AI marketing platform Profound plants APAC flag in SG amid AI search boom

AI marketing platform Profound has established Singapore as its Asia Pacific headquarters, as brands increasingly look to understand and influence how they appear in answers generated by platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini.

According to the company, its platform allows marketers to monitor how brands appear in responses generated by AI platforms. Its Singapore hub will house the company's regional leadership, go-to-market and customer teams, covering Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The company is set to open an office in Singapore's Central Business District in the fourth quarter of 2026 and plans to hire more than 15 roles locally over the next 12 months.

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The roles will include a general manager for Asia Pacific, account executives, go-to-market associates, engagement managers and account managers. Members of Profound's New York team will also relocate to Singapore for a year to support the development of its regional operations.

Speaking to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, James Cadwallader (pictured), co-founder and CEO of Profound, said Singapore's startup ecosystem, similarities with the company's New York base and adoption of AI made it a natural starting point for its regional expansion.

"Singapore has established itself as the location of choice for startups to build their business in APAC. The country is aligned in language and culture to how we operate out of New York," he said.

"These similarities in culture, combined with the innovation driven by companies in Singapore with AI make Singapore the natural starting point for our expansion to the APAC region. We're putting boots on the ground to collaborate and bring localised solutions to our customers in the APAC region."

The expansion comes as AI platforms increasingly become part of how consumers discover and evaluate brands. According to Profound, an analysis of 1.8 million anonymised ChatGPT and Gemini conversations from users in Singapore found that the share of conversations involving researching, comparing or buying products and services grew 23% between January and September 2026.

Cadwallader said the growing use of AI in marketing could also give rise to a new type of role within marketing teams, which he described as the "marketing engineer".

"Marketing engineers combine technical capability with creative instincts, and are able to build, customise and deploy agents, while bringing good judgement, good taste, and a clear sense of what is worth focusing on," he said.

At the same time, Cadwallader acknowledged concerns among marketers that greater use of AI could result in generic creative output.

"Marketers are hesitant to use AI in marketing because they fear it will produce generic slop; AI is trained on the average of the internet, so output will tend to be generic," he said.

He added that marketers would need to combine general AI capabilities with information specific to individual companies, including their tone of voice, brand guidelines, governance structures and existing marketing workflows.

The company also pointed to Singapore's adoption of AI as a factor behind its expansion. Citing Stanford HAI's 2026 AI Index, Profound said 61% of the population uses AI tools, putting Singapore first in Asia Pacific and second globally for AI adoption.

Ling Yuan Chun, senior vice president and head of global ventures at the Singapore Economic Development Board, said Profound's decision reflects the country's position as a regional base for global AI companies.

"The establishment of its Asia Pacific headquarters here epitomises the confidence that global AI companies have in Singapore as a well-connected hub to support their growth ambitions in the region," said Ling.

She added that Profound's expansion would create new management, go-to-market and headquarters roles while contributing to Singapore's growing AI ecosystem.

Profound's move comes as other players in the space expand their presence in Singapore and the wider region. In July, Brrandom unveiled plans to establish offices in Singapore and Indonesia as part of its Southeast Asian expansion, with Singapore set to serve as its regional AI Centre of Excellence.

The hub will house senior client leadership, AI research capabilities and strategic partnerships supporting Brrandom's growth across ASEAN. The India-founded company entered Malaysia in 2025 before establishing Brrandom Asia in March 2026.

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