Southeast Asia adopts AI fast, but few people pay for it

Southeast Asia has taken up AI quickly, yet almost nobody pays for it. About 243 million people in the region use generative AI, which is software that creates text, images and answers on request. Only 1% to 2% of people pay for a personal AI subscription, according to a new report from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.

What the report found

The annual e-Conomy SEA report says that 243 million users equals 58% of the working population. It reached that level in less than three years. Adoption is moving four times faster than mobile internet did.

Even so, people in the region use AI far less than people in the U.S. Usage per person is just 10% of U.S. levels.

Where the money is

Florian Hoppe, a partner at Bain & Company, told CNBC that companies earn value from AI in ways that do not involve a consumer subscription. Businesses use it to turn more visitors into buyers and to answer routine customer questions, which frees employees for other work. Shoppers may also pay indirectly when they buy products made with AI.

• Shopee, an e-commerce platform, handles about 80% of customer queries with AI chatbots.
• That helped Shopee cut its cost per customer contact by 30% year on year.
• Early case studies show conversion rates up 10% year on year.
• Some cases show the average spend per order rising by as much as 75%.

How shoppers use it

About 69% of shoppers use AI to compare complex purchases such as electronics. Trust is also growing. Some 62% of respondents say they trust AI tools more than they did a year ago. And 75% of users would let AI agents find the best prices and complete purchases for them.

Hoppe described consumers as having "pragmatic optimism," meaning they like AI for its practical benefits. He called them "very experimental" and named Singapore as an early leader.

The bigger market

The region's digital economy is projected to grow 17% to $368 billion in gross merchandise value this year, which is the total value of goods sold. The report expects it to pass $1 trillion by 2035. Online media is forecast to rise 22% to $44 billion. Ride-hailing and food delivery are forecast to grow 15% to $40 billion. Online travel is forecast to grow 10% to $59 billion.