Following its “strongest financial quarter” last year, ride-hailing giant Grab introduced a new series of products at its inaugural Grab X event this morning (April 8, 2025).
In his opening address, Anthony Tan, co-founder and CEO of Grab, introduced the key problems the company hoped to tackle with their new services, all of which are powered by Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“I’m fully committed to this. In fact, last year, we embarked on an ambitious, company-wide initiative—our ‘G/AI Sprint’—to accelerate ALL of Grab to embrace AI. Because you either disrupt, or you get disrupted. So we chose to disrupt ourselves.”
The solutions presented at the event aimed to target consumers, as well as merchants and drivers, and we’re here to break it down.
Users
Following its extension to include one to three-year-old children in 2018, GrabFamily will soon include teenagers aged 13-17 under the name Grab for Family | Teens, with the aim to give parents and caregivers peace of mind.
Teen users can either book their own rides or have rides booked by their parents or caregivers, with additional safeguards built in.
This includes a PIN verification to prevent teens from going into the wrong car with the wrong driver. When their ride arrives, they have to get a PIN from the driver and enter it into their own app. The ride only starts if the PIN matches.
The company shared that this service is currently under review with the local authorities, notably the Land Transport Authority, and is planning to launch it in May 2025, across all markets.
Under the Family umbrella, Grab has also introduced an improved solution to handling large orders for its delivery partners.
Through its Large Language Model (LLM), they are able to gauge the size and weight of the items in the order, and will attempt to assign a four-wheeler to deliver the order should it be too bulky or heavy.
If not, the system splits the order into two and assigns it to two delivery partners without any extra cost, and the delivery riders can still earn the same amount as if they were the only rider for the order.
With every order on GrabFood, users might incur delivery fees and a “small order” fee if they do not hit the minimum spend waiver. As such, Grab has launched GrabFood for One to make food delivery more accessible and simpler for solo diners.
All meals offered will be kept under S$12, inclusive of delivery fees. This service is now live and available in Singapore and beyond.
Grab has also launched Shared Saver, which is described as similar to a group order, but with strangers. Users can either join a live order if they can place it within the live countdown timer, or initiate a live order for others to join, hence reducing the delivery fees.
The company explained that it leverages AI to detect when there are multiple orders from the same merchant and will prompt users to start a Shared Saver order. This service is currently being piloted this month in Singapore, and more “experiments” will be rolled out in other cities by June of this year.
Previously, we also did an experiment on Grab’s new Advanced Booking service, where we booked a ride to the airport to “catch a red eye flight.” Today, the company has announced a new extension to the service, specifically for airport pickups.
This service allows users to book a ride before they leave their home, and the system tracks their flight in real-time. This allows the app to adjust driver schedules in a flexible manner and account for early arrivals and delays, therefore increasing its reliability.
As of now, advance booking for airport pickups is only available in seven airports in seven cities, including Seletar Airport in Singapore, with more launches in major cities in the coming months.
To further enhance its superapp offerings, Grab has also introduced its Travel Pass and Dine Out Discovery features to allow users to enjoy vouchers and cash deals, as well as help them navigate available food options wherever they are.
For its Dine Out Discovery service, users can also make reservations and book rides through the app. This service will be available across all markets in May, with reservations first launching in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Merchant & Driver Partners
For its merchants, Grab has launched its new AI Merchant Assistant, a chatbot that aims to come up with personalised recommendations with the help of AI.
The chatbot is integrated through its GrabMerchant app, and aims to fill the gap for merchants who often do not have the resources and time to invest in advanced technology and deeply analyse business performance.
Phillip Kendal, Grab’s Chief Product Officer, added that the AI Merchant Assistant also “proactively reaches out” with business suggestions, such as creating promo codes to boost sales during a slow week, as well as creating ad campaigns and updating menus.
However, he has clarified that the merchants will have the autonomy to make the final decision and that the chatbot merely acts as a “24/7” business advisor.
Grab has also introduced an AI Driver Companion for its delivery partners, which comes with an AI ride-guidance feature and an AI-assisted Voice Reporting tool integrated within the Grab Driver app.
For its ride-guidance feature, Grab’s system relies on real-time and historical data to direct drivers to high-demand areas, allowing them to find jobs “faster” and keep fulfilment rates up, but also continue to offer affordable prices for users.
But some might have encountered drivers rejecting jobs to pick up another job that is priced higher, so how would drivers feel supported by the company?
According to Phillip, the majority of the drivers he has spoken to shared that he would prefer the company to direct them to jobs to focus on driving safely. He also emphasised that the price system aims to keep the playing field level for drivers and maximise their overall productivity.
On the other hand, the voice reporting feature allows drivers to provide vocal feedback in real time so the system can reroute them faster in the event of roadblocks, closures, and even floods, for example.
Grab has launched its pilot rollout and shared that the tool has received over 16,000 reports a day from more than 900,000 drivers across the region, which has improved GrabMaps’ overall accuracy.
- Read other articles we’ve written on Grab here.
- Read more articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Grab
