Thailand can gain a geopolitical advantage from Taiwan by manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) batteries and auto components, including integrated circuit packaging and testing.
Thailand should embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to raise standards, reduce costs and accelerate product delivery amid economic challenges, according to Taiwan startup Profet AI.
"Around 40% of our 300 Taiwanese customers are considering moving or relocating factories to Thailand to minimise the geopolitical challenge," said Jerry Huang, co-founder and chief executive of Profet AI.
EV battery and auto parts businesses are among those looking to move to Thailand, he said.
Mr Huang said makers of semiconductors, printed circuit boards and integrated circuit packaging and testing also have the potential to relocate factories to Thailand, as their plants in Penang are running at full capacity. Other potential businesses include small robotics and startups from Taiwan.
Thailand is one of the strategic markets in Southeast Asia as it has national AI strategic and action plans, while corporate users are eager to embrace AI and digital transformation projects, he said.
Profet AI provides AI applications for the manufacturing industry. Its no-code AutoML (machine learning) helps customers achieve rapid deployment of AI applications with fewer data scientists or without the need for data scientists and can deploy AI predictive models for better decision-making.
In the non-manufacturing sector, the predictive model can help predict the win rate of projects for sales managers.
"Thailand needs to prepare data capability and infrastructure to capitalise on these opportunities," he added.
Mr Huang said the company has a local partnership with HexaTech Solutions to help support localisation and assist customers who have moved to Thailand.
Moreover, the company plans to open an R&D centre for product development within the next 12 months, particularly the development of the large language model in Thailand, to support local requirements.
"We seek domain experts in the food and beverage and automotive sectors for our R&D. We see AI democratisation in the future, which everyone can access, as becoming part of the DNA of everyday life," said Mr Huang.
Bancha Dhammarungruang, chief executive of Hexa, said AI investment in Thailand is estimated to be worth US$4 billion in 2030, up from $1 billion in 2024.
Hexa will capitalise on this opportunity to deliver total services for customers by using the combined capabilities of its co-founders, ICS, a leading provider of software, cloud services, data services and AI in the region, and PacRim Group, a premier leadership development company.
"We believe that this holistic approach is the key to unlocking true transformation and achieving sustainable growth," said Mr Bancha.
"We signed a strategic partnership with Profet AI, which is a global leader in no-code AutoML, that helps differentiate and increase competitiveness of our customers."
Sampan Silapanad, president of the Electronics & Computer Employers Association and advisor to the Board of Investment (BoI), said both Chinese and Taiwanese businesses, in particular in printed circuit board production, are setting up manufacturing bases in Thailand to minimise geopolitical risk.
According to the BoI, in the first six months of this year the top target industries with the highest investment value were electronics and electrical appliances worth 139.7 billion baht, followed by automotive and parts worth 39.9 billion baht.
Other major investment was in future industries that are important for restructuring the economy, such as advanced electronics manufacturing, semiconductors and integrated circuits totalling 10 setting projects with investment of 19.5 billion baht.
A further 31 projects are related to printed circuit board manufacturing with total investment of 39.7 billion baht.