Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing app Grab says AI will help it fight rising fuel costs

Southeast Asia's top ride-hailing and delivery firm Grab believes artificial intelligence-led products and services will help it drive growth and navigate challenges such as affordability and rising fuel costs in the wake of the war in Iran, company CEO Anthony Tan told Reuters.

The Singapore-based company earlier this year expanded outside Southeast Asia for the first time when it purchased Delivery Hero's Foodpanda delivery business in Taiwan.

But it forecast fiscal 2026 revenue below Wall Street expectations, signaling slower momentum in its core businesses of ride hailing and deliveries as consumers were grappling with economic uncertainty even before the Iran war.

"Call us maybe bold, but we just have a lot of belief in our AI-led product strategy and it's paying off. We've seen it in our results and we continue to see it grow," Tan said in an interview with Reuters after a company event in Jakarta to launch new products.

"The reality is that the fuel cost situation is real for everyone. How do companies like us translate that into a way of how to be even more conscious of our customers' wallets?" he added.

Even as Grab announced in February its first-ever full-year net profit, 14 years after it was founded, the Nasdaq-listed company's forecasts for 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA fell short of Wall Street estimates. Its share price has slumped nearly 30% so far this year.

Tan said the company's scale, with an LSEG-estimated market value of $14.5 billion, was a key differentiator allowing it to produce "tremendous data" that would help growth.

"As we make things more affordable, more people are ordering. That's the best way to drive growth, where you can find and build AI-led growth that no one else has shown and built before."

Among the 13 products that Grab unveiled on Wednesday was a "group ride" feature that it said can save up to 40% on customer fares by using AI to automatically calculate a more precise split of fares between groups of travelers.

Grab did not provide the dollar value of the company's investment in the 13 AI products.

The product will have a wider roll-out soon in Indonesia, the region's biggest economy and the largest of the eight markets Grab operates in.

"We are very happy to be in Indonesia and I can tell you, we're just going to keep doubling down." Tan said.

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