Shopee’s $38 Billion Quarter Changes the Game

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Welcome back to The Asia Tech Podcast. Today we discussed Shopee’s blowout quarter, agentic AI for bus fleets, AI-powered media intelligence, a scary new cybersecurity concept, the future of live events, borderless founder mobility, and the fight against scammers.

We were joined by:

• 21:29 Heroly Chour - Founder & CEO, Busable

• 45:18 Brian Lim - Co-founder and CEO, Wisma AI

• 1:07:36 James Murphy - Field CTO, Threat Intelligence, Trellix

• 1:28:34 Mehdi Khalili - CTO, EventsAir

• 2:10:27 Nirbhay Handa - Founder & CEO, Multipolitan

• 2:31:18 Dan Xu - Founder & CEO, Cyberoo.AI

Here is an overview of the topics we discussed today:

Why your bus driver might soon have a co-pilot

Heroly built Busable after watching regional bus operators run entire fleets on whiteboards and spreadsheets. Why does a bus company’s front-left tire always wear out first? Heroly explains how AI agents are now spotting patterns like that before they turn into breakdowns or accidents.

But who’s actually responsible when an AI agent makes a bad call? Heroly says there’s always a human in the loop before any agent can act, especially in a heavily regulated industry where one mistake can trigger real legal consequences.

Reading the room, at scale

Brian’s company, Wisma AI, was built to figure out how the public really feels about a brand, a policy, or a crisis, faster than any team of human analysts ever could. He compares today’s AI agents to brilliant interns: full of raw intelligence, but still needing guardrails and context to be useful.

So how do you stop an AI from just telling you what you want to hear? Brian explains why raw data can’t just get dumped into a model, and what his team does differently to catch the noise before it becomes a wrong answer.

The “lethal trifecta” every company should worry about

James introduced a term that’s spreading fast in security circles: the lethal trifecta. It’s what happens when an AI agent has access to private data, gets exposed to untrusted content, and can communicate externally, all at once.

Is a smarter AI model actually a bigger risk to your company? James breaks down why the answer isn’t as simple as you’d think, and where he sees real gaps opening up as companies rush to deploy agents.

What happens after the lights go down

Mehdi says most event organizers only think about their event while it’s happening, and lose all the value the moment it ends. He calls the real prize “return on relationships,” and explains how AI is turning one-day conferences into year-round conversations.

Ever wonder how organizers know exactly which room is about to overflow? Mehdi describes how sensors, badges, and AI agents are starting to manage event logistics in real time, right down to the food.

The rise of “builder cities”

Nirbhay says the startup world is splitting in two: legacy giants like San Francisco, and a new class of “builder cities” like Singapore, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi competing on how fast you can open a bank account or register a company.

Where should a founder actually live? Nirbhay unpacks why proximity to capital still matters, even as wealth and talent become more mobile than ever.

Outsmarting the scammers

Dan says most scams are already finished by the time they reach your bank. Long before any money moves, a scammer has spent days or weeks building trust with a target. So where does Cyberoo.AI actually step in?

Dan walks through how his team hunts down fake websites and accounts, works with scam-baiters, and tracks which bank accounts keep resurfacing in fraud cases, long before the next victim ever sends a cent.

Want the full story behind every one of these conversations? Watch the full episode here:

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