AI adoption in Southeast Asia: statistics for 2026

58%

of the working population in Southeast Asia's six largest economies now use generative AI. That is around 243 million people.

Internet users who said they used a standalone generative AI app or website in the last 30 days. Six economies: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Google and YouGov survey, July 2026, 9,006 AI users, with Bain analysis.

38%

of companies already using AI are scaling it. A further 8% say it is fully scaled. 35% are piloting and 19% are experimenting.

Survey of 330 respondents at companies that report using AI, across six economies and 10 industries. It is not a count of all companies.

20%

of respondents named a lack of internal expertise or talent as their biggest barrier to AI. Integration with existing systems came second at 16%.

Same McKinsey survey of 330 respondents at companies that report using AI.

23.4%

of Singapore SMEs adopted AI in 2025, up from 14.5% in 2024. Non-SMEs reached 70.4%, up from 62.5%.

Government survey of enterprises. SMEs are small and medium enterprises as defined in the report.

42%

of small companies using AI are scaling it or have fully scaled it, against 47% of medium companies and 56% of companies with revenue above US$250 million.

Small means revenue under US$100 million and medium means US$100 million to US$249 million. Companies that already report using AI. The report also cites 70 million micro, small and medium enterprises in Southeast Asia.

38%

of Indonesian SMEs have adopted AI, against 40% of all Indonesian businesses in the same survey.

AWS-commissioned survey by Strand Partners, 2026.

75%

of the Singapore financial services SMEs surveyed use AI. For the healthcare and manufacturing SMEs surveyed, the figures are 61% and 57%.

AWS-commissioned survey by Strand Partners of 1,500 Singapore businesses, published May 2026. The SME sector samples were 300 for financial services, 288 for healthcare and 307 for manufacturing. The study says sector figures describe the businesses surveyed, not each sector as a whole. The AWS article gives no national rate.

85.7%

of surveyed workers in Singapore reported using AI tools at work in 2026, up from 77.6% in 2025.

Survey of workers by Singapore's Ministry of Digital Development and Information, reported by IMDA. It describes surveyed workers, not every worker.

36.7%

of surveyed workers in Singapore attended AI-related training in the past 12 months. More than two-thirds said they need to upskill or reskill in AI.

Same government survey of workers. The two most common reasons for not training were that the employer did not send them (34.9%) and a lack of time (34.1%).

26%

of employees in Vietnam took part in digital training or upskilling in the past year, up from 19% in 2025.

AWS-commissioned survey by Strand Partners, 2026. The study describes this as digital training or upskilling. It gives no figure for AI training alone.