The Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) will promote tax incentive measures to encourage individuals to personally upskill themselves in the field of digital knowledge.
Depa has already promoted similar tax incentives to encourage companies to upskill employees in terms of digital knowledge as part of its policy of bolstering the country's competitiveness by developing a digital workforce for the future.
Individuals who take Depa-certified digital courses or train with its certified partner networks will be able to deduct 100% of their registration fees for digital courses from their personal income tax up to a total of 100,000 baht.
Depa is working with the Revenue Department to introduce this new tax incentive for individuals, effective for a period of five years. The measure is expect to be rolled out in 2025.
"We hope all 10 million taxpayers will enjoy this benefit," said the agency's president Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin.
Businesses that send employees for training on Depa-certified digital courses or to train with members of its certified partner network can now deduct 250% of the training expenses from their corporate income tax.
Furthermore, businesses can deduct 150% of the first 12 months' salary of their staff who are new graduates in digital fields from their corporate income tax.
"Depa is accelerating its efforts to promote Thailand's digital workforce through its digital skills roadmap, aiming to enhance digital knowledge and skills for all Thai citizens," Mr Nuttapon said. He was speaking during a recent Global Tech Talk seminar titled "AI: Empowering the Future Workforce", co-hosted by Siam Paragon and SCB X.
The Depa 2025 digital skills roadmap focuses on preparing individuals for new careers in nine emerging industries and promoting advanced digital skills in professions in which Thailand currently faces a shortage.
The nine so-called "careers of the future" are gaming, animation, characters, digital farming, digital influencers, digital entrepreneurs, digital administrators, data administrators, and digital marketing.
Digital professionals that are in short supply are those in data and artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain engineering, 5G, quantum computing, and cloud innovation.
Depa aims to provide basic digital literacy to 1 million people via an online channel, and wants to provide training on skills pertaining to the nine future careers to 80,000 graduates in the workforce and six digital skills to 20,000 people.
Brett King, a world-renowned futurist and speaker, said during the same seminar that AI is reshaping employment across industries and will eliminate many jobs, both white-collar and blue-collar, as it automates repetitive tasks, including roles such as drivers, surgeons and lawyers.
AI will disrupt every industry and radically reshape the workforce within the next 10 to 20 years, he added.
Although AI will replace many jobs, the opportunities it creates will be in areas where human emotional intelligence, creativity, and higher-order thinking will still be valuable skills.
"The key to surviving and thriving in this future is adaptability. People must embrace AI, learn to use it in their daily work, and adopt new technologies early on."
He said the future economy would be shaped by collaborative intelligence, in which people work alongside AI to solve complex problems.
Mr King also foresees significant opportunities in climate resilience industries. There will be enormous demand for AI-driven solutions in infrastructure, agriculture, and environmental management.
Users who can successfully integrate AI into their careers will thrive, while those who resist will be left behind. They might only have five years in which to reskill or upskill.
In the future, much of the global economy may be AI-driven, with machines interacting with other machines, leaving people to focus on more meaningful tasks, such as creating art, improving human relationships, and solving complex, emotional problems.