FunNow 啟動 IPO：台灣軟體產業正在進入一個新的時代
- 前半段為文章的英文版本 (The first half is the English version)
- 後半段為中文版本 (The second half is the Mandarin version)
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FunNow IPO Signals a New Era for Taiwan’s Software Industry
The FunNow IPO journey has officially begun.
In August 2026, FunNow Group, the Taiwan-founded lifestyle and entertainment booking platform, announced that it had signed an IPO advisory agreement with Taishin Securities, formally beginning preparations for a potential public listing in Taiwan.
For a technology industry dominated by semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, chip design, and the rapidly expanding AI supply chain, the news might appear relatively small.
It shouldn’t.
The FunNow IPO could become an important test of something Taiwan has struggled to produce at scale: globally competitive software companies built from Taiwan but no longer constrained by the size of the Taiwanese market.
Procedurally, FunNow is not about to list tomorrow. Preparing for an IPO — from corporate governance and financial readiness to regulatory review — could still take several years.
But the more interesting question is not when FunNow will go public.
It is this:
Can a software platform built in Taiwan use international expansion, cross-border acquisitions, and AI to become a technology company of genuine regional scale?
That question matters far beyond FunNow itself.
Because Taiwan’s next generation of technology companies may not all be built inside semiconductor fabs.
1. Why the FunNow IPO Matters
For someone who knows FunNow primarily through its Taiwanese business, it is easy to think of the company as an app for booking restaurants, hotels, spas, or entertainment.
That description is increasingly outdated.
Today, FunNow Group operates not only the FunNow urban lifestyle booking platform but also Southeast Asian restaurant reservation platform Eatigo and family-experience platform Niceday.
The group’s operations span Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and other markets across what the company describes as Greater Southeast Asia.
Its ecosystem connects more than 16,000 merchants and has served more than 10 million users.
But one number is particularly important to understanding why the FunNow IPO deserves attention:
More than half of FunNow Group’s revenue now comes from overseas markets.
That represents an important threshold.
Taiwan has no shortage of capable software companies. Yet many still generate most of their revenue domestically.
The problem is scale.
With a population of roughly 23 million, Taiwan can be an excellent launch market for SaaS, marketplaces, and consumer internet products. But for a company aspiring to become a billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar technology business, Taiwan alone is rarely large enough.
The real test for Taiwan’s software startups is therefore not simply:
Can you win in Taiwan?
It is:
Can you turn capabilities developed in Taiwan into competitive advantages across multiple markets?
With international revenue now exceeding domestic revenue, FunNow appears to have crossed at least the first threshold.
It is gradually evolving from a Taiwanese company with international operations into a regional platform headquartered in Taiwan.
That distinction matters.
2. Cross-Border M&A Changed the FunNow Story
When Taiwanese startups talk about international expansion, the default playbook is usually organic.
Build the product in Taiwan.
Enter Japan or Southeast Asia.
Hire a local team.
Find customers.
Build the brand.
Repeat.
That strategy can work.
But it is slow.
FunNow chose a more aggressive path.
Through its acquisition of Eatigo, the company gained access to an existing restaurant reservation network across Southeast Asia.
The strategic significance of that move is easy to underestimate.
For a marketplace, entering a new country is not simply a matter of translating an app.
A marketplace must build both sides simultaneously:
Supply
and
Demand.
Without enough restaurants, consumers have little reason to use the platform.
Without enough consumers, restaurants have little incentive to join.
It is the classic marketplace chicken-and-egg problem.
Acquisitions can compress that process dramatically.
Eatigo therefore represents more than another brand inside the FunNow portfolio.
It potentially gives FunNow the ability to combine merchant supply, consumers, technology, data, and local operating capabilities across multiple markets into a larger regional network.
If that integration works, the story behind the FunNow IPO changes from:
A Taiwanese startup expanding overseas.
to:
A Taiwanese startup using cross-border M&A to build a regional platform.
That remains a relatively uncommon growth model for Taiwan’s software industry.
And it may eventually become one of the most important parts of the FunNow investment thesis.
3. FunNow May Be Building Something Bigger Than a Booking App
There is another reason FunNow deserves attention ahead of a potential IPO.
The boundaries of its market are becoming increasingly difficult to define.
Restaurants are only one category.
Hotels, spas, nightlife, leisure activities, entertainment, and family experiences can all sit within the same platform.
A more useful way to describe what FunNow is trying to build may therefore be:
A marketplace for urban life.
That is a very different ambition from simply becoming another restaurant reservation service.
Travel platforms solve a question like:
Where should I go when I travel?
FunNow increasingly wants to solve another:
What should I do tonight?
The difference is frequency.
People may take only a handful of major trips every year.
But dining, dating, social gatherings, entertainment, wellness, and leisure are weekly — sometimes daily — consumption behaviors.
If FunNow can aggregate these verticals under the same identity, recommendation engine, and transaction infrastructure, the opportunity becomes less about generating more bookings and more about increasing:
Consumer Frequency × Lifetime Value.
That is where the marketplace model becomes strategically interesting.
It also explains why evaluating FunNow purely as a restaurant booking service could significantly underestimate the company’s longer-term ambition.
4. The FunNow AI Strategy: From B2C to B2AI2C
Another FunNow initiative could prove more consequential over the long term than the IPO itself.
The company has begun positioning itself around AI-driven consumer discovery and has introduced a concept it calls:
B2AI2C — Business to AI to Consumer.
For much of the past two decades, digital commerce looked something like this:
Consumer
↓
Google
↓
Website / App
↓
Merchant
The mobile era increasingly shifted that flow toward:
Consumer
↓
App
↓
Platform
↓
Merchant
But in an AI-agent world, another architecture could emerge:
Consumer
↓
AI Assistant
↓
Booking Platform
↓
Merchant
Imagine a very ordinary request:
“Find an Italian restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District for four people tonight at 7 p.m., suitable for a birthday dinner, with a budget of NT$1,500 per person.”
Today’s search experience might return ten links.
Tomorrow’s AI agent may simply:
Search → Compare → Check Availability → Book → Pay.
If that happens, competition among consumer platforms changes fundamentally.
The old question was:
Who owns the consumer?
The new question may become:
Who owns the inventory and transaction layer behind the AI agent?
That creates an intriguing opportunity for FunNow.
AI assistants do not inherently own restaurant tables, hotel rooms, spa appointments, or entertainment inventory.
They still need access to systems capable of providing real-time:
Availability. Pricing. Inventory. Reviews. Booking. Payment.
If FunNow can become part of the infrastructure connecting AI agents with lifestyle merchants across Asia, its role could begin evolving from a consumer app into something more fundamental:
A transaction layer for AI-powered local commerce.
The B2AI2C thesis remains early.
There is no guarantee that consumers will adopt AI-driven booking behavior at the scale platforms hope.
But strategically, it is worth watching — particularly as FunNow prepares itself for the public markets.
5. The FunNow IPO Will Be the Beginning of a Harder Test
The FunNow IPO journey is therefore an important milestone.
But an IPO is not the finish line.
In some ways, it is where the harder examination begins.
Private investors can tolerate years of losses if a company continues to offer enough growth potential.
Public markets tend to be less forgiving.
As FunNow moves closer to a listing, investors will eventually ask much more concrete questions:
How large is revenue?
How quickly is international revenue growing?
What is the trajectory of GMV?
What is the platform’s take rate?
How expensive is customer acquisition?
How strong are repeat bookings?
How much synergy has the Eatigo acquisition actually created?
And ultimately:
When can the business generate sustainable profits and cash flow?
The answers will determine whether FunNow is simply a:
Regional Growth Story
or whether it can become a durable:
Regional Platform.
The valuation difference between those two outcomes can be enormous.
This is why the IPO process could be particularly revealing.
For the first time, the market may eventually get a much clearer look at the economics behind FunNow’s international expansion.
6. Could the FunNow IPO Create Taiwan’s Next Unicorn-Scale Software Company?
That leads naturally to another question.
Could FunNow eventually become a billion-dollar company?
The answer today is:
It is still too early to know.
FunNow has not publicly disclosed a recent valuation, making it difficult to determine how far the company currently sits from the conventional US$1 billion unicorn threshold.
And because the company is now preparing for the public markets, “unicorn” may eventually become the wrong terminology anyway.
The more meaningful question is whether FunNow can build a business capable of supporting a US$1 billion-plus valuation, whether in private or public markets.
Several pieces required for that next stage of growth are beginning to appear.
First, international revenue has exceeded 50%.
That suggests the business model has demonstrated at least some ability to travel across markets.
Second, FunNow has built meaningful regional supply.
A network of more than 16,000 merchants begins to create real marketplace density.
Third, the company has demonstrated an ability to execute cross-border M&A.
Eatigo is an important test of whether FunNow can acquire, integrate, and scale regional assets rather than relying entirely on organic expansion.
Fourth, it is attempting to position itself early for an AI-agent economy.
If B2AI2C becomes a meaningful distribution model, platforms that already control inventory, APIs, and transaction infrastructure could gain a new form of distribution advantage.
There is, however, still much to prove.
Can FunNow establish leadership positions in more markets?
Can FunNow and Eatigo generate meaningful network effects across their combined footprint?
Can international revenue continue growing rapidly?
Can AI become a genuine distribution channel rather than simply a compelling narrative?
And perhaps most importantly:
Do the unit economics still work as the company scales?
Calling FunNow “Taiwan’s next unicorn” today would therefore be premature.
A more accurate description might be:
FunNow is becoming one of Taiwan’s most interesting next-generation global software companies to watch.
7. What the FunNow IPO Says About Taiwan’s Software Industry
This is where the FunNow story becomes larger than FunNow.
Over the past decade, Taiwan has already produced several technology companies that demonstrated an ability to compete beyond the domestic market.
Appier took enterprise AI software across Asia and beyond.
Perfect Corp. transformed beauty technology into a global AI and AR platform.
Gogoro attempted to redefine electric scooters around an energy and battery-swapping platform.
But the next generation may look different.
KKday is building an Asian marketplace for travel experiences.
AmazingTalker has built a cross-border marketplace connecting tutors and learners around the world.
And FunNow is attempting to aggregate lifestyle services across East and Southeast Asia.
These companies differ enormously in their business models.
But they share one important characteristic:
Taiwan is the starting point — not the boundary.
Taiwan may be where they were founded.
It does not have to define the size of the market they serve.
That may be one of the most important shifts taking place in Taiwan’s startup ecosystem.
For decades, Taiwan’s technology advantage was built around manufacturing products for the world.
The next challenge is whether Taiwan can also build software platforms for the world.
8. Why the FunNow IPO Could Matter Beyond FunNow
For the past three decades, the world’s understanding of Taiwan’s technology industry has been remarkably consistent:
Semiconductors.
Hardware.
Manufacturing.
Supply chains.
Those strengths are not going away.
But look slightly beyond the semiconductor fabs of Hsinchu, and another story — still small, but increasingly visible — is beginning to emerge.
A generation of Taiwanese companies is attempting to build:
AI SaaS.
Consumer marketplaces.
Travel platforms.
Vertical software.
Digital commerce infrastructure.
Not all of them will succeed.
Most may never become billion-dollar companies.
That does not make them unimportant.
Because the question worth asking is not simply:
Who will become Taiwan’s next unicorn?
The more consequential question is:
Can Taiwan build an ecosystem that repeatedly produces global technology companies?
That is ultimately why the FunNow IPO matters.
If FunNow can demonstrate that a consumer internet business built in Taiwan can use cross-border acquisitions, regional marketplace economics, and AI-driven distribution to create a genuinely Asian-scale platform, its legacy could ultimately be more important than another stock ticker.
It could provide another blueprint for Taiwan’s software industry.
A blueprint telling the next generation of Taiwanese founders:
You can start in Taiwan.
But you don’t have to stop there.
If you enjoyed this analysis
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Or explore more articles on the blog:
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Further Reading
- FUNNOW Group Signs IPO Advisory Agreement with Taishin Securities, Aiming for Taiwan Listing
https://finance.biggo.com/news/5cddbec3-f6cd-4a04-95df-7db582c2e3a7 - Taiwan Startup Global Expansion: Why Japan Has Become the First Step—Not the Final Destination
https://whitehsu.blog/2026/08/03/taiwan-startup-global-expansion/ - H2U IPO Analysis: Why Taiwan’s Digital Health Startup Signals the Next AI Opportunity
https://whitehsu.blog/2026/07/27/h2u-ipo-taiwan-digital-health-ai/
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FunNow 啟動 IPO：台灣軟體產業正在進入一個新的時代
台灣科技產業談到 IPO，市場最熟悉的故事通常仍然來自半導體、電子製造、IC 設計，或近年快速成長的 AI 供應鏈。
但 2026 年 8 月，一家完全不同類型的台灣公司正式踏出了走向資本市場的一步。
生活娛樂預訂平台 FunNow 集團宣布與台新證券簽訂上市櫃輔導契約，正式啟動進入台灣資本市場的準備工作。
從程序上來看，這並不代表 FunNow 即將掛牌。從上市輔導、公司治理、財務準備到正式申請與審查，整個過程仍可能需要數年。
但真正值得注意的，並不是 FunNow 何時 IPO。
而是：
FunNow 正在成為另一個測試案例：一家從台灣出發的軟體平台公司，究竟能不能透過跨國市場、併購與 AI，建立一家真正具有區域規模的科技企業？
這個問題的重要性，遠遠超過 FunNow 本身。
因為台灣下一代科技公司的故事，可能不會只發生在晶圓廠裡。
1. FunNow 已經不再只是一家台灣新創
如果只從台灣市場認識 FunNow，很容易把它理解成一個「餐廳與娛樂預訂 App」。
這樣的理解已經過時了。
今天的 FunNow 集團旗下除了都會生活即時預訂平台 FunNow，也擁有東南亞餐廳預訂平台 Eatigo，以及台灣親子體驗平台 Niceday。
集團業務已經橫跨台灣、日本、香港、新加坡、馬來西亞、泰國與菲律賓等市場，服務範圍涵蓋餐飲、住宿、休閒與娛樂。
根據公司在宣布上市櫃計畫時公布的數據，目前整個生態系已經串聯超過 16,000 家合作商家，累積服務超過 1,000 萬名使用者。
但所有數字中，最值得注意的可能只有一個：
海外營收占比已經突破 50%。
這是一條非常重要的分界線。
台灣並不缺乏成功的軟體公司，但其中很多公司的主要收入仍然高度依賴台灣市場。
問題在於，台灣只有約 2,300 萬人口。
對一家 SaaS、Marketplace 或 Consumer Internet 公司而言，如果最終目標是建立一家數十億美元規模的企業，台灣本土市場往往不足以支撐那樣的規模。
因此，台灣軟體公司的真正考驗從來不只是：
能不能在台灣成功？
而是：
能不能把在台灣建立的產品能力，轉化成跨國市場的競爭力？
FunNow 的海外營收突破五成，至少意味著它已經跨過第一道門檻。
它正在從一家「有海外業務的台灣公司」，逐漸變成一家「總部位於台灣的區域平台」。
兩者之間的差別非常大。
2. 真正改變 FunNow 軌跡的，可能不是自然成長，而是併購
台灣新創談國際化時，最常見的方法通常是自己開拓市場。
先在台灣建立產品，再派團隊前往日本、新加坡或東南亞，重新尋找客戶、建立品牌與招募當地團隊。
這條路可以走。
但很慢。
FunNow 選擇了另一條更具攻擊性的路徑。
它透過收購 Eatigo，直接取得一個已經存在於東南亞市場的餐飲預訂網路。
這件事情的重要性，很容易被低估。
對 Marketplace 而言，進入一個新國家並不是把 App 翻譯成當地語言就完成了。
平台必須同時建立兩端：
Supply
以及
Demand。
沒有足夠餐廳，消費者不會來。
沒有足夠消費者，餐廳也沒有加入平台的理由。
這就是 Marketplace 最典型的 Chicken-and-Egg Problem。
併購可以大幅縮短這個過程。
因此 Eatigo 對 FunNow 的意義，不只是「多了一個品牌」。
它讓 FunNow 可以把原本分散在不同國家的供給、使用者、技術與營運能力逐步整合成一個更大的區域網路。
如果這個整合最終成功，FunNow 的故事就不再只是：
Taiwan startup expands overseas.
而可能變成：
Taiwan startup uses cross-border M&A to build a regional platform.
這在台灣軟體產業仍然是一條相對少見的成長路徑。
3. FunNow 真正想打造的，也許不是「訂位平台」
FunNow 還有另一個值得觀察的地方：
它真正的市場邊界正在變得模糊。
餐廳只是其中之一。
飯店、SPA、娛樂、休閒活動、親子體驗，都可以被放進同一個平台。
因此更準確地說，FunNow 正在嘗試建立的並不是另一個 OpenTable。
它更接近：
A marketplace for urban life.
也就是一個「城市生活 Marketplace」。
這個定位如果成立，市場天花板就會比單純的餐廳訂位高很多。
旅遊平台解決的是：
Where should I go when I travel?
FunNow 想解決的則更接近：
What should I do tonight?
兩者最大的差異在於頻率。
旅遊一年可能只有幾次。
但吃飯、約會、聚會、娛樂、美容與休閒，是每週甚至每天都可能發生的消費行為。
如果 FunNow 能成功把這些垂直服務整合在同一個帳號、推薦系統與交易平台之下，它追求的就不再只是更多 Booking。
而是更高的：
Consumer Frequency × Lifetime Value。
這才是平台經濟真正有意思的地方。
4. 下一個戰場可能不是 App，而是 AI
FunNow 最近另一個動作，其實可能比 IPO 更值得長期觀察。
公司開始積極布局 AI 驅動的消費入口，並提出一個概念：
B2AI2C — Business to AI to Consumer
過去二十年的網路消費路徑大致是：
Consumer
↓
Google
↓
Website / App
↓
Merchant
行動網路時代則逐漸變成：
Consumer
↓
App
↓
Platform
↓
Merchant
但 AI Agent 普及之後，新的路徑可能變成：
Consumer
↓
AI Assistant
↓
Booking Platform
↓
Merchant
想像一個非常普通的場景。
你對 AI 助理說：
「幫我找台北信義區今晚七點、四個人、有位置而且適合慶生的義大利餐廳，預算每人 1,500 元。」
未來的 AI 可能不再提供十個搜尋結果讓你自己比較。
它可能直接：
搜尋 → 比較 → 確認 availability → 預訂 → 付款。
如果這個世界真的出現，消費平台之間的競爭將產生根本性的變化。
過去的平台競爭：
Who owns the consumer?
未來可能變成：
Who provides the inventory and transaction layer behind the AI agent?
這對 FunNow 是一個非常有意思的機會。
因為 AI 本身沒有餐廳庫存、飯店房間或娛樂服務。
AI 仍然需要一個可以即時取得：
Availability、Pricing、Inventory、Reviews、Booking、Payment
的交易層。
如果 FunNow 可以成為 AI Agent 與亞洲生活服務商家之間的 infrastructure layer，它的角色就會開始從 Consumer App 改變成另一種東西。
這個 B2AI2C 願景目前仍然非常早期。
但它值得追蹤。
5. IPO 其實是另一場考試的開始
因此，FunNow 啟動上市櫃計畫當然是一個重要里程碑。
但 IPO 並不是終點。
甚至可以說：
IPO 才是真正考驗的開始。
私人市場可以接受長時間虧損，只要公司仍然具有足夠高的成長想像。
公開市場沒有那麼有耐心。
當 FunNow 真正走向 IPO，投資人最終會開始追問一些非常具體的問題：
營收是多少？
海外營收成長速度是多少？
GMV 成長多少？
平台 Take Rate 如何？
Customer Acquisition Cost 是多少？
Repeat Booking Rate 如何？
Eatigo 的併購究竟創造多少 Synergy？
公司什麼時候可以穩定獲利？
這些問題最後會決定 FunNow 究竟是一個：
Regional Growth Story
還是一個真正具有長期競爭力的：
Regional Platform。
兩者的估值差距可以非常巨大。
6. FunNow 會成為台灣下一隻獨角獸嗎？
這也是接下來最自然會出現的問題。
答案是：
現在還太早。
FunNow 並沒有公開最新估值，因此外界很難精確判斷它距離 10 億美元的獨角獸門檻還有多遠。
但其實比估值更值得觀察的是，公司已經開始具備幾個可能支持下一階段成長的條件：
第一，海外營收已經突破 50%。
它證明商業模式至少具備一定程度的跨市場移植能力。
第二，它已經建立區域性的 Supply Network。
16,000 家商戶意味著平台開始具有一定的供給規模。
第三，它已經證明自己有能力進行跨國併購。
Eatigo 是非常重要的一次測試。
第四，它正在嘗試提前卡位 AI Agent 時代。
如果 B2AI2C 最後真的成為新的消費模式，早期建立 API、Inventory 與 Transaction Infrastructure 的平台可能獲得新的 Distribution Advantage。
但另一方面，距離真正的全球級平台，FunNow 仍然必須證明很多事情。
例如：
它能不能在更多市場建立領先地位？
Eatigo 與 FunNow 的 Network Effect 能不能真正整合？
海外市場能不能持續高速成長？
以及最重要的：
規模擴大之後，Unit Economics 是否仍然成立？
因此現在稱 FunNow 為「下一隻獨角獸」可能還太早。
更精確的說法應該是：
FunNow 正在成為台灣最值得觀察的下一代全球軟體公司之一。
7. 更大的故事其實不是 FunNow
過去幾年，我們已經看到一些從台灣出發、最後走向全球市場的科技公司。
Appier 把 AI SaaS 帶到亞洲以外的市場。
Perfect Corp. 把 Beauty Tech 做成全球性的 AI 與 AR 平台。
Gogoro 嘗試把電動機車重新定義成能源平台。
但下一代公司的樣貌可能不一樣。
KKday 正在建立亞洲旅遊體驗 Marketplace。
AmazingTalker 從台灣建立跨越國界的 Tutor Marketplace。
FunNow 則試圖整合東亞與東南亞的生活服務市場。
這些公司有一個很重要的共同特徵：
Taiwan is the starting point—not the boundary.
台灣是起點。
但不是市場的邊界。
這可能才是台灣下一代軟體公司最重要的改變。
The Beginning of Taiwan’s Next Software Chapter
過去三十年，世界理解台灣科技產業的方式非常簡單。
Semiconductors.
Hardware.
Manufacturing.
Supply Chains.
而且這些優勢不會消失。
但如果我們把視野從新竹科學園區稍微移開，另一個規模仍然很小、卻逐漸成形的故事正在發生。
一群台灣公司開始嘗試建立：
AI SaaS。
Consumer Marketplace。
Travel Platforms。
Vertical Software。
Digital Commerce Infrastructure。
它們不一定都會成功。
甚至大部分可能永遠不會成為獨角獸。
但這並不代表它們不重要。
因為真正值得觀察的問題從來不是：
台灣下一隻獨角獸是誰？
而是：
台灣能不能建立一套持續產生全球科技公司的生態系？
FunNow 啟動 IPO，只是這個更大故事中的其中一個節點。
如果它能證明一家從台灣出發的 Consumer Internet Company，可以透過跨國併購、區域 Marketplace 與 AI Distribution，建立一家真正具有亞洲規模的平台公司，那麼它留下的東西可能不只是另一個上市代號。
它可能提供另一條路徑。
一條告訴下一代台灣創業者：
你可以從台灣開始。
但你不必只做台灣。
如果你喜歡這篇分析
歡迎訂閱以及追蹤我的 LinkedIn Newsletter – Taiwan Tech Dispatch，掌握即時觀點與產業動態：
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/taiwan-tech-dispatch-7355532535025586178
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更多文章請見：
https://whitehsu.blog/
延伸閱讀
- 預訂平台FunNow啟動IPO！用戶破千萬、插旗7大市場 這招讓NEC、緯創出手投資
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/share/a369b820-b9fc-3102-8ef9-45d93ec6b23a - 日本，不再只是市場：它正成為台灣新創走向全球的起點
https://whitehsu.blog/2026/08/03/taiwan-startup-global-expansion/ - 從 AI 基礎建設到 AI 健康科技：H2U IPO 背後，台灣 Vertical AI 的下一波機會
https://whitehsu.blog/2026/07/27/h2u-ipo-taiwan-digital-health-ai/