Tobacco Asia

Tobacco Asia 47 first‑level customer support, multilingual assistance, and issue classification. This has significantly improved response efficiency and ensures that customers receive accurate information quickly, while more complex cases or those requiring emotional judgment are still handled by human teams," Sze said. Beyond r&d and marketing But Sze also applies AI to supply chain forecasting, risk management, internal orga‑ nizational optimization, and compliance document review. "For example, AI is used to analyze historical supply chain risk cases from comparable products, and to deliver customized industry insights, market intelligence, and content tailored to the needs of different departments," he explained. The company's most frequently used tools include ChatGPT, which supports advertising copywriting, creative planning, market research, data analysis, knowledge management, and even code development. "ChatGPT assisted us in building our new official website," Sze noted. Meanwhile another tool, Sora, also developed by OpenAI, has become a core tool for Sze and his team for creative video production. AI as a supportive layer in a complex IP landscape Stephen McDonald is the IP insights and strategy director at NGP Trends, a leading and highly trusted online platform and consultancy with a clear focus on the NGP sec‑ tor. He offered Tobacco Asia a broader industry perspective. McDonald stressed that AI in an NGP setting is "increasingly discussed as an enabling layer rather than a stand‑ alone solution." Its role, he said, is to support decision‑making, improve efficiency, and handle scale in areas where manual processes struggle. In regulated categories such as tobacco and NGP, adoption is selective and cau‑ tious. "Product developers in the NGP theatre operate in an environment where tens of thousands of relevant patents are filed each year, often covering highly granular technical features," McDonald explained. AI is used to filter and structure this sheer volume, helping teams cope rather than replacing legal or technical judgment. The benefits include efficiency, speed, and clarity. AI automates scanning of global patent databases, removes duplicates, catego‑ rizes filings, and summarizes technical documents. "The overall benefit is a more con‑ sistent and repeatable way to stay informed, rather than relying on ad hoc monitoring," said McDonald. Furthermore, AI also supports organization‑wide visibility of third‑party IP, con‑ tinuously monitoring new publications, comparing them against known competitors, and routing relevant items to appropriate teams. This reduces commercial risk and informs product strategy. "Beyond risk avoidance, patent activity also signals where the industry is investing and experimenting," McDonald noted. AI in marketing and media An executive at a leading Shenzhen‑based reduced‑risk product (RRP) brand, speaking to Tobacco Asia anonymously, highlighted AI's role in marketing. "ChatGPT has been incredibly helpful in providing cautious and objective responses, which allows [us] to better refine copy and avoid any inappropriate phrasing," the executive explained. For social media, Deepseek has proven useful. "It provides highly humanized content that doesn't sound robotic," the executive said. In media production, mean‑ while, the Nano Banana Pro model has been transformative. "It can generate and modify images in native 4K resolution, maintaining subject consistency and correcting flaws in photos," elaborated the executive. "In the past, tasks like these required a lot of time and effort, but with this tool, we can achieve high‑quality results much more efficiently." The unstoppable rise of AI in the NGP sector Across Tobacco Asia's round of interviews, a clear picture emerged: AI is reshaping the design, branding, marketing, and communication of NGP as we know them today. From simulation‑driven r&d and emotion‑centered interaction design to patent moni‑ toring and creative campaigns, AI is proving itself as a supportive, efficiency‑enhanc‑ ing – as well as rapidly growing ‑ set of tools. Stephen McDonald, IP insights and strategy director, NGP Trends. Credit: NGP Trends Yet limitations do remain. Adoption across the industry appears uneven, with some companies still restricting AI use to simpler tasks such as customer communi‑ cation. Even some AI‑forward teams still emphasize that human oversight and do‑ main expertise are non‑negotiable. As one unnamed c.e.o. at a Chinese company put it, "AI is still some distance away from the perfect assistant of science fiction, but its strategic value is undeniable." Meanwhile, REJO's Amy Chen's perspective neatly captured the respon‑ sible, pragmatic stance that is likely to define the near term. "AI is viewed as a practical enabler of responsible in‑ novation. At REJO, we apply AI selec‑ tively and purposefully, focusing on areas where it can enhance product reliabil‑ ity, consistency, and user experience. All AI‑assisted works are guided by human expertise to ensure quality, compliance requirements, and alignment with our brand values." In summary, the direction of travel is unmistakable. Industry leaders plan to deepen use across predictive design, per‑ sonalized experiences, sustainability opti‑ mization, and organization‑wide insight with earlier IP checkpoints and more connected data‑informed ecosystems. Despite occasional sluggish adoption and variability across companies and func‑ tions, the pace of AI deployment in the NGP arena (and across countless other product sectors) will surely accelerate. There is no stopping it.

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