The AI Opportunity.

AI as Vietnam’s next growth engine.

AI is Vietnam’s next opportunity to catalyse faster economic growth, boost social inclusion, and address many of society’s most important challenges.³ The early 2010s saw Vietnam’s transition into a digital economy, observing some of the fastest and highest rates of mobile phone adoption and internet penetration in Southeast Asia (SEA).⁴ This transition has laid the groundwork for AI adoption. However, Vietnam must act fast or risk falling behind regional peers and miss a critical window to establish a competitive advantage.

In the last few years, we have seen rapid improvements in the capabilities of AI, spurred on by the Transformer model architecture developed by Google researchers in 2017.

In our research, we found that AI could help power the next stage of Vietnam’s growth by driving productivity gains, boosting the economy by

VND 0 trillion

(USD 21 billion), a 5% increase in Gross Value Added (GVA).

AI's exponential economic impact.

The Vietnamese are already enthusiastically embracing AI.

Vietnam is rapidly adopting AI, with user numbers increasing 48 times between 2023-24.⁵ People have been quick to integrate generative AI tools into their tasks at work, and this is especially the case among younger workers. In total, 71% of people we surveyed in Vietnam – and 76% of those under 35 – said that they were already using a generative AI tool at least once a week in their work lives.

Early adopters are already seeing significant benefits from their use of AI to save them time and assist with their work – 76% are using AI for language translation and 69% for content creation at work. Over time, those benefits are likely to grow as AI increasingly reforms business processes, enables new kinds of products, and accelerates the process of research and economic growth. The public is already recognising the potential of AI’s capabilities: 71% of people in Vietnam are optimistic about the potential of AI for their country.

How are people using AI in Vietnam?

Early adopters of AI in the workplace are boosting their productivity and reaching new markets. This is being achieved by breaking language barriers and diving into the digital space with content creation.

Top five AI use cases in Vietnam

Responses to question: Can you think of any ways you would use AI in your [personal/work] life? Answer in your own words.

Responses are edited for grammar and spelling, but otherwise unchanged.
All responses taken from a Public First survey of Vietnamese adults.

“Summarize information from a long document when I don’t want to read it, draft email templates and slide templates for me from the content I input.”

Female, 25-34, Northeast, Consultant

“I am going to pursue data analysis in the future. Thanks to AI, I don’t have to spend too much time and effort fixing code. Therefore, having AI support helps me work more effectively.”

Female, 18-24, Red River Delta, Tutor

“I will set up AI to remind me to check email, check important tasks to do, set up AI to automatically research and learn topics that interest me at work. I will enter different languages into AI and ask it to translate them into Vietnamese for me in the most accurate way.”

Male, 35-44, Southeast, IT Engineer

“I think it helps me manage my health. I still monitor and have regular check-ups, but sometimes I forget and don’t have time.”

Female, 55-64, Southeast, Small business owner

“Researching information, summarising documents, and supporting me in optimising my work.”

Male, 25-34, Southeast, Developer

“AI could help with budgeting, investment decisions, and financial planning, ensuring I make the most of my resources.”

Female, 55-64, Red River Delta, Senior management

How AI can address Vietnam’s economic challenges.

Opportunity for Improvement

AI Solution

Labour productivity.

Despite impressive growth rates in labour productivity, Vietnam still has further to go to ensure its workers are as productive as their peers in the Asia-Pacific region. Sectors like agriculture, which employ the largest share of workers, see lower contributions to GDP relative to its employment share, leading to reduced output per worker.⁶

AI can save workers time and boost productivity.

By automating repetitive tasks, AI allows workers to focus on higher value tasks, thereby boosting labour productivity. Vietnam’s notably young workforce also means that the gains to be had from such a boost are very high owing to the higher rates of adoption by younger age groups.

Competitiveness.

Despite a booming tech startup ecosystem, the Vietnamese economy is less competitive than most other Southeast Asian countries. Issues of infrastructure bottlenecks, particularly in energy, transportation, and logistics, are making Vietnam less competitive.⁷

AI can strengthen key sectors and boost exports.

By integrating AI into key sectors like manufacturing and tourism, Vietnam can increase the productivity of these sectors and solidify its competitive advantage relative to its neighbouring countries. AI can also boost exports by helping to overcome regulatory barriers, further enhancing competitiveness by increasing access to the market.

Skills capacity.

An economic transition away from agriculture towards services and manufacturing in the past decade has left a large share of the Vietnamese workforce without formal qualifications.⁸ This restricts their employment prospects in the manufacturing and service sectors, where barriers to entry are often higher.

AI can help people learn new skills and expand their career opportunities.

In early studies, 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.⁹