Agnes AI: Southeast Asia's Answer to ChatGPT (And 20x Cheaper)

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Feb 2, 2026

Bruce Yang, founder and CEO of Agnes AI, built a Singapore-based, affordable AI platform tuned for Southeast Asia. He discusses building smaller, localized models that cut costs and boost speed. Topics include local language support, reducing hallucinations with multi-agent citation systems, AI-powered group chats and productivity tools, and strategies to drive AI adoption in emerging markets.

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ANECDOTE

PhD Sparked The Startup

Bruce Yang started a PhD at NUS during COVID and used that time to research agents and memory for Agnes AI.
That academic period became the foundation and turning point for founding Agnes AI.

INSIGHT

Product Data As Model Fuel

Agnes built its own models to close the gap between closed-source and open-source LLMs using product data.
They leverage user prompts and reinforced distillation from SOTA models to improve performance.

INSIGHT

Specialize To Cut Cost And Latency

Agnes specializes models for narrow daily tasks like research, slides, images and video instead of general chat.
Narrow specialization lets them use smaller models with routing to be cheaper and faster.

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What if Southeast Asia had its own ChatGPT that cost 20x less? Bruce Yang built Agnes AI to solve what global companies ignore: accessible AI for emerging markets.

In this episode, Bruce Yang, CEO and founder of Agnes AI, explains how he’s built Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing AI platform with 4 million registered users and 300K daily active users. After working at Microsoft and LinkedIn in Silicon Valley, Bruce returned to Singapore and started his PhD at NUS right before COVID, positioning him perfectly to ride the AI wave. Agnes AI uses smaller, specialized models trained on Southeast Asian languages and local user data to deliver productivity features like deep research, PowerPoint generation, and AI-powered group chats at 1/20th the cost of major competitors. We discuss the challenges of building AI for emerging markets, the importance of keeping humans in the loop for critical thinking, and why Bruce believes the future of AI belongs to applications, not just models.

Key topics discussed:

Making AI 20x cheaper than ChatGPT
Why Southeast Asia needs its own AI models
Using multi-agent systems to reduce hallucinations
AI group chats and social features
Critical thinking in an AI-assisted world
Why Agnes avoids the AI coding space
AI bubble debate: hype vs. real value
Getting emerging markets to adopt AI
Subscription vs. pay-per-use business models

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Trailer & Intro
(00:02:49) Why Did Bruce Start a PhD During COVID to Build an AI Company?
(00:06:16) Why Build Another AI Model When Thousands Already Exist?
(00:09:48) How Is Agnes AI Cheaper and Faster Than ChatGPT?
(00:14:00) Does Agnes AI Support Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures?
(00:15:34) How Does Agnes AI Handle Local Languages Better Than Global Models?
(00:17:57) How Does Agnes AI Reduce Hallucinations?
(00:20:03) What Can Agnes AI Do That ChatGPT Cannot?
(00:25:31) Why Is AI in Group Chats the Next Big Thing?
(00:29:18) How Does Agnes AI Keep Your Private Group Conversations Secure?
(00:31:41) Will AI Make Us Lose Our Critical Thinking Skills?
(00:37:43) Should Children Use AI for Schoolwork?
(00:40:27) Can Agnes AI Help With Coding Like Cursor?
(00:43:07) Will Everyone Host Their Own AI Model in the Future?
(00:47:39) Is AI a Bubble or Real Economic Transformation?
(00:51:01) How Can Southeast Asians Start Using AI Today?
(00:53:56) What Are Real-World Examples of People Using Agnes AI?
(00:57:30) How Does Agnes AI Make Money While Offering Free Features?
(01:01:19) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom

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Bruce Yang’s Bio
Bruce Yang is the founder and CEO of Agnes AI, a consumer AI platform making intelligence more collaborative, creative, and accessible. A Raffles Institution graduate, he studied Math and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, earned a Master’s from HEC Paris, and is pursuing a PhD at NUS. He previously worked at Microsoft and LinkedIn in Silicon Valley.

Agnes AI redefines how people interact with AI through group chats, AI-assisted games, real-time content creation, slides generation, and research tools. Bruce envisions AI as a shared experience that amplifies human creativity and collaboration, enhancing rather than replacing human thinking and imagination.

Follow Bruce:

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/tongbruceyang
Agnes AI - https://agnes-ai.com/
Email – bruce@sapiens-ai.io

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