The “Unlocking Vietnam’s AI Potential 2026” study, conducted by Strand Partners and unveiled at the recent AWS Cloud and AI Day Hanoi, surveyed 1,000 business leaders and 1,000 citizens to assess AI and cloud adoption nationwide.

The study estimated that about 245,000 Vietnamese businesses have adopted AI, with 78% of them expecting the technology to remain a key growth driver over the next year. Among AI adopters, 73% said AI is central to their overall business strategy, while 72% reported higher productivity, up from 66% a year earlier. Meanwhile, 64% said AI helps increase their average revenue by 15%.

The momentum is growing, but turning ambition into sustainable results requires more than investment. Businesses need clear AI strategies backed by effective governance, reliable return-on-investment (ROI) measurement, and the skills needed to use AI responsibly.

Each business has its own AI journey

AI has become a high or top priority for 69% of surveyed Vietnamese businesses, while 84% expect their use of AI to increase over the next year. Although 61% of adopters remain at the experimentation stage, 71% said their AI investments have already broken even or generated returns.

Financial services and healthcare are among the sectors showing strong AI adoption. In financial services, 41% of businesses have adopted AI, with 79% reporting productivity gains. In healthcare, the adoption rate stands at 23%, while 69% report higher productivity.

The study also highlights growing interest in agentic AI. Among surveyed businesses, 38% are familiar with the technology, with 8% having integrated AI agents into core processes and 19% experimenting with or piloting them. Early adopters reported significant gains, with 81% recording improved productivity. Meanwhile, 61% said AI agents enable faster decision-making and execution, while 49% reported easier business expansion.

AI-native startups are also gaining momentum. Unburdened by legacy systems, these cloud-first businesses recorded average revenue growth of 147% over the past year. Their likelihood of generating more than 1 million USD in annual revenue was 4.8 times higher, while 96% expected AI to continue driving revenue growth.

Building a foundation for AI growth

Despite the progress, only 23% of AI-adopting businesses have a formal, comprehensive AI strategy. Just 13% have a clear and consistently applied AI ROI framework, while 46% lack a reliable way to measure returns.

Skills remain another major challenge. Some 54% of businesses cite shortages of digital and AI skills as a barrier to adoption and expansion. At the same time, 87% of employers consider workforce reskilling important to their AI strategies.

Human judgment is also becoming increasingly important. Some 62% of business leaders see critical thinking and judgement as essential, while 57% highlight the importance of interpreting, verifying and challenging AI-generated outputs.

AWS has trained more than 157,000 people in Vietnam in cloud and AI skills and recently launched an AWS Local Zone in Hanoi. Its Vietnam First Cloud & AI Journey programme has also reached more than 15,000 participants since 2021.

Eric Yeo, General Manager of AWS Vietnam, said Vietnam is gradually realising its ambition of becoming an ASEAN AI hub by 2030. Businesses that move systematically from experimentation to deployment, supported by cloud infrastructure, a transparent regulatory environment and appropriate skills, will be better positioned to compete and grow, he noted./. VNA