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Thailand has established itself as a regional artificial intelligence (AI) powerhouse by prioritizing the development of small language models (SLMs) to serve specific sectors and expand the use of AI applications across the industry.
It also stimulates AI demand through the procurement of public projects of AI projects worth at least 2 billion baht.
The country lays the foundation for a comprehensive AI regulation and governance framework to ensure responsible and sustainable adoption.
“Thailand is an AI strategy: Where are we?” said Sak SegkhoonThod, senior advisor at Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA). Yesterday, a seminar was held as part of Bangkok AI Week 2025 and will be held until Friday.
He highlighted the urgency that Thailand defines its role in the world's AI landscape. Thailand is not yet a global tech leader, but ranks seventh out of 125 economies worldwide for the digital economic growth momentum of the 2025 Digital Evolution Index.
This shows that with a proper strategic approach, Thailand is suited to emerge as a regional AI powerhouse, Sac added.
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has established two broad strategies for AI development in Thailand: AI preparation and AI adoption.
AI Readiness focuses on building basic infrastructure and talent development. Over the next two years, Thailand aims to develop over 10 million AI users, at least 90,000 AI professionals and at least 50,000 AI developers.
The government will invest at least 6 billion baht in talent development.
For AI infrastructure, the government encourages investment in cloud data centres. Cloud data centers are expected to attract investment worth 500 billion baht.
This includes the development of open source AI infrastructure and national data banks, with the government's budget of 2 billion baht.
The AI adoption dimension is aimed at promoting tangible AI integration between the major national sectors: healthcare, tourism, agriculture and the public sector.
In July, ETDA seeks Cabinet approval to support AI governance across all public institutions.
The agency will also provide AI governance training to support the deployment of AI projects through the AI Governance Practice Center (AIGPC), which will be released in software in October.
Sak also said the government should use the public sector to promote AI demand by setting up government procurement on AI projects worth at least 2 billion baht. This could be supported by the 4 billion baht DE fund.
Siriraj Hospital and Medical Startup, an instructor at Sidata+ Center, said that Thailand's medical AI sector can compete with the Singapore and Vietnamese sectors.
“We have talented professionals and excellent doctors, but we need to create a market for medical technology and fund those MedTech startups to maintain the talent of the nation,” he said.
Dr. Pierit emphasized that AI has become a strategic global race, especially between the US and China. This is because both countries are accelerating efforts to develop artificial general information that is expected to emerge early next year.
Thailand should focus on customizing small language models that can be applied to the implementation of business and AI-based applications.
“Using SLMS from our startups helps us save computing costs when providing our services,” says Dr. Piyalitt.
Pochara Arayakarnkul, CEO of Bluebik Group Public Co Ltd, said that AI represents Thailand's path to survival.
In the AI value chain, it may be difficult for Thailand to compete directly with global high-tech giants in developing basic models.
The country can strategically leverage open source models to customize small language models in key areas, including Thai language and culture, genetic data for precision medicine, and AI-driven credit risk scoring, to build localized expertise.
