Another day, another AI business model

A familiar founder takes another shot at insurtech, while Meta tries to make AI subscriptions work without giving up ads.

Read from your browser Daily Newsletter Welcome to Tech in Asia's daily newsletter, your essential dose of Asia's tech and startup buzz. Not yet a subscriber? Register here. Got a story tip? Send it to editors@techinasia.com. Ensure our articles appear in your Google searches: IN FOCUS CXA founder takes another swing at insurtech - with AI Spotlight: Meta's new AI subscription service isn't ad-free Hello Betamax, I always find stories of second acts fascinating. In the world of business, a story I am fond of is Jack Ma's, who was an English teacher before establishing Alibaba with a bunch of friends. A rising new favorite is that of Ina Garten's, who I recently learned was a budget analyst for the White House during the Jimmy Carter administration before starting a catering business. That eventually launched her career in food entertainment. These stories show how humans can be complex, gritty, and creative creatures who can find new ways to do something valuable and impactful with their time. Our top story today features one such individual: Rosaline Chow Koo. The insurance veteran, best known for founding CXA - which raised over US$58 million before its closure in 2025 - is back with a new AI startup called Covee. Koo envisions Covee as the "operating system" for boutique insurance brokers. The platform aims to cut the process of benefits renewal from 30 hours to mere minutes. At 65 years old, Koo is well aware that she could retire, but she's choosing not to. "I'm still obsessed with the same problem," she tells me. I aspire to have the same level of energy by the time I hit my 60s. Elyssa Lopez, journalist TOP STORY CXA founder back with new insurtech platform Covee Rosaline Chow Koo spent six months interviewing and co-building with boutique insurance broker firm owners across Asia and US. The resulting platform, Covee, aims to cut the time-consuming administrative work of these brokers. Koo sees Covee expanding its use cases to help companies with lowering the cost of their employee benefits. It's a problem she's focused on since CXA, but now she's addressing it with AI. TIA CONFERENCE 2026 - DAY 2 IS STILL AHEAD. One more day of conversations, ideas, and connections that shape what's next for business and AI Day one brought the enterprise AI conversation to life. Today, we keep going with another full day of sessions, practical workshops, Strategy War Room roundtables, networking, and the latest solutions from companies across the tech ecosystem. Learn from leaders tackling the opportunities and challenges of putting AI to work, be where business decisions happen, and meet the people defining what comes next. If you were with us yesterday, come back today for more ideas, conversations, and connections. If you missed day one, there's still time to join us. Last-minute tickets are available here. SPOTLIGHT Meta wants you to pay for AI while still watching ads While the debate on whether a slowdown of AI development will do us any good continues to rage on, Meta is keeping its eyes on its goal of AI monetization. It just launched an AI subscription service globally for its social media apps, which would give users access to premium features of its AI product. Plans start at US$6.7 per month in Singapore, with Meta providing additional features for businesses and creators in more advanced plans. The caveat? Paid subscribers still have to tolerate the ads on the platform, no matter which plan they purchase. I don't expect that to land well with most. For comparison, Singapore subscribers are paying US$20 for ChatGPT Plus and US$22.8 for Gemini Pro, though both offer an ad-free experience. However, it's a sound business choice from Meta's point of view, as the company knows all too well it cannot risk irking advertisers. Its ad business raked in US$59.4 billion in revenue last quarter, and it continues to be the company's bread and butter. Meta is optimistic that this subscription service will be a new revenue driver after having attracted 15 million users during its soft launch in the past few months. But will the rest of Meta's users bite? OpenAI did a consumer play for three years before going all-in with enterprise users, showing just how much work it takes to make the rest of the world pay for AI. And who can forget the infamous Horizon Worlds, a costly metaverse bet that led to nothing for Meta. Still, the company does have three billion active users across its apps. With that access, Meta has one less step to take to get them to subscribe. WHY 1 MILLION IMPRESSIONS WON'T FIX A B2B SALES PIPELINE It is a familiar scenario across the industry: A content campaign wraps up, the cost-per-click is dirt cheap, and the impressions are in the millions. But when you look at the actual sales pipeline, the needle hasn't moved an inch. It's tempting to chase mass reach, but a million eyeballs make no difference when they're outside the targeted ecosystem of decision-makers you need to influence. In a market flooded with digital noise, a younger generation of decision-makers has retreated to high-trust environments and native social feeds. To bridge this gap, we completely tore down our old models and built two new strategic frameworks to establish authority and earn attention. Click here to read why the era of the mass-reach vanity metric is dead, and how you should pivot campaigns to actually influence Asia's tech leaders. PRESS PEEKS The following press releases were published as they were received, without any editing from the Tech in Asia team. You, too, can publish your own press release on our site by simply filling out this form. Our team will get back to you by the next business day. Huawei - Huawei Cloud Code Arts Agent Now Available across Asia Pacific, Bringing Agentic AI to Software Development: IPOS - Is it IP as usual? Singapore IP Week tackles the big questions facing IP in the age of AI: Global leaders convene in Singapore to discuss the future of innovation, AI, and the intangible economy, as Singapore unveils new initiatives to help businesses manage and unlock the value of intangible assets. IgnitePRO - Telin Launches ignitePRO at BATIC 2026, Turning Enterprise AI Ambition into Action: The inaugural enterprise forum brought business, government, technology, and infrastructure leaders together to discuss how enterprises can move AI from pilots to real-world impact. WHO'S HIRING You can post a job here or search for jobs here. Marketing Manager (EduTech) at Cakap | Tangerang, Indonesia IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) at PT. ASLI Rancangan Indonesia | Jakarta, Indonesia Digital Marketing Specialist at Boleh Dicoba Digital | Bandung, Java, Indonesia ADVERTISE | SUBSCRIBE | HIRE | FIND JOBS P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Tech in Asia thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our preference center, or unsubscribe. You can also remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over here. Copyright © 2026 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. Tech in Asia (Podium Level 3), 1000 Toa Payoh North, News Centre, Singapore 318994