Survey says strong appetite to adopt AI among Thai firms

Roughly 17% of Thai organisations are already using artificial intelligence (AI) and 73% plan to do so in the future, according to a recent survey.
The use of AI is increasing, according to Readiness for the Application of AI Technology for Digital Services in 2024, a joint survey carried out by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) and National Science Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).
The researchers approached 3,758 organisations from July to September 2024, with 580 responding to the survey.
The survey covered both public and private sector organisations across 10 groups specified in the country’s AI Action Plan, ranging from agriculture and food to finance and trade.
The results classified AI organisational readiness at four levels. The first level was unaware or in the initial learning phase, followed by aware and starting to implement AI.
The third level was ready and prepared to use AI, followed by competent, defined as a strong capability in utilising AI.
Kalaya Udomvitid, vice-president of NSTDA, said the findings revealed 17.8% of organisations have already implemented AI, up from 15% last year.
Some 73.3% of organisations plan to adopt AI in the future, up from 56% last year, while 8.9% have no plans to use it, down from 28.2% year-on-year. This suggests the adoption of AI in organisations across Thailand is expected to increase rapidly, she said.
The top three goals of organisations using AI are to: enhance production or service efficiency, improve internal management, and create added value for their products and/or services.
The survey also indicated organisations using AI have an average readiness score of 55.1% and recognise the importance of AI technology by integrating it into their operations.
For organisations that have not yet implemented AI, the top three reasons are: unsure of how to apply AI, awaiting leadership policies that emphasise the necessity of AI adoption, and a lack readiness or budgetary support, including the return on investment needed for effective AI implementation.
Organisations are increasingly adopting generative AI (GenAI) to enhance their operations.
The top three areas of implementation are product and service development/R&D; marketing, sales and customer service; and production processes.
However, organisations face significant challenges in leveraging GenAI, including a shortage of skilled personnel, concerns regarding the quality of the data used, and inadequate funding for the acquisition and development of the necessary technology for effective implementation, according to the survey.
No respondents wanted to completely replace human jobs with AI, despite the potential for GenAI to automate certain tasks.
Instead, the emphasis was training personnel to collaborate more effectively with GenAI.
Chai Wutiwiwatchai, executive director of National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec), said the agency expects the prime minister to endorse the establishment of a National AI committee by the end of this year to execute the second phase of the country’s National AI Strategy and Action Plan (2024-27).
Mr Chai said the nation needs to establish a national AI centre to develop a national policy strategy to promote human development of AI and provide facilities for building proof of concept AI use cases to help reduce the cost for organisations.
He said Nectec is awaiting a budget of 1 billion baht for the development of an AI workforce, amounting to 30,000 workers.
Chaichana Mitrpant, executive director of ETDA, said by next month the agency will introduce GenAI risk guidelines for organisations.
The agency also plans to explore AI regulations related to self-driving vehicles and intellectual property rights for media using Gen AI in its work, said Mr Chaichana.