Raising the bar for Vietnamese AI to reach out to the region and the world

The State, enterprises and universities join hands to turn the domestic market into a launching pad to nurture Vietnamese AI enterprises. From there, AI will become the core driving force for innovation, enhancing the country's competitiveness and sustainable development.

On October 9, in Hanoi , the Vietnam Artificial Intelligence Forum - AI360 2025 officially opened. The event was organized by the Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA), under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Technology with the theme "Building smart businesses and societies with AI".

Forum scene

AI360 is positioned as an annual national forum on AI; a place where managers, experts, research institutes and businesses gather to discuss, share and cooperate to make AI a new growth driver for Vietnam's digital economy . The event represents the entire value chain of Vietnam's technology ecosystem - from policy making, scientific research, technology development to practical application deployment.

The forum gathered 300 delegates, including leaders of departments, ministries, branches, and experts from the technology business community, marking an important milestone in the journey of promoting the development and application of AI in Vietnam.

Delegates visited and exchanged on the sidelines of the forum.

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Khac Lich, Director of the Department of Information Technology Industry (Ministry of Science and Technology), said that Vietnam has been affirming its increasingly high position on the world AI map. According to the Global AI Readiness Index 2024 report by Oxford Insights, Vietnam ranked 59/193 countries, in the top 5 of ASEAN. According to the World AI Index 2025 (WIN), Vietnam ranked 6/40 countries, 3rd globally in terms of trust in AI, and 5th in terms of acceptance.

Investment capital flows and AI applications are also accelerating strongly. In just one year, investment capital in domestic AI enterprises increased from 10 million USD (2023) to 80 million USD (2024). The Ministry of Science and Technology has been updating the National AI Strategy to 2030 and is preparing to submit a draft AI Law.

Mr. Nguyen Khac Lich spoke at the forum

This is an important step to perfect the institution, ensuring that AI is developed transparently, safely and responsibly. The Government will increase public spending on AI, the National Technology Innovation Fund will allocate a significant portion of the budget to support AI applications, and at the same time implement a public procurement mechanism that prioritizes domestic digital technology solutions; it is necessary to turn the domestic market into a launching pad to nurture and elevate Vietnamese AI enterprises, helping them reach out to the region and the world.

Forum scene

The report at the forum said that Vietnam's AI market is confirmed to be one of the fastest growing markets in the region, with an expected value of about 1.52 billion USD by 2030, maintaining a stable growth rate of 20% per year. The application index also shows a clear acceleration, with an average of five more businesses starting to apply AI every hour in 2024.

According to the Vietnam AI 2025 Annual Report from the Institute of Information Technology (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), based on a survey of nearly 500 businesses and organizations from July 2025, AI is opening up great opportunities to promote digital economic growth, the industries leading the trend, providing AI in Vietnam include IT 31%, finance - banking 22%, education 17%, e-commerce and healthcare 15%. Meanwhile, the demand for AI applications is increasing, especially in 5 main areas: education, finance, industrial production, transportation and healthcare.

Delegates visited and exchanged on the sidelines of the forum.

However, the biggest challenges are the lack of high-quality human resources (45% of AI providers), 23% face difficulties with data and computing infrastructure, and 30% are concerned about the lack of clear legal corridors. In AI data, 50% of providers said that data is limited or not accessible to standards, while 51% of training facilities face obstacles with poor quality training data.

The report also pointed out a “core bottleneck” in the AI ​​value chain: the large gap between development investment and application investment. While technology solution providers are increasing the scale of projects, with most investing between 1-3 billion VND, AI spending by application units in 5 key areas (education, healthcare, finance, transportation, industry) has not received much attention.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, Chairman of VINASA, spoke at the forum.

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, Chairman of VINASA, said that the wave of AI generation and especially AI Agents (systems capable of autonomous operation) is completely changing the way of doing business and managing. VINASA is committed to accompanying and taking the Government's strategic orientation as a guideline for action.

VINASA also clearly identified a number of urgent current tasks including: solving application and management problems, focusing on transforming thinking from experimentation to creating business value; standardizing capacity by publishing the draft "AI Capacity Maturity Framework"; building a connected ecosystem, bringing AI from the laboratory to practice, from vision to real value through activities connecting components in the ecosystem.

TRAN BINH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/nang-tam-de-ai-viet-nam-vuon-ra-khu-vuc-va-the-gioi-post817123.html