies where large gig workforces interact with AI tools daily but lack structured guidance.
If it stalls at basic familiarity, the region’s new policy commitments on AI literacy will remain largely symbolic.
That is the deeper test of the GO Forward with AI program. For teams building AI-assisted content and automation pipelines that need to scale, programmatic SEO and AI automation is how Andres SEO Expert approaches it — contact Andres SEO Expert.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the GO Forward with AI program?
GO Forward with AI is a two-year regional initiative by Grab and OpenAI to train 30,000 driver, delivery, and merchant partners across Southeast Asia in practical AI skills.
Who can join the GO Forward with AI training?
Grab driver, delivery, and merchant partners across Southeast Asia are the target participants. It launched in Singapore on September 23 and will expand to Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines later this year, with Malaysia and Vietnam scheduled for 2027.
What will participants learn in the GO Forward with AI workshops?
Participants use ChatGPT Work to convert sales records into visual dashboards, build basic websites, and map expansion strategies. Each exercise ends with a human review step where participants decide whether to act on the AI output.
How does GO Forward with AI build on Grab’s existing driver tools?
It builds on a 2024 collaboration on Grab’s Driver AI Assistant, which now serves close to 500,000 drivers with demand insights and routine answers. The new program adds structured, in-person AI literacy sessions.
Why is APEC’s Nanjing Statement important for AI skilling?
APEC ministers adopted a workforce agenda that makes AI literacy a labor policy priority. It calls for investment in reskilling, upskilling, digital skills, and workplace-based learning, and ties AI adoption to workers’ rights, employment quality, safety, and social protection.
Why is localized AI training the real economic test?
Localized training determines whether partner-specific programs convert AI curiosity into durable economic leverage. If it works, the model can scale across platform economies. If it stalls at basic familiarity, regional AI literacy policy commitments may remain largely symbolic.
