JAKARTA, April 8 - Grab, the leading ride-hailing and delivery platform in Southeast Asia, is betting that artificial intelligence-driven offerings and its regional scale will be critical to sustaining growth and managing affordability pressures for customers amid rising fuel costs related to the war in Iran, CEO Anthony Tan said in an interview following a product launch event in Jakarta.
Tan described the company’s AI strategy as central to future expansion, saying the approach has begun to deliver measurable results and continues to expand across the business. He framed the effort as a direct response to consumer sensitivity to costs, noting that higher fuel prices are a tangible and shared challenge across the region and that Grab must be mindful of customers’ wallets.
Earlier this year Grab extended its footprint outside Southeast Asia for the first time with the acquisition of Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan. The move marks a geographic expansion even as Grab’s near-term financial outlook has tempered expectations. In February the company reported its first-ever full-year net profit, achieved 14 years after its founding, but its guidance for fiscal 2026 - including revenue and adjusted EBITDA - fell short of Wall Street estimates.
Those softer forecasts have coincided with a marked decline in the company’s market valuation: the Nasdaq-listed firm’s share price has fallen by nearly 30% so far this year. Market watchers and investors have therefore cast a critical eye on whether new product initiatives and operational advantages can translate into a sustained recovery in growth metrics.
Tan pointed to Grab’s size as a competitive edge. Citing an LSEG estimate of a $14.5 billion market value, he said the company’s scale enables the generation of "tremendous data" that can be leveraged to build AI-led offerings and to find levers that make services more affordable, which in turn can drive higher order frequency.
At the Jakarta event Grab unveiled 13 products that leverage AI. One of the headline features is a "group ride" option, which the company said can cut customer fares by up to 40% by using AI to calculate a more precise split of fares among groups of travellers. Grab did not disclose the dollar amount invested in the development of these 13 AI products.
The group ride product is scheduled for a wider roll-out soon in Indonesia, the largest economy in the region and the biggest market among the eight countries where Grab operates. Tan reiterated the company’s commitment to Indonesia, saying Grab will continue to "double down" on the market.
The company’s product push sits against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty that predates the Iran conflict, with consumers already grappling with affordability concerns. Grab’s management faces the task of translating AI-driven efficiencies and its data advantage into concrete improvements in customer affordability and sustained revenue growth.
Alongside the operational updates and product launches, the company’s slower-than-expected fiscal 2026 outlook and the share price decline highlight the near-term headwinds Grab must confront even as it pursues longer-term AI-enabled growth opportunities.
Summary
Grab is leaning on AI products and its regional scale to address affordability and rising fuel costs while introducing 13 new AI-driven features, including a group ride option that may save customers up to 40% on fares. The company expanded into Taiwan earlier this year with the Foodpanda acquisition, reported its first full-year net profit in February, but issued fiscal 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA forecasts below Wall Street expectations and has seen its shares slump nearly 30% year-to-date.