Vietnam’s AI boom has reached the harder part: turning experiments into production systems.
AI adoption has reached 26% of Vietnamese businesses, or about 245,000 companies, according to AWS-commissioned research released Sept. 29. Yet 61% of businesses already using AI remain in the experimentation phase, showing that deployment maturity is lagging behind uptake.
The AWS-commissioned study, conducted by Strand Partners, surveyed 1,000 business leaders and 1,000 members of the public. Vietnam is also putting money behind deployment: its National Technology Innovation Fund is offering eligible AI projects up to about $114,000, with applications open through Oct. 10.
AI adoption is outpacing deployment
Vietnam’s business AI adoption rate rose from 18% in 2025 to 26% in 2026, with roughly 75,000 companies beginning to use AI over the past year.
Businesses are already reporting measurable returns. Among adopters, 72% said AI improved productivity, while 64% reported higher revenue, averaging a 15% increase. Another 71% said their AI investments had either recovered their costs or generated positive returns.
Deployment maturity remains limited. Only 23% of AI-adopting businesses have an organization-wide AI strategy, while just 13% of businesses consistently measure AI return on investment. Another 46% lack reliable ways to track ROI.
An April VinUniversity report based on insights from more than 100 industry professionals found 77% of surveyed businesses were using AI in specific functions and 56% planned to raise spending. Its methodology differs from AWS’s, so the percentages are not directly comparable.
Vietnam’s growth also sits within a wider regional expansion. The Asian Development Bank recently raised its Southeast Asia growth outlook as AI-linked investment increased, while noting uneven infrastructure, skills, and investment conditions across markets.
Skills and regulation shape the next phase
Talent remains a major constraint. AWS found 54% of businesses see digital and AI skills shortages as barriers to expansion, while 87% of employers consider reskilling existing workers important to their AI plans. Employers said they would pay an average 41% premium for AI-ready workers.
A UNESCO assessment estimated Vietnam had only 5,000 to 7,000 AI engineers, even as its AI market was projected to grow from $547 million in 2023 to more than $2 billion by 2032.
Companies must also operate under Vietnam’s AI law, which took effect March 1. The law classifies AI applications as low, medium, or high risk, with regulatory obligations increasing according to risk.
Vietnam’s enterprise ecosystem is expanding alongside those rules. FPT said in August that it had joined OpenAI’s partner network to pursue enterprise AI deployments across APAC, adding another local route for companies evaluating AI implementation.
The next measure of Vietnam’s AI growth will be how many pilots become governed, measurable production systems. With six in 10 adopters still experimenting, adoption alone no longer tells the full story.
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