CMOtech Asia

AI has dominated marketing technology conversations for the past two years, and personalisation is one of the areas where its promise has been loudest. Yet across media, entertainment, sports, and gaming, the brands getting measurable results from AI are not the ones with the most sophisticated models. They are the ones with the cleanest data foundations, the clearest use cases, and the strongest measurement discipline.

Personalisation has been a stated priority for media, entertainment, sports, and gaming brands for the best part of a decade. Yet the gap between intent and execution remains wide. Most brands collect plenty of engagement signals. Fewer can identify which signals matter. Fewer still can act on them in a coordinated way across channels, screens, and lifecycle stages. That gap is one of the central themes of a new report from Braze, the Media & Entertainment Personalisation Report.

Orbbec has broken ground on a new manufacturing base in Vietnam, adding to its overseas production network. The facility, known as the RVMC Factory, is being built in the Thuan Thanh Industrial Zone in Bac Ninh Province and will cover more than 100,000 square metres. When it begins operations, it will mainly produce 3D vision sensors and smart hardware products for overseas markets. The move adds a new manufacturing location outside China as Orbbec expands production for international customers.

It's an absolute truism to say that AI is rapidly reshaping the job market, with the tech industry at the forefront of this shake-up. But while news media like to concentrate on the fear-mongering aspects of this change, the reality on the ground is more nuanced. Yes, many repetitive and basic tasks previously performed by people are being automated and run by AI – but AI is also a job creation machine. Take for instance the software industry.

Sprinklr has launched LLM Insights within its Sprinklr Insights product. The tool is designed to show brands how they appear in AI-generated answers. The launch reflects growing concern that generative AI services are becoming a new layer of search and product discovery, changing how consumers encounter brands before they reach a company's own website or channels.

Specsavers has partnered with Merkle to redesign its global data systems, cutting its UK query volume by 90%. The work aimed to address fragmented data models across regions, differences in analytics implementations, and the difficulty of linking online activity to in-store behaviour. Those issues had slowed reporting and made it harder for teams to maintain a consistent view of the customer journey.

Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation have launched Build East, a demo day for Hong Kong teams working on agentic AI. Eight teams will pitch for possible entry to the Minds Investment Programme. The initiative will reserve four places for HKSTP Park companies and four for teams from the wider Hong Kong community. Selected teams will present projects built using Minds by Animoca Brands, described as the core product layer for the investment programme.

The era of stacking subscriptions and waiting for renewal dates to take care of themselves is over. Across streaming, sports, gaming, and music, audiences are now active managers of their entertainment spend, cycling in and out of services based on what is worth paying for in any given month. Rising prices, fragmented discovery, and an overflowing field of content options have rewritten the retention equation, and most engagement systems were not built for it.

Braze has published a report on personalisation in the media and entertainment sector across Asia Pacific. It finds firms with stronger results are prioritising data integration and measurement over more advanced artificial intelligence tools. The report draws on views from executives at Kayo Sports, Sportsbet, TVer, Tuned Global and other media, gaming and entertainment businesses across Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Gulf.

Across the APAC region, loyalty programs that fail to deliver genuine personalisation at scale are losing relevance, and the brands willing to invest in real-time infrastructure, organisational alignment, and simpler value propositions are the ones positioned to benefit. This was the topic of an executive luncheon recently held in Manila by loyalty and AI platform Eagle Eye, customer engagement platform Braze, and marketing transformation consultancy UpStride.