Indonesia's social commerce race enters its data-led, AI-accelerated era

Indonesia’s social commerce landscape - already one of the region’s most dynamic - is shifting into an AI-driven, content-commerce hybrid economy, according to senior marketers speaking at DMA Indonesia 2025 in a session titled “Cracking the code of social commerce in a world of seamless journeys and smart experience stacks.”

Backed by 180 million social media users, Indonesia’s digital landscape has become a proving ground for rapid experimentation, full-funnel content orchestration and data-led personalisation. TikTok’s high daily engagement and YouTube’s long session durations underscore how concentrated consumer attention has become.

Yet the marketing question remains unchanged: how do brands convert that attention into revenue?

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ROI pressures reshape creative models

For ParagonCorp’s director of global experimentation and growth, Iskandar Siva, trust - not reach - is still the decisive factor. “People want to see storytelling. It’s not ‘let’s buy now’. No, you need to give a solution… people trust the brand they trust,” he said.

Siva argued that AI may accelerate content operations, but the emotional anchor must remain human-led. Authenticity drives conversion, and conversion “happens automatically” once trust is established.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison’s SVP of media Kartika Guerrero reinforces this, but from a telco perspective where fraud threatens consumer confidence. “Two out of three Indonesians get weird calls every week,” she said. To counter this, IOH recently rolled out an anti-scam and anti-spam system for IM3 and Tri subscribers. Trust, she stressed, remains the precondition for any commerce flow.

Indosat, like many large organisations, is under increasing pressure to prove marketing impact beyond vanity metrics. Guerrero noted that IOH’s integrated full-funnel models are now showing 10-15% uplift in conversions, shifting internal conversations away from “pretty campaigns” toward measurable business impact.

“At the end of the day, what does that content do for the business?” she said. The shift captures a broader industry movement: social content that once sat atop the funnel has now become a frontline conversion engine.

Social commerce is not one-size-fits-all

For Grace Surya, marketing director at Jiwa Group, price point heavily shapes platform behaviour. Affordable F&B items see rapid impulse uptake on TikTok, while high-consideration products require more nurturing.

“If it’s for a more impulsive buying or a more affordable price point, TikTok is actually very effective. But when it comes to things that you need to rethink about… the conversion to purchase is not as high,” Surya said.

That nuance is prompting brands to separate creative strategies: TikTok for immediacy, other channels for persuasion.

Across the panel, the consensus was clear: AI’s most transformative value lies in speed and scale.

Guerrero described IOH’s shift toward AI-assisted creative personalisation - down to local dialects, behavioural cohorts and even content style preferences across Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and beyond. “It is humanly impossible for any creative agency to develop creative at scale… AI plays that key role in creating scale and also the agility,” she said.

Siva echoed this, emphasising that speed defines competitiveness more than the tool itself: “Technology is moving fast… We need to adapt. We need that power.”

A/B testing becomes hyper-granular

Marketers now run dozens of tests simultaneously, not only on messaging but colour palettes and promotional constructs.

Surya revealed striking regional differences: “We knew that what colour works better in Java compared to in Bali.”

These insights are shaping tactical promos, creative variations and content sequencing. The goal isn’t perfect data - it’s actionable data. As Siva put it: “You will never get the perfect data. You just need to take action.”

Despite social’s speed, all three leaders agreed that not every trend deserves a reaction. Siva’s rule-of-thumb: “Does this serve the purpose? Is it added value? If not, skip it.”

Surya added a brand-safety lens - trendjacking only works when aligned with brand values, not algorithmic temptation.

Who controls the algorithm? Not brands.

Guerrero characterised today’s environment as a convergence economy: “As of today, it’s content, community, commerce, and context that have converged. The 4C.”

Looking ahead, she refrained from long-term predictions, noting how quickly the industry’s obsessions shift - from Metaverse fever two years ago to today’s AI imperative.

While social platforms increasingly rely on AI to shape feeds, marketers admit they can only influence - not control - the algorithm.

Guerrero put it plainly: “We don’t really have big influence, but we can… influence our users to change maybe the way that they’re looking at content.”

Surya’s approach: stay consistent with audience behaviour and let the algo “go with the flow”.

Siva insisted the horizon must be shorter: “Let’s not talk about two years. Let’s talk about what’s going to happen next week.” Technology cycles are compressing, formats are evolving, and consumer expectations are accelerating. What remains stable is the human role in storytelling and the expectation that brands must solve real problems.

The Indonesian social commerce market is no longer simply a battleground for attention. It is now a laboratory for AI-driven creativity, behaviour-based segmentation and fast-turning content-to-commerce pipelines. The brands that win will be the ones marrying trust with speed - and data with humanity.

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