Thye Yeow Bok speaks at the launch ceremony of Google’s two new initiatives in Hanoi on June 18, 2025. (Photo credit: Google)

Bao Tram: How do these new programs align with Google’s broader innovation strategy in the region?

Thye Bok: Thank you for this opportunity. It's really nice to be able to see you again this year. That's a very interesting question.

I would say it aligns with being able to provide technology, tools, and platforms that will help companies, like startups and SMBs, to be successful when they're building Gen AI solutions. These two programs really focus on the technology enablement aspect of building Gen AI or AI solutions. Unlike in previous years when we looked at accelerating startups holistically, this year we’re taking a much more focused approach to upscaling founders and their teams on Google AI technology, and also helping startups, especially early-stage startups, build Gen AI solutions in the shortest possible time. I see that as an opportunity for Google to better understand what all these early-stage founders and their teams really need, and then use that understanding to inform how we build and develop our products and platforms, so that more companies will be able to use them to build really interesting and innovative solutions.

Bao Tram: Could you explain to us in detail how the AI Bootcamp will work?

Thye Bok: The first program is the AI Bootcamp. It's three days of intense training. Each day the startup founders and their teams will go through hands-on practical training sessions that will teach them a variety of Google AI platforms and tools.

They will start off with some foundational learning and then graduate into more advanced topics like large language model tuning to be able to design their machine learning operations, workflow, and processes in a much more effective manner, and later on, really leveraging some of our new AI platforms and tools like agent-to-agent protocol to be able to launch and commercialize their agents. It's a very tech-focused program.

The whole idea here is that we want early-stage founders to understand what kind of technologies Google offers that they can leverage to quickly go to market with their products and keep up to date with the rapidly moving AI landscape.

Bao Tram: How about the second program “AI Solution Lab”? And how do the two programs address the specific needs of Vietnamese startups?

Thye Bok: The AI Solution Lab is a four-day hackathon slash solutioning kind of program. The whole idea here is that we want early-stage startups to be able to focus on some of the advanced Google AI products to very quickly build an agent AI solution. That doesn't mean it has to be a full-fledged solution.

Eventually, if there’s an agent AI use case that early-stage startups are looking to tackle or solve, hopefully when they come into this program and get in touch with the Google engineers, they’ll get a better understanding of how they could very quickly put a proof of concept together, a minimum viable product, and be able to discuss their solutions with mentors. And then later on launch to live users at the end of the program in order to get user feedback. It's a program that focuses on building.

I would say the ideal startups for that program are startups that have identified agent AI solutions they want to validate. Come to this program, spend four days really working with Google engineers and experts. Build it out, launch to a set of live users, get feedback, reiterate. At the end of the program we’ll choose ten innovative solutions that will be presented at a separate Google event later this year.

Bao Tram: How do these new programs build on previous Google for Startups initiatives in Vietnam, like the Accelerator and the Startup Academy, which lasted three months?

Thye Bok: Those covered a variety of topics ranging from technical to non-technical topics like leadership. How the new programs build on top of that is that we really focus on the tech piece – tech mentoring, the tech curriculum, understanding the tech challenges. Because the previous programs gave us a better understanding of the tech challenges that AI startups in Vietnam are facing.

We incorporated that understanding into the programs we’re launching this year. For example, things are starting to move very quickly. How can a startup keep up to date and pivot their technology and products to stay relevant and provide value to their users? For AI startups that has to happen very quickly, which is why this year our programs are much more succinct.

And we’re ready for more startups to join. We’re really focusing on the technical upscaling and solutions these startups are trying to build and launch, so what we’ve learned helped us design a better curriculum, bring in the right level of support from our engineering teams to help startups get upscaled and build their AI solutions.

Bao Tram: How do you envision these programs contributing to the growth of Vietnam’s startup ecosystem and digital economy?

Thye Bok: We’re hoping that, first of all, with the AI Bootcamp, startups will get the necessary knowledge and skill set required to develop interesting innovative solutions with Google technology. Then the AI Solution Lab is where we’re aiming to build 50 Gen AI solutions that will tackle societal problems, economic challenges, all those key sectors you mentioned, and environmental challenges as well. They might not be full-fledged solutions but, hopefully, it will be a start, and then, after they graduate from the program, all these startups can build out their MVP (minimum viable product).

Bao Tram: Thank you for spending this time with us. That was Thye Yeow Bok, Head of Startup Ecosystem for Asia-Pacific at Google.

Thye Bok: Thank you for having me.