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Despite concerns around risk, most respondents remain optimistic about AI’s broader impact, with emerging markets such as Vietnam and Thailand indicating strong optimisim, where many expect AI to boost productivity, spur digital innovation, and unlock new economic opportunities.
Over-dependence on AI has emerged as the top concern for workers across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, with 53% of respondents ranking it as their main worry. This outpaces concerns about privacy issues (40%) and job loss (34%).
Milieu Insights' recent survey on how Southeast Asian workers perceive AI-related risks shows that, while concerns about job displacement remain significant, employees are increasingly focused on how AI might reshape decision-making, critical thinking, and professional autonomy. Rather than seeing AI mainly as a threat to jobs, many workers are uneasy about its potential to erode human judgment and capabilities.
The results of the survey is as follows:
Fear of losing judgement, not jobs
Concern about dependency on AI is consistently high across six markets in Southeast Asia:
- Indonesia: 61%
- Thailand: 55%
- Philippines: 53%
- Vietnam: 50%
- Malaysia: 49%
- Singapore: 49%
On the other hand, concern about job loss is notably lower in:
- Philippines: 42%
- Singapore: 39%
- Indonesia: 34%
- Thailand: 33%
- Malaysia: 33%
- Vietnam: 24%
While job displacement remains a significant issue, the data suggests that workers are more focused on maintaining their independent capability than on the threat of outright replacement.
Expectation that AI can assist but with major workflow changes
When asked how they expect AI to affect their role in the next five years, the most common response across the region was:
- 41% say AI will assist them but not replace their core tasks.
- 51% say AI will help them save time on repetitive work, allowing greater focus on higher-value responsibilities.
- 26% expect significant parts of their role will be automated and they will need to adapt to new methods.
- 10% believe their job may be replaced entirely.
- 10% expect AI will create new opportunities or responsibilities.
Optimism about AI's broader impact
Despite notable concerns, respondents are generally positive about AI’s broader impact:
- 41% describe themselves as somewhat optimistic, believing benefits will outweigh risks.
- 13% are very optimistic.
By market, optimism is highest in:
- Vietnam: 66% optimistic
- Thailand: 58% optimistic
Singapore records the highest combined pessimism at 15%. Across emerging Southeast Asian markets, the relatively strong optimism likely reflects expectations that AI will drive productivity, digital innovation, and new economic opportunities across the region.
Strong AI demand, but organisational readiness gaps persist
Despite strong AI adoption intent across the region, readiness gaps remain.
Top barriers to workplace AI adoption include:
- Data security and privacy concerns
- Singapore: 50%
- Vietnam: 45%
- Indonesia: 44%
- Malaysia: 42%
- Philippines: 40%
Lack of technical skills ranks second overall, followed by concerns about cost and employee resistance.
Digital infrastructure gaps vary between markets:
- Thailand: 26%
- Indonesia: 23%
- Malaysia: 17%
- Singapore: 14%
The data reflects the differences in organisational maturity across markets.
Perceived organisational preparedness is generally low:
- Vietnam: 25% say their organisation is “very prepared” with clear strategies, resources, and training
- Philippines: 14%
- Indonesia: 13%
- Malaysia: 12%
Across all markets, the majority describe their organisation as only “somewhat prepared”.
Employer encouragement to use AI is also limited:
- Singapore: 25% report active encouragement
- Vietnam: 38% (the highest in the region)
In short, the data shows that Southeast Asia is eager to adopt AI, but many organisations are still in the early stages of building the governance, training, and infrastructure needed to support widespread adoption.
"While sentiment across the region remains broadly optimistic, this suggests the issue is not resistance to AI itself, but whether organisations are putting the right training, guardrails, and disciplines in place," Sundip Chahal, Group CEO of Milieu Insight said.
Methodology
The study surveyed 500 working professionals in each of six Southeast Asian markets: Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, for a total of 3,000 respondents. Fieldwork was conducted between 2–10 February 2026, using a consistent methodology across all markets to enable direct regional comparison.
Respondents spanned a range of organisation types, led by private large companies with 200 or more employees (24%), private local SMEs (20%), and multinational corporations (19%). They came from a wide spread of industries — with engineering and manufacturing (13%), retail (11%), and information technology and sales (10% each) among the most represented.
Multiple dimensions were assessed, including:
- AI familiarity and tool usage among workers
- Organisational AI adoption and employer encouragement
- Trust in AI outputs and worker confidence with AI technologies
- Barriers to AI adoption and primary concerns about AI in the workplace
- Perceptions of AI's impact on jobs and the future of work in Southeast Asia
READ MORE: 22% of Hong Kong workers use GenAI daily, compared to APAC average of 29%
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