Laura Nguyen, partner, GenAI Fund

Southeast Asia holds a unique competitive advantage: a richly diverse data environment closely tied to the real-world needs of key industries. Within that landscape, Vietnam stands out as a particularly compelling hub.

Vietnam’s AI ecosystem is gaining momentum thanks to three critical drivers: Enterprise demand is shifting from early-stage pilots like proof of concepts to deeper, real-world integration across core processes like customer service, risk management, compliance, supply chain optimisation, and performance marketing.

A responsive local talent pool, with young, capable engineers ready to learn and iterate quickly, supported by a vibrant startup community unafraid of experimentation.

Strong government engagement, with ongoing digital transformation efforts, open data initiatives, and digital sovereignty policies accelerating the development of homegrown AI.

In the next 3-5 years, we expect the enterprise AI solutions market in Vietnam to grow at a double-digit compound annual rate. GenAI-powered applications will take an increasingly large share, especially in sectors like finance and banking, retail and food and beverage, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, education, and public services.

Vietnam is becoming a magnet for global AI investors, not only because of its young population and rising demand but also due to a rare blend of cost-efficiency and practical execution capabilities. It is common to see global companies headquartered in Singapore but building out engineering teams in Vietnam.

Moreover, Vietnam’s market size is ideal for rapid testing of AI business models, especially in sectors such as retail banking, e-commerce, and export-oriented manufacturing. Supportive government initiatives, including sandboxes, innovation hubs, and flexible public-private collaboration mechanisms, are helping to create a favourable legal and business environment for AI startups.

If Vietnam continues to improve its data governance frameworks, invest in computational infrastructure, and standardise industry data, this competitive edge will be significantly amplified.

Despite the high potential, AI startups in Vietnam face significant challenges, particularly when it comes to converting technology into measurable economic value. The most pressing bottlenecks include data access and rights; computational infrastructure; enterprise integration, such as navigating security, compliance, and legal approvals; and talent gaps, especially the shortage of AI product architects, who can bridge technical, operational, and financial domains.

When assessing the Vietnamese AI market, international investors typically ask three critical questions: Is the product strong enough to achieve product-market fit? Does the startup have a sustainable competitive edge? Are there clear legal frameworks and attractive exit strategies? Only when these questions are addressed convincingly can startups move deeper into global value chains.

Rather than simply injecting capital, GenAI Fund embraces a co-invest to co-execute strategy. The fund collaborates with partners to design concrete use cases, connects startups with large enterprises for real-revenue pilots, and provides access to GPU infrastructure through partnerships with major players.

Beyond infrastructure, GenAI Fund supports go-to-market strategies, talent development, and market access programmes. The fund is clear on objectives, responsibilities, and outcomes.

With a long-term vision of building an AI economy and promoting AI sovereignty across ASEAN, the fund works closely with both startups and government stakeholders through Open Innovation programmes, matchmaking platforms that pair real-world use cases with AI solutions, and public education initiatives to raise awareness and understanding across local communities.

To participate more deeply in international markets, Vietnamese AI startups need to prepare not just on the tech side, but across market strategy, team structure, and business impact measurement. A key tactic is embedding their solutions into popular platforms like cloud services, enterprise resource planning systems, and core banking, shortening sales cycles and enhancing scalability.

From a policy perspective, the government can accelerate this growth by creating sandboxes for key sectors (finance, healthcare, education, and logistics); building shared infrastructure (GPU centres, green computing hubs, and domain-specific Vietnamese language datasets); developing aligned AI ethics and safety standards that are internationally recognised; and adopting innovation procurement mechanisms that allow public sector entities to test and buy from AI startups.

When the government plays both roles of clearing the path and being the first buyer, market momentum can accelerate rapidly.

Vietnam has all the right ingredients to become ASEAN’s AI deployment hub, including talent - a large enough domestic market to prove return on investment, and a spirit of getting things done. Particularly, GenAI Fund has a simple philosophy: to connect the right problem with the right data and the right team. Give them the resources, from GPUs to go-to-market, and stay with them until the product delivers measurable economic value.

When that happens, the AI economy will no longer be just a slogan. It will become real revenue, real productivity, and real growth for Vietnamese businesses.