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Vietnam is already one of Southeast Asia’s most active AI adopters. The next opportunity is turning that adoption into broader economic value
Vietnamese consumers spent US$14.4 million on AI applications in H1/2026, nearly doubling from a year earlier. More broadly, 81% of Vietnamese digital users interact with AI tools and features every day, the highest rate in Southeast Asia.
So far, much of this adoption has come from individual users. The next stage should come from corporates as businesses integrate AI into customer service, coding, data analysis and internal workflows.
This creates an opportunity for domestic technology companies, which can help corporate clients customize AI agents and integrate them into existing systems and business processes. In many cases, opportunities may lie less in developing foundation models and more in helping companies deploy AI at scale.
At the same time, Vietnam is trying to attract more AI-related investment from FDI. The country received only around US$123 million of private AI investment in H2/2024–H1/2025, or about 5% of ASEAN’s total, despite its strong adoption.
The government is responding with preferential investment policies, access to computing infrastructure and support for AI and semiconductor R&D. Some early results are already visible, with new investment commitments from companies such as G42 and Sembcorp, alongside expanded R&D activities from global technology firms including Qualcomm and Marvell.
For Vietnam, the benefit goes beyond capital. These investments can create more high-skilled jobs in AI, software and semiconductors, deepen the local technology ecosystem and give Vietnamese engineers greater exposure to global R&D.
Vietnam already has the users. The next phase of its AI story will depend on how quickly businesses adopt the technology, how effectively local companies capture that demand, and how much of the resulting investment and higher-value employment Vietnam can retain locally.
Read full article here from VnExpress
