SINGAPORE—US-based technology giant IBM Corp. said it sees the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region playing a key role in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), highlighting the significance of the regional bloc —which includes the Philippines—in mainstreaming the emerging technology.
Agnes Heftberger, IBM’s general manager and technology leader for Asean, said they regularly monitor AI adoption rates in different parts of the world and are seeing telling trends that indicate this.
“In Asia Pacific at large, it’s actually leading the pack compared to countries in Europe and North America. Interestingly enough, Asean, specifically, plays a key role. Thailand, in particular, [has a] 30-percent AI adoption that we saw in 2022,” Heftberger told reporters during IBM’s flagship THINK conference in Singapore.
“And with the very strong ecosystem that exists here in the region, I am very confident that we will continue to see Asean actually meet the curve of adoption,” she added.
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Further the IBM executive said they were seeing many use cases for AI technology across many sectors, citing the financial services sector, customer service industry, and human resources.
“I think there [are] so many use cases that are immediately applicable to the financial services industry. I think it’s no surprise that we do see a lot of organizations out of that industry embracing generative AI,” Heftberger said.
IBM said it sees AI as one of the most transformative technologies today, citing its potential to boost productivity and unlock trillions of dollars in economic value over the next decade.
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The technology giant also said that 75 percent of chief executive officers that were surveyed by its research arm, the IBM Institute, are pursuing AI while 43 percent are already using generative AI in making strategic decisions.
Citing data from American market research firm International Data Corp., IBM said it also sees spending in Asia Pacific for AI technology growing to $49.2 billion by 2026.
It also sees spending on five use cases, specifically in customer service, sales, automation, information technology and fraud analysis, doubling from $9.8 billion in 2023 to $18.6 billion by 2026.