- Led by a Singaporean AI savant, Agnes marks a milestone in Southeast Asia’s journey towards AI leadership
- Combining real-time web search and personal knowledge memory, Agnes represents a new AI platform built for today’s productivity needs
- Agnes is Southeast Asian market oriented, chart interactive, report efficient, and seamless file-to-insight convertible
SINGAPORE, May 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a landmark moment for Southeast Asia’s AI landscape, the technological geniuses of SapiensAI unveiled Agnes AI, a next-generation artificial intelligence agent developed and trained entirely in Singapore on April 14, 2025. The launch event, NUS GRIP, held earlier this month at Innovation 4.0, National University of Singapore (NUS), was attended by academics, tech leaders, and investors eager to witness the region’s bold step toward global AI innovation.
Described as “Singapore’s DeepSeek,” Agnes AI is the brainchild of Bruce Yang, a prominent AI engineer, Co-Founder of SapiensAI and a PhD candidate at the School of Computing at NUS. Built with deep contextual intelligence, locally trained datasets, and advanced large language model capabilities, Agnes AI is designed to execute complex tasks with high-speed precision.
Inspired by tools like Perplexity, OpenAI’s GPT, and DeepSeek, Agnes AI stands apart by offering a fully integrated platform that merges real-time search capabilities with a personal memory engine. This hybrid foundation enables Agnes to produce in-depth insights, adaptively recall user-specific content, and dynamically update responses as context evolves.
Agnes AI has demonstrated remarkable improvements in inference stage optimisation, especially when compared to other platforms. In particular, Agnes shows superior efficiency in token usage and faster response generation when producing detailed reports or visual-based analyses. In addition, the user experience during chart-based interactions is notably smoother, thanks to proprietary enhancements to the algorithmic structure that underpins the platform’s interactive modules.
Agnes was officially launched by Bruce (Co-founder of SapiensAI) at the NUS GRIP event on April 14, 2025.
(Above: The video introduction by Bruce Yang on the Agnes AI website and platform)
“Let us make it clear, Agnes isn’t just an AI assistant. It’s a vision of what Southeast Asian technology can achieve when we combine global ambition with local intelligence,” said Bruce Yang, Co-Founder of SapiensAI. “We’re not here to replicate – we’re here to make a change and lead the next generation of AI.”
To support seamless integration into modern work environments, Agnes AI allows users to upload local files or submit URLs directly into the interface. Agnes can then synthesize and deliver intelligent feedback, which can be downloaded in PDF or markdown formats, or exported as a shareable HTML webpage — offering maximum flexibility for teams and individuals working across multiple platforms and file ecosystems.
SapiensAI also plans to open-source these innovations together with select research papers in May to promote industry collaboration and progress. This will ultimately contribute to the broader AI agent ecosystem and encourage a new generation of context-aware intelligent systems.
Meanwhile, SapiensAI is preparing to launch a new product in the US and European market in the coming months. This upcoming platform will expand significantly in scale and scope, positioning itself as a next-generation AI productivity and collaboration suite for future-ready organizations around the world.
“We’ve got top universities like NUS and NTU with brilliant students and research that is recognised across the world. Singapore is already a global hub for business and innovation so why shouldn’t we have our own AI startups, just like DeepSeek or OpenAI? It’s time we showed the world what we’re capable of.” Bruce added.
For more information, please visit the official website at https://agnes-ai.com/.
Members of the media are warmly invited to speak with the SapiensAI team for exclusive insights into the development of Agnes AI and what it means for the future of AI in Southeast Asia. Interview opportunities are available by appointment for virtual sessions.
About SapiensAI
SapiensAI is a Singapore-based AI company focused on developing intelligent systems that are both locally grounded and globally scalable. Its mission is to build next-generation AI productivity and collaboration tools that understand cultural context, regional languages, and real-world business needs. Led by Bruce Yang, the team is committed to advancing AI innovation and empowering Southeast Asian talent on the global stage.
About Bruce Yang
Bruce Yang is the founder of Sobrr Inc, RetailX, and SapiensAI, and has consistently led innovation in the tech space. A Raffles Institution alumnus, he holds degrees from UC Berkeley and HEC Paris, and is currently pursuing a PhD at NUS. He has worked at Microsoft and LinkedIn, and collaborated with global brands like Walmart, Coca Cola, and Budweiser. Bruce is passionate about leveraging AI to deliver impactful digital solutions worldwide.
