The Drop

The Drop

How Southeast Asia’s agritech startups are turning smallholder farms into high-tech powerhouses

How Southeast Asia’s agritech startups are turning smallholder farms into high-tech powerhouses

By 2030, Southeast Asia’s population will grow by more than 80 million, demanding more food than ever while farmland and water resources are under strain. The region’s agricultural sector, long rooted in traditional methods, is at a turning point. Agritech—tools like IoT sensors, AI-powered crop monitoring, and blockchain-based supply chains—is no ...

-> Read more at e27.co

Agentic Frontier

Funding Tracker

Airwallex doubles down on agentic commerce with US$320M funding round
[Source: e27.co]

Launches

Asian AI startups launch Mythos-like models as Anthropic’s export ban drags on
[Source]

Say hi to "Siri AI"—Apple announces new, more "conversational" voice assistant
[Source]

SoftBank’s CEO isn’t the only one with questions about Elon Musk’s orbital data center hype
[Source]

Try This Week

Stay safe while experimenting with AI.

If you're new to AI, don't start by learning everything.

Choose a task you do repeatedly every week and ask an AI assistant to help you complete it.

Examples:

• Summarize a long report in 5 bullet points.
• Draft a professional email.
• Analyze a spreadsheet and identify trends.
• Create a meeting agenda.
• Research a topic and provide a concise briefing.
• Translate and improve a document.
• Generate ideas for a business challenge.

Spend 30 minutes experimenting with a single task.

Don't worry about prompt engineering.

Don't worry about AI agents.

Don't worry about the latest model releases.

Focus on one simple question:

"Can AI help me do this task better, faster, or differently?"

The people benefiting most from AI today are not necessarily AI experts.

They are people who have developed the habit of using AI as a thinking partner in their daily work.

One task. Thirty minutes. This week.

That is enough to begin.

⚠️ Safety First: Protect Your Privacy

Never share personal information, bank details, passwords, or confidential business data with AI tools. Treat AI like a public assistant — helpful, but not trusted with secrets. If you need to work with sensitive data, remove or replace identifying details before pasting them in. Your security is your responsibility.