VN — VnExpress

Google: Vietnam has 45 million generative AI users

AINovember 5, 20261 min read

Google says Vietnam has 45 million users of generative AI, and its digital economy is expected to grow faster than any other in Southeast Asia. The news comes from a yearly report on the region's internet economy.

What happened

Google, Temasek and Bain & Company released the annual e-Conomy SEA report for Vietnam on November 5. The report says Vietnam leads Southeast Asia in several areas, including digital economy growth and how much people use AI.

Key numbers

45 million people use generative AI (AI that creates text, images, or other content), about 65% of the workforce.
Vietnam has the highest share of workers who use AI in the region, at 26%.
Vietnam's digital economy is expected to reach 49 billion USD in 2026, up 20% from the year before.
Southeast Asia's digital economy overall grows 17% a year.
Users make about 31 billion queries (questions or requests sent to AI) each year.

Background

The report is part of a yearly series that tracks internet-based business in Southeast Asia. Online shopping, online travel, digital media, ride-hailing and food delivery are the main drivers. Generative AI is also starting to help people plan trips.

Why it matters

Many people in Vietnam are already using AI in daily life, not just for fun. Because most conversations are in Vietnamese, the report suggests there is growing demand for AI models that are tuned to Vietnamese language and local needs.

What to watch

Whether the 2026 growth forecast of 20% is reached.
How online shopping platforms use AI to personalize shopping and help sellers.
Whether more people trust AI agents (AI that can act on a user's behalf) to make purchases.

Glossary

Generative AI: AI that can make new text, images, or other content from a user's request.
e-Conomy SEA: A yearly report on Southeast Asia's internet economy, made by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.
Temasek: A Singapore-based investment company that co-produced the report.

Agentic AI Success Requires Ontology First

Yoo Seung-jae, CEO of Persona AI, argued at the third Future Technology Strategy Forum that AI agents struggle to work efficiently not because companies lack data, but because relationships and meanings between data are undefined, making ontology essential. He cited Palantir, whose Wendy's supply chain project used an ontology to link inventory, logistics, and demand data across roughly 6,400 U.S. and Canadian stores. Persona AI said it has supplied AI agents to Samsung Biologics and KB Securities and has confirmed participation in government physical AI projects in Jeonbuk and Gyeongnam.

AIThe RegisterNov 5

Meta brings Conductor on board its model train

Meta has acquired AI coding startup Conductor, signaling interest in applying AI to software engineering tasks. Conductor's hosted Conductor Cloud will go read-only on November 13 and shut down on November 20, while its macOS app will keep working for the next few months and receive no new models or critical bug fixes from early 2027. The deal has no announced price, and a Meta spokesperson declined to say more beyond saying it will strengthen the company's developer-oriented AI capabilities.

AIVnExpressNov 5

Cisco Assigns Gen Z Employee to Rewrite 98% of Legacy Code

Cisco Chair and Chief Product Officer Jeetu Patel has tasked 27-year-old Padmanabhan Krishnamurthy, who joined Cisco last year after the company acquired his translation startup EzDubs, with rewriting 98% of Cisco's legacy code within 24 months. Patel gave him four weeks to prove the idea and unlimited tokens, saying he wants to challenge the status quo with fresh perspectives. The story notes that several other leaders, including Thrive Capital's Josh Kushner and Alon Chen of Tastewise, are also seeking young employees, while AI-related job postings still skew heavily toward senior roles.