{"id":33607,"date":"2018-10-26T12:29:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T04:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=33607"},"modified":"2018-10-26T12:29:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T04:29:29","slug":"grab-taps-microsoft-to-drive-innovation-and-adoption-of-digital-services-across-southeast-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2018\/10\/26\/grab-taps-microsoft-to-drive-innovation-and-adoption-of-digital-services-across-southeast-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Grab taps Microsoft to drive innovation and adoption of digital services across Southeast Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Corp. and Grab announced a partnership that will transform the delivery of digital services and mobility in the region by leveraging Microsoft\u2019s expertise in machine learning and other artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. As a first step in the broad collaboration between the two companies, Grab will adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform and Microsoft will make a strategic investment in Grab.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ming Maa, president of Grab (left), with Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Business Development, Microsoft.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis partnership signals a deep collaboration with Microsoft on an array of technology projects, including big data and artificial intelligence, that will transform the delivery of everyday services and mobility solutions in Southeast Asia,\u201d said Ming Maa, president of Grab. \u201cAs a global technology leader, Microsoft\u2019s investment into Grab highlights our position as the leading homegrown technology player in the region. We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft in the pursuit of enhancing on-demand transportation and seamless online-to-offline experiences for users.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur partnership with Grab opens up new opportunities to innovate in both a rapidly evolving industry and growth region,\u201d said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president at Microsoft. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to team up to transform the customer experience as well as enhance the delivery of digital services for the millions of users who rely on Grab for safe and affordable transport, food and package delivery, mobile payments, and financial services.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the top mobile online-to-offline platform in Southeast Asia, Grab operates in 235 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries, and Grab\u2019s digital wallet, GrabPay, is the leading player in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

Through this partnership, Grab will adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform, tapping into Microsoft\u2019s intelligent cloud and AI capabilities to scale Grab\u2019s platform efficiently and increase its capacity and capabilities. Through this collaboration the companies will explore a number of innovative deep technology projects that will enhance and transform the Grab experience for Grab\u2019s users, driver-partners, merchants and agents. These special innovation projects include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • To help improve passenger and driver safety and security, Grab will work with Microsoft to explore new authentication mechanisms such as mobile facial recognition with built-in AI for drivers and customers who opt in, as a replacement for checking IDs, that help match both driver and passenger identities to the reservation.<\/li>\n
  • Grab will explore utilizing Microsoft Azure\u2019s data analytics and fraud detection services to better predict and prevent fraudulent transactions on Grab\u2019s platform.<\/li>\n
  • The companies plan to leverage Microsoft\u2019s natural language processing capabilities to provide customers with contextualized real-time translations and create an AI chatbot so Grab users can engage in interactive experiences.<\/li>\n
  • Microsoft\u2019s machine learning and AI capabilities will be used to power Grab\u2019s advanced \u201crecommendation engine\u201d that analyzes user data and behavior to provide personalized services and content recommendations through the Grab application.<\/li>\n
  • Grab also plans to work with Microsoft to explore image recognition and computer vision technologies that will improve the user and driver pickup experience. For example, passengers will be able to take a photo of their current location and have it translated into an actual address for the driver.<\/li>\n
  • To improve map creation and quality, Grab plans to tap into the power of Microsoft\u2019s machine learning capabilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Other areas of collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • Microsoft Outlook integration.<\/strong>\u00a0Grab will provide on-demand transportation booking options to Outlook users so they can seamlessly book rides directly in the application and be alerted with calendar reminders.<\/li>\n
    • Microsoft Kaizala.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Grab will pilot Microsoft\u2019s Kaizala, a mobile app and service for large group communications and work management, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Grab\u2019s Customer Service teams.<\/li>\n
    • In-car solutions.<\/strong>\u00a0The companies will collaborate on the deployment of in-car entertainment and productivity solutions across Southeast Asia.<\/li>\n
    • Rewards integration.<\/strong>\u00a0Microsoft will explore integrating Microsoft Rewards Gift Cards into the Grab Rewards loyalty program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Grab will adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":33608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19,13],"tags":[3999,3362,4298,96],"class_list":["post-33607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apps","category-headlines","category-microsoft","tag-grab","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}