Singapore — Gill Capital Group, a retail brand development and distribution company, is introducing generative AI to enhance online product discovery across Southeast Asia. The company manages international fashion and lifestyle brands in the region, including H&M, ALO and On Running.
Through Google Cloud’s AI Cloud Takeoff (AI CTO) programme, Gill Capital has developed an AI-powered search agent for H&M Indonesia and H&M Thailand. Built with Vertex AI Search for Commerce, the solution interprets natural language queries in both English and local languages. It is designed to deliver contextually relevant search results and reduce the need for manual catalogue management by staff.
Victor Siow, group chief data and analytics officer at Gill Capital Group, shared that the company continues to innovate localised retail concepts to help brands thrive in the dynamic region of Southeast Asia.
“By grounding best-in-class reasoning models like Gemini 2.5 Flash on company data resources, we can ensure our AI agents provide relevant and accurate outputs,” Victor commented.
He added, “As part of our AI strategy, we’re now bringing these horizontal search and conversation use cases to other brands while pursuing new applications in key areas like supply chain optimisation.”
The group is also piloting a conversational AI agent for e-commerce websites and mobile apps.
This virtual assistant provides personalised product recommendations, answers queries such as stock availability or return policies, and bridges digital and physical shopping by connecting online searches with nearby store inventories. Early trials have shown an uplift in customer engagement and sales, with plans for a wider rollout later this year.
Gill Capital’s initiatives form part of a broader strategy to integrate AI across its retail portfolio, focusing on both customer-facing tools and operational improvements such as supply chain optimisation.
The AI CTO programme, organised by Google Cloud in partnership with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), supports companies in establishing in-house AI Centres of Excellence (AI CoEs).
Participating firms receive consultancy support, Google Cloud credits, and training resources valued at up to SG$500,000 to pilot enterprise AI solutions. The programme, part of Singapore’s Enterprise Compute Initiative, aims to help 300 digitally mature businesses scale AI adoption responsibly and securely.
