Thailand’s AI Report Card: Strong Infrastructure but the Private Tech Sector Lags, Ranking 3rd in ASEAN

Key Indicators: Solid Standing in ASEAN, but Gaps Remain to Be Filled

The Government AI Readiness Index 2024 by Oxford Insights provides a clear picture of Thailand’s current position in the regional competition. Thailand scored 66.2 points, ranking 3rd in ASEAN, behind Singapore (84.3 points) and Malaysia (71.4 points).

While this is a respectable position regionally, the figures reveal a significant gap between Thailand and the leader, Singapore, and highlight intense competition with Malaysia—posing a major challenge for the country.

Deep Dive into Components: The Story of Imbalance

Examining the three main components of the index reveals an uneven AI readiness landscape, which is crucial to understanding Thailand’s situation:

• Strength – Data & Infrastructure: Thailand scores highest in this category, with 77.9 points, marking a notable increase of 7.3 points from 2023. This jump is directly linked to significant government investments in core infrastructure, such as the GDCC data center and the LANTA supercomputer, as discussed in previous reports.
• Strength – Government: Thailand also performs well here with 75.8 points, reflecting clear national strategic plans, strong vision, and effective governance frameworks. However, this represents a slight decrease of 1.4 points from 2023, possibly indicating challenges in translating policy into action or adapting to rapid technological changes.
• Weakness – Technology Sector: The most concerning area, with a relatively low score of 44.8 points. Although it increased by 3.5 points from last year, it still lags far behind other components and represents the key bottleneck for Thailand’s AI ambitions.

Table 1: Government AI Readiness Index Assessment Results (2023 vs. 2024)

Regional Comparison: Lessons from Leaders

Comparing Thailand with neighboring ASEAN countries illustrates the competitive landscape:

• Singapore (84.3 points): The undisputed regional leader, ranking 2nd globally, excelling in all components—especially Government (90.96) and Data & Infrastructure (93.14). Singapore sets the benchmark for a complete AI ecosystem.

• Malaysia (71.4 points): Thailand’s closest competitor, whose strengths and weaknesses provide lessons for bridging the gap.

• Vietnam (61.4) and Indonesia (65.9): Vietnam has overtaken the Philippines, while Indonesia is closely catching up to Thailand, showing consistent development trends. This highlights the competitive pressure in the region where stagnation could mean falling behind.

The Road Ahead: Bridging the Private Technology Gap

The index data clearly show that Thailand’s AI strategy follows a top-down approach: the government has built the “playing field” (infrastructure) and written the “rulebook” (governance), but the next critical step is to cultivate “world-class players”—a strong, vibrant private technology sector.

Low scores in the Technology Sector point to challenges such as domestic innovation capability, access to funding for AI startups, and commercialization of research and development. These challenges are directly tied to the urgent need for a skilled workforce, which will be explored in more detail in subsequent analyses.

The imbalance between high scores in Government/Data & Infrastructure and low scores in the Technology Sector reveals a structural weakness that could pose long-term risks. While the government has succeeded in building the supply-side of the AI equation—tools, platforms, and data infrastructure—the demand-side, namely domestic private sector innovation, is lagging. This misalignment may result in billions of baht invested in national infrastructure being underutilized by local players and potentially benefiting multinational corporations that are better resourced, leaving Thailand’s domestic economy with less advantage.

Therefore, the success of the national AI strategy depends critically on analyzing and addressing this key gap.