Cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly important to Việt Nam’s digital transformation, offering businesses new ways to innovate, improve productivity and compete in the digital economy. As the country seeks to accelerate digitalisation and build a stronger technology ecosystem, cloud and AI are expected to play a growing role in supporting businesses and unlocking new opportunities. Jeff Johnson, Managing Director for ASEAN at Amazon Web Services (AWS), talks to Việt Nam News reporter Vũ Hoa about the role of cloud and AI in Việt Nam’s digital growth and what lies ahead.

Việt Nam has a young, tech-savvy workforce, a rapidly growing digital economy and an increasingly ambitious AI agenda. From your perspective across ASEAN, does Việt Nam have the potential to leapfrog some of its regional peers in AI adoption - and what would it take for that to happen?

Across ASEAN, the momentum is real. A recent McKinsey study found that 46 per cent of companies in Southeast Asia have moved beyond AI pilots, and nearly 90 per cent plan to experiment with agentic AI this year.

Việt Nam is a strong example of that shift. According to our latest Unlocking Việt Nam’s AI Potential study with Strand Partners, adopters see solid results, with 64 per cent reporting increased revenue, and 72 per cent seeing productivity gains. AWS is committed to supporting the foundations for this growth; we’ve already pledged over $33 billion in infrastructure investments into ASEAN by 2039.

The question we’re hearing from our customers on their AI journey is “Are we on the right track? Is AI delivering real value?” What stands out more isn’t just the speed, but the breadth. 

Across sectors, businesses are taking meaningful steps forward.  This is reflected in the 44 per cent year-on-year growth, with 75,000 new businesses adopting AI in just the past twelve months – more than eight every hour.

In financial services, firms like Techcombank, TCBS and VPBank are deploying AI-powered developer tools across entire engineering organisations and reporting 25–40 per cent productivity improvements within months. In FMCG, Vinamilk and Vinasoy are using generative AI to manage retail compliance and e-commerce at scale. Việt Nam's startup ecosystem has climbed into the global top 50 for the first time, bolstered by great ideas from companies like NoteX, Diaflow and AI Hay.

Vietnamese businesses are already looking at what comes next – agentic AI, where AI systems can reason, plan, and act on a business’s behalf. According to the Strand study, 38 per cent of businesses are already aware of it, and among those using it, 68 per cent report increased operational efficiency. But only 17 per cent of businesses feel fully ready to embrace agentic AI. Closing that readiness gap through skills enablement, governance, and infrastructure is what will separate the leaders from the rest.

Việt Nam has traditionally been driven by manufacturing and export-led growth, while the country now aims for the digital economy to account for 30 per cent of GDP by 2030. Could cloud and AI become a new engine of productivity and economic growth, and where could we see the biggest impact first?

AI is an accelerant for companies who seized the benefits of the cloud early on. What we are seeing in Việt Nam is that industries that modernised first, such as financial services and manufacturing, are now reaping the biggest AI dividends.

Techcom Life is a great example of what happens when you build AI first from day one. As Việt Nam’s first AI-first, cloud-native life insurer, the company became the number one bancassurance within 60 days of launch, in part because every engineer was building on Kiro, our agentic AI development environment, from day one.

Manufacturing is another sector to watch. It already accounts for roughly a quarter of GDP and is one of the largest employers in Việt Nam. Vinamilk is using generative AI to process over 50,000 delivery verifications daily, saving approximately $3 million annually. Vinasoy used AI to scale retail display monitoring over four times to over 70 per cent of their stores, helping cut out-of-stock rates down by 20 per cent.

Việt Nam is moving quickly, including with its first AI law and growing investment in digital infrastructure. But what is the biggest obstacle that could prevent the country from fully realising its AI ambitions - skills, infrastructure, data, regulation, investment or something else?

In the Unlocking Vietnam’s AI Potential study, 54 per cent of businesses said skills shortages were their most pressing obstacle to AI adoption. Companies are recognising that skilling has evolved beyond an engineering issue to one about human judgement, and whether their employees have the critical thinking capabilities to be an AI-enabled team. When we dug deeper, we found that 57 per cent of firms identify critical thinking and judgement skills as becoming increasingly important in the next five years.  This suggests businesses are evolving their understanding of what being 'AI-ready' means.

Businesses need to realise that buying an AI solution is only the first step in a journey. Adopting AI requires new ways of working, new policies, training for your workforce, and more. Our research shows 61 per cent of AI adopters in Việt Nam are still at the exploratory stage. This means they’ve adopted at least one solution and put it into production but may still be feeling their way out with the tech.

The other piece is strategy, and Việt Nam is making progress. 23 per cent of firms now report a formal and comprehensive AI strategy, which is nearly double the 12 per cent of last year. These frameworks help cover governance, oversight, and risk management. They can also act as the basis for how to measure ROI formally and enable businesses to decide if a project should scale or be retooled.

That is why Government vision matters. Việt Nam has set a target of training 10 million workers with AI skills by 2030, including 10,000 highly qualified AI specialists. AWS is committed to doing our part to support this. We’ve already trained over 157,000 people in Việt Nam on cloud and AI skills since 2017.

Việt Nam has the infrastructure, the regulatory framework, and the ambition. The biggest unlock now is the organisational capability to turn AI adoption into AI-driven transformation at scale.

Large enterprises are increasingly investing in AI, but many SMEs and startups still face barriers to adoption. What needs to happen to ensure that AI does not simply benefit the largest companies, but becomes a productivity and growth engine for businesses across Việt Nam?

This is one of the most important questions of Việt Nam's AI journey as SMEs account for over 97 per cent of businesses in Việt Nam. It comes down to three mindset shifts for SMEs to seize the opportunity:

First, treat AI as something that is consumed rather than something that is built from scratch. Investing in adopting AI doesn’t have to be difficult.  SMBs can tap on AWS Partners in Việt Nam such as Katalon, TechX, and Renova Cloud, who have AI solutions available today. Việt Nam’s commitment to support 500,000 SMEs through digital transformation tools means there is an appetite from the Government to help. 

Second, think cloud-first. Its pay-as-you-go model means SMEs have the flexibility to scale up and down without costly fixed infrastructure bills; and it gives a five-man startup access to the same compute, capabilities and AI models larger companies have, including frontier AI capabilities, at the same prices, and without building from scratch. 

Third, think global from day one. NoteX, a voice AI platform, has reached over one million users across 20 markets in its first year. Diaflow has built an agentic AI orchestration platform with over 40,000 users, with 75 per cent of them in the US. These are Vietnamese founders building globally competitive AI products from day one. Venture capital follows great ideas, and Việt Nam has no shortage of these.

 

AWS is strengthening its infrastructure footprint in Việt Nam, including the launch of its first Local Zone in Hà Nội. Why is now the right time for AWS to deepen its investment in Việt Nam, and what does this tell us about how AWS views the country’s role in ASEAN’s digital future?

The short answer is that customer demand made the timing clear. But the deeper answer is about where we see Việt Nam heading. AWS has been here in Việt Nam since 2017 and over that time, we’ve seen the ambitions of Vietnamese businesses grow in a way that made deeper infrastructure necessary. We have progressively expanded - Edge Locations in 2022, our first Direct Connect location in Hà Nội in 2025, and now the Hanoi Local Zone in June this year. Each step was driven by what our customers were asking for.

The Local Zone addresses two areas our customers kept asking for. First, latency. Data can now be processed inside Việt Nam at near-single-digit millisecond latency. A bank can catch fraud before the transaction completes, and a manufacturer gets alerts before machinery breaks.

Second is data residency. Vietnamese financial institutions, for example, operate under strict requirements about where data lives. The Local Zone lets them meet those requirements without compromising on the speed and scale that cloud delivers. That’s a combination that simply was not possible before.

As for how we view Việt Nam's role, we take a long-term view. ASEAN has committed to unlocking a $2 trillion digital economy by 2030 through the Digital Economy Framework Agreement. Việt Nam is positioned to be one of the strongest contributors, with the country targeting a $200 billion digital economy by 2030 and becoming the first in Southeast Asia to enact a comprehensive AI Law. Governments across Southeast Asia, including Việt Nam, deserve recognition for their bold leadership in shaping policies and economic conditions that are accelerating growth and attracting global investment in AI and tech at an unprecedented pace.

Our investment in Việt Nam has been deliberate and sustained with nine years of progressively deeper infrastructure, and we see that continuing. Vietnamese organisations should be able to build, innovate, and compete at the same speed as anyone, anywhere - without leaving home.

Looking five years ahead, what would you like to see Việt Nam achieve in cloud and AI - and what role could Việt Nam play in shaping ASEAN’s next phase of digital growth? Could Việt Nam become not just a major consumer of AI, but a regional hub for AI innovation and development?

I would like to see Việt Nam recognised not just as a fast adopter of AI, but as an exporter of AI innovation.

There are already plenty of examples of how modernising has benefitted Vietnamese companies. VPBank recently used AWS to redesign a loan process that previously required filling in 150 fields across a four-page form.  Now it takes 20 fields and four steps.  They approved 300 cards in their first two days, improving customer trust, and satisfaction, while maintaining transaction security. 

Meanwhile, KidsEdu is helping to bring STEM education to underserved pre-school children globally in a sustainable manner.

What excites me most is the potential for Việt Nam to become a builder of AI solutions for the wider region. Southeast Asia needs locally relevant AI - models and applications that understand Vietnamese, Thai, Bahasa, and the distinct business contexts of our markets. Việt Nam has the right ingredients to lead that effort: deep engineering talent, entrepreneurial energy, a startup ecosystem now ranked in the global top 50, and a government that has moved decisively with one of the region's first dedicated AI laws.

The building blocks are in place. Now it is about ambition meeting execution, and everything I have seen tells me Việt Nam can move fast. VNS