Generative AI as a Strategic Enabler for Global Start-Ups Entering Southeast Asian Markets: Capabilities, Illustrative Cases, and a Proof-of-Concept Framework

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used by technology start-ups to reduce the cost, time, and organizational complexity of entering culturally and institutionally diverse markets. Southeast Asia is a particularly relevant context because it combines rapid digital adoption with high cross-country variation in language, culture, logistics, and regulation. This paper positions GenAI not only as an operational automation tool, but as a strategic enabler that can reshape internationalization choices by accelerating market learning, lowering the liability of foreignness, and enabling rapid, scalable localization across business functions. The study is conceptual: it synthesizes GenAI capability literature with established market-entry theories (e.g., CAGE distance, the Uppsala learning process, and dynamic capabilities) and uses four illustrative cases (Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore) drawn from publicly available secondary sources. Building on this synthesis, the paper proposes a GenAI-enabled market-entry framework and presents a proof-of-concept (PoC) simulation for a hypothetical e-commerce start-up entering Thailand. The PoC results reported in Section 7 are projected outcomes of a hypothetical scenario (not empirical findings) and are intended to illustrate how GenAI could change time-to-market and localization costs relative to a resource-backed organization (RBO), defined here as an established incumbent with dedicated localization and market-entry resources.