The Artificial Intelligence Entrepreneur Association of Thailand (AIEAT) has set an ambitious goal to increase the number of local AI companies to 1,000 by 2028, aiming to strengthen Thailand's competitiveness.
The group has multiple strategies, including proposing the government support funding of AI R&D and collaborate with related parties to make AI a new growth industry.
"Our vision is to shape Thailand's future through AI, as we stand at a pivotal moment in the development of AI technology and innovation," Chanwit Boonchuay, the new president of the association, told the Bangkok Post.
He said businesses are leveraging AI to elevate Thailand's global capabilities.
The quality and number of AI entrepreneurs are a key foundation in ensuring Thailand's competitive edge, said Mr Chanwit.
Thailand had 133 AI entrepreneurs as of 2023, representing a 37% increase year-on-year. However, it is a small number when compared with other Asian countries, such as China, which has hundreds of thousands of AI companies.
"Our new committee aims to increase the number of the AI entrepreneurs to 1,000 within four years," said Mr Chanwit, who is also chief executive of Synapes (Thailand) Co Ltd.
Thailand's AI ecosystem is challenging due to limited funding sources and readiness of human resources, while R&D activities in the field of AI are still small scale.
He said government funding of R&D and innovation in AI development is a key factor to help the association achieve the goal of boosting the number of AI companies in the country.
Thailand requires a long term investment in AI R&D investment. It is critical to drive the country's GDP growth in the future by creating new businesses and enhancing key sectors, in particular healthcare and tourism, through the use of AI, improving their productivity and efficiency, he noted.
Mr Chanwit said AI R&D in Thailand should focus on applying the research carried out for commercial use, which could also be used as a foundation for others to leverage. This is a similar model to the country's launch of the OpenThai GPT open-source platform, which allows other developers to use it.
The Open ThaiGPT project is a next-generation form of AI using Thai language.
OPPORTUNITIES SOUGHT
Mr Chanwit said the government should open opportunities for local AI companies to develop public AI projects. The government has many projects that could help expand such business opportunities to local AI companies.
He said successful AI countries have large scale AI projects with hundreds of millions of users. These are the platforms the developers have used to develop their quality and accrue their experience, said Mr Chanwit.
Local AI companies can offer solutions tailored to handle Thai language data with AI model transparency, as well as strong after-sales service and value for money.
Mr Chanwit said local AI entrepreneurs can serve various industries, such as fintech, tourism and healthcare.
Tax incentives should be offered to enterprises that adopt AI technologies, he said, with a government matching fund used to encourage businesses to hire local AI companies to develop large-scale projects or their core business applications.
"This will make private business more open to embrace local AI companies," said Mr Chanwit.
The association will also promote AI service business as a new S-curve industry, he said.
"We need to invest in AI for the long term if Thailand aims to grow beyond 3% GDP growth and get out of the middle-income trap, as AI represents a new S-curve for economic development," said Mr Chanwit.
In the long term, if Thailand has many high-value AI projects and several AI companies, it would be able to attract skilled AI employees to work in the country, enhancing the value for Thailand's brand in terms of AI capabilities in the region, he said.
"We can establish Thailand as an AI hub in Southeast Asia by building strategies that strengthen the AI foundation and develop deep-tech solutions that create value, allowing us to export to neighbouring countries like Indonesia," said Mr Chanwit.
According to the AIEAT, local AI entrepreneurs posted combined revenue of around 9.7 billion baht in 2023, up from around 8 billion baht in 2022. The revenue is estimated to have risen by 50% in 2024, driven by the growing trend of using generative AI (GenAI).
Many universities have AI courseware, while several companies offer AI courses online. These offline and online courses combined produce around 10,000 graduates per year.
He said the economy raised companies' concerns about investing in AI amid declining profits.
"My estimate is only 10% of SET-listed firms are racing to adopt AI to increase competitiveness," said Mr Chanwit.
He said the recent establishment of hyperscale data centres in Thailand by foreign tech giants supports the need for enterprises to adopt AI. These centres should help make AI service prices more competitive, benefiting the entire AI ecosystem, said Mr Chanwit.
