The ASEAN AI Skills Barometer, published jointly by Boston Consulting Group and the ASEAN Foundation in March 2026, provides the most granular picture to date of how Southeast Asia's ten economies compare on AI workforce readiness. The findings are uncomfortable for several governments that have announced ambitious AI strategies without the training infrastructure to back them up.
The rankings
Singapore leads the region on every metric: AI professional density, quality of AI education, and enterprise AI adoption. The gap between Singapore and the next tier — Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam — is significant on all dimensions.
Vietnam has risen to second place on the AI professional growth rate metric, outpacing Malaysia despite the latter's longer history of technology sector development. Vietnam's improvement reflects strong mathematics education, a young population, and diaspora talent returning from US and European universities.
Indonesia's challenge
Indonesia ranks fifth overall but has the largest absolute training gap — the difference between current AI professionals and the number needed to realise its 2030 ambitions. The government's Kartu Prakerja upskilling programme has AI modules but they are basic, and reach into rural areas is limited.
The Philippines' surprising strength
The Philippines ranks fourth, driven by English language proficiency and the BPO sector's AI integration. Several global technology companies have announced AI quality assurance and AI training data operations in Manila — a new category of AI-adjacent employment the Philippines is well-positioned to dominate.
What CLMV is doing
Vietnam is a genuine exception within the CLMV grouping. Cambodia has made notable progress in coding education, supported by a USAID programme that has placed 60,000 young Cambodians in technology training since 2022, but has almost no pathway to AI-specific skills. Laos and Myanmar trail all metrics.