AI in action: Workforce upskilling.
Many Thai workers, especially older adults and those living in rural areas, have either low or no formal qualifications. 14 15
A lack of formal education restricts their access to higher-paying roles, leaving over half (53%) of the Thai workforce employed in the informal sector16 – where income is often less stable and opportunities for advancement are harder to access.17 18
Moreover, we have already seen AI’s potential to boost the skills base of workers: helping them catch up with the performance of the best workers in their environments and being more productive at work.
Share of population with below-threshold levels of foundational literacy and digital skills.
In our modelling, we found that the potential skills gains from AI could boost average worker productivity by over
(US$2,500) a year.
By leveraging AI tutors, digital learning platforms are providing flexible and personalised lessons, and making learning more accessible for all. This could enable
in Thailand who do not currently have access to an adequate formal education to boost their skills.
Google and
OVEC are elevating AI readiness in vocational education.
Google partnered with the Office of the Vocational Education Commission (OVEC) to launch Samart Skills – a nationwide initiative equipping teachers and students with essential AI and digital skills for the future of work. The programme focuses on both helping educators build their own confidence using AI tools and supporting them to teach core AI concepts to students. By integrating Google AI and prompt engineering into classrooms, it is helping teachers modernise their lessons and align vocational training with real-world labour market needs.
With Google’s support, teachers gain free access to expert-led courses and training vouchers, removing common barriers such as cost and language. As a result, educators are redesigning lesson plans, developing modern learning content, and introducing students to in-demand fields such as IT support and cybersecurity. As these tools become part of everyday learning, vocational students are graduating with stronger digital fluency and job-ready skills, helping to build a future-ready workforce for Thailand’s growing digital economy.
“Just hearing that the course is from Google makes teachers more eager to join. With AI Essentials now available in Thai, they’re not only learning to use AI themselves, but also adapting or even directly teaching the content to their students, bringing real change to the classroom.”
Dr Thanasarn Rujira
Educational Supervisor for OVEC
AI in action: Labour shortages.
Thailand’s working-age population is set to decline by 30% between 2020 and 2060, the third-fastest rate in East Asia and the Pacific, trailing only South Korea and Japan.
By 2060, 30% of its population is projected to be aged 65 and above, while the working age population is set to fall to just 57%.19 This will exert significant fiscal pressure on the steadily declining base of working age adults.
However, AI can counter demographic decline by automating jobs facing labour shortages. AI can fill vacancies in sectors where labour is scarce, maintaining production levels despite an ageing workforce. For example, smart routing tools can reduce pressure on logistics operators by optimising delivery schedules, while AI-assisted triage systems can help overstretched hospital staff manage patient flow more efficiently.
By enhancing the skills and productivity of each worker, AI enables a smaller workforce to accomplish more, helping people make the most of their abilities and experience. In total, we estimate that the greater use of AI could help offset 68% of potential labour shortages in Thailand driven by an ageing population.
Age distribution across Thailand's population.
AI in action: Public sector productivity.
Our research shows that AI can play an important role in easing workloads and improving efficiency across public sector workflows. Already, the public sector in Thailand has understood these potential gains, with 82% of public sector workers we surveyed saying that they believe the expanded use of AI tools will have a positive impact on the country.20
We estimate that advances in AI tools could save the average public sector worker 68 hours a year by 2030, the equivalent of 8 days of additional time. The time saved is being used towards higher value tasks that deliver results for Thailand’s population.
How public sector workers use the time they have saved from using AI tools.
Improve the quality of the rest of my work.
Develop new ideas or processes for my team.
Spend more time learning new skills.
AI in action: Healthcare.
Thailand faces significant health challenges. This includes a rising burden of chronic diseases, an overburdened healthcare system, and shortage of medical professionals. However, AI can make it easier to improve health outcomes for the whole population by optimising medical workflows, enabling telemedicine, enhancing diagnostics, and leveraging predictive analytics to better manage and prevent illnesses.
For instance, when combined with data from your smartphone or watch, AI could help provide earlier detection of emerging health conditions when they are still treatable. We estimate that AI could help save 7,400 Thai lives from earlier detection of chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus or hyperlipidaemia.
These possibilities are already being brought to life in Thailand. “AI Chest 4 All” is a free web-based system that has been adopted by more than 300 hospitals across the country, and has a 92% accuracy rate in detecting respiratory diseases from chest X-rays. It analyses an image in 50 milliseconds, compared to a radiologist taking up to 10 minutes.21
of Thais said they would be interested in using AI to give early warning of new medical conditions.
of Thais would support the use of AI to detect and diagnose illnesses in patients, as long as this is reviewed by a human doctor.
In Thailand, around 6 million people live with diabetes, putting many at risk of developing a leading cause of preventable blindness called diabetic retinopathy. Despite the excellence of Thai healthcare professionals, access to early detection via retinal screenings remains limited, particularly in poorer areas, due to a shortage of ophthalmologists. To address this, Google has partnered with Thai medtech company Perceptra and the Thai Ministry of Public Health, to deliver AI-assisted eye screenings to up to one million people over the next ten years, free of charge.
Google’s AI model has shown outstanding results across the board when it comes to conducting annual screenings, outperforming human screeners in its ability to accurately diagnose diabetic retinopathy. In addition, a web-based application now connects screening centres across Thailand with the AI system and has already facilitated more than 600,000 screenings worldwide. Dr. Paisan Ruamviboonsuk, of the Ophthalmology Group at Rajavithi Hospital, has been involved in this collaboration with Google since its beginnings in 2016, and now describes the retinal screening tool as being “at the forefront of all AI models for ophthalmic care”, as it now begins to be integrated across a range of clinical workflows, including training for nurses and new healthcare staff.
“In the future, no doubt about it, AI is going to help us a lot in screening cases of preventable blindness, and we can use this process to model uses for other AI tools, maybe tackling cataracts, glaucoma and other problems facing our country.”
Dr. Paisan Ruamviboonsuk MD
AI in action: Cybersecurity.
Thailand has been struggling with a sudden surge of cybersecurity attacks. The number of attacks on Thai servers rose from 320,000 in 2023 to 730,000 in 2024.24 These attacks cost the country on average THB 70 million (US$2 million) per day.25
AI can analyse global threat intelligence data to identify trends and potential risks before they become active threats. It can also act as a safety net for phishing and similar attacks and automate threat responses, reducing any potential damage.