The pulse of innovation: What APAC's biggest tech events reveal about the future

AI is no longer a differentiator in Asia—it's become the baseline for innovation.

Over the past two months, PubNub's team was on the ground at three defining APAC tech events: eCommerce Expo at Singapore Tech Week 2025, Broadcast India 2025, and the 2025 Tech in Asia Conference. What we observed there wasn't just a collection of presentations and booth visits or sales teams clamoring for someone else’s attention, it was a beaming signal about the future of technology in Asia (and beyond).

The conversation at these events crossed many topics, but ultimately centered on one unmistakable truth: real-time, AI-first applications are no longer tomorrow's promise. They're today's necessity.

Whether it's live commerce experiences, cloud-native broadcasting workflows, or the next generation of B2B commerce platforms, the builders shaping Asia's digital future are grappling with a shared challenge: how to move faster without sacrificing reliability.

Dive into the insights uncovered at this year’s events. 

AI across industries: From broadcasting to digital commerce

Walk through any of these events, and you'll see the same pattern repeating. AI isn't confined to a single track or booth anymore. It's everywhere.

At Broadcast India 2025, the conversation was impossible to avoid. AI in media and broadcasting dominated discussion panels, with speakers like representatives from Rakuten's AI Labs, AWS, and Prasar Bharati diving deep into practical applications. The central question wasn't whether AI should be adopted; it was which tools actually work versus which are just noise. Panelists emphasized the importance of distinguishing real AI tools that deliver value from the hype cycle that often surrounds them.

Similarly, at Singapore Tech Week and the eCommerce Expo, AI-driven personalization and commerce innovation took center stage. Companies like BeLive (live video commerce SaaS), Shopline (eCommerce platforms), and Google (APAC supply chain operations) all focused on one theme: how AI enables real-time, personalized customer experiences at scale.

What struck us most wasn't the prevalence of AI conversations—it was the innovation and ingenuity behind them. Companies are asking questions: how to integrate AI into workflows prioritizing live decision-making, how to maintain data consistency in a fast/AI-based world, the core principles of implementation and standing out in a sea of AI. 

These are the questions that reveal where the actual innovation pain points are.

The mid-market is leading the way

One observation from attendees stood out: major enterprise brands were largely absent from these events. But that wasn't a weakness—it was a feature.

Instead, the energy came from mid-market companies, startups, and emerging tech leaders. At Tech in Asia, the startup ecosystem was vibrant and focused. Conversations centered on venture funding, scaling strategies, and product-market fit. The attendees weren't debating theoretical frameworks. They were building solutions right now.

This shift matters for builders and CTOs. Innovation happening in Asia isn't top-down dictation from legacy enterprises, it’s bottom-up experimentation from companies that have the agility to iterate quickly. These are the organizations that understand the real-time demands of modern commerce, media, and engagement.

For your infrastructure planning, this means something important: the tools and platforms you choose today need to support rapid iteration, not just stable operations. You need a stack that lets mid-market teams move like startups – interconnected, agile, iterative.

Real-time challenges in the AI era

Conversations about the future of digital experiences revealed a common theme: real-time engagement and personalization is now the expected baseline for every digital experience.

Live video commerce platforms demonstrate this perfectly. Retailers can't wait for batch updates or delayed personalization. Customers expect instant reactions, live responses, and immediate product recommendations—all powered by AI. The latency between a customer action and a personalized response isn't measured in seconds anymore. It's measured in milliseconds.

The same applies to broadcast technology. Cloud-native, 5G-driven workflows mean content is being captured, processed, and distributed immediately. As speakers from AWS and cloud-focused companies explained, the infrastructure supporting this can't have friction. It needs to be seamless, scalable, and intelligent.

For CTOs and technical leaders, this is where your architecture decisions become critical. You need a foundation that enables real-time data synchronization across your entire stack. You need messaging infrastructure that doesn't become your bottleneck as you scale AI operations. You need something designed from the ground up for moment-to-moment, AI-driven decision-making.

The future is low-code, real-time, and AI-first

What connected all three events was a shared vision of where tech in Asia is heading:

1. Low-code and no-code tools are accelerating time-to-market. Teams don't have time to reinvent infrastructure from scratch.
2. Real-time engagement is the default expectation. Whether it's live shopping, broadcast workflows, or personalized user experiences, latency kills engagement.
3. AI integration isn't a separate layer anymore, it's woven into every application. From content recommendation to fraud detection to live decision-making, AI is now foundational.

The builders thriving at these events understand this trinity. They're not debating whether to adopt these technologies. They're solving the integration and scaling challenges that come with adoption.

How PubNub helps you lead, not follow

As you explore and implement your AI strategies to live, personalized experiences, PubNub’s philosophy can serve as a shining light to help you lead the charge; not follow it. 

Real-time infrastructure has always been our focus. But as AI becomes foundational, live interactivity becomes even more critical. When your personalization engine needs to make decisions in milliseconds, or when your live commerce platform needs to sync inventory across regions instantly, or when your broadcast workflow needs deterministic ordering across cloud regions—that's where a purpose-built live engagement platform becomes your competitive advantage.

Our infrastructure is designed to handle exactly these scenarios:

• Seamless AI integration: Tools like PubNub Functions let you deploy AI logic at the edge, making real-time decisions without latency penalties.
• Reliable global scale: Whether you're broadcasting live across Asia or powering commerce platforms for millions of simultaneous users, our backbone ensures consistency and speed.
• Developer-friendly architecture: Your team shouldn't spend weeks building real-time messaging layers. They should be building features that matter to your customers.

What's next?

The events we attended revealed something important: APAC isn't following global tech trends anymore. It's setting them. The innovation happening in commerce, broadcasting, and startup ecosystems here is influencing how the rest of the world builds.

If you're a builder, product leader, or technical executive watching these shifts, here's what we'd encourage you to consider:

Start with real-time as a first-class priority, not an afterthought. Build your infrastructure for AI from day one. Choose platforms and partners that understand both the speed and reliability you need. And don't wait for the next generation of tools; the tools that power the fastest-moving teams in Asia (and beyond) are available today.

The future of digital experiences in Asia isn't being built in conference halls. It's being built by teams that have the right infrastructure, the right vision, and the courage to move fast.

Ready to learn how PubNub powers real-time AI applications? Start building with a free-tier account or learn more about how we help your teams build AI-first apps today.