IBM Thailand is striving to propel Thai organizations into the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) by addressing barriers to adoption. Anothai Wettayakorn, the country general manager of IBM Thailand, has set a goal to increase the adoption rate of generative AI (GenAI) from the current 5-6% to 15-20% in the upcoming year, aiming to enhance Thai competitiveness.
While 10% of organizations worldwide have embraced AI, Thailand has seen numerous pilot projects and proof of concept work in GenAI this year, but deployment on a larger scale has been limited. Anothai highlights concerns such as technology infrastructure readiness, security, AI skills, and regulations as hindrances to widespread AI adoption in the country.
According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, approximately 75% of global organizations are piloting GenAI in multiple functions. Gartner’s research indicates that nearly half of businesses have progressed from AI exploration to pilot stages, with 10% achieving real AI implementation, and 30% of GenAI projects projected to be abandoned by 2025 post proof of concept.
The 2024 AI Governance Report from IBM reveals that accuracy and bias are major concerns for chief executives, posing potential challenges despite the benefits promised by GenAI. Collaboration between finance and technology functions is deemed crucial for organizational success, with Thai chief executives expressing the need for clarity on standards and regulations before major tech investments are made.
While the banking, telecom, and retail sectors have been early adopters of AI this year, the healthcare, manufacturing, and education sectors are expected to follow suit next year. Anothai emphasizes the importance of AI strategies, high-impact use case selection, risk acceptance, and project scalability for organizational competitiveness.
IBM’s study indicates that early adopters of GenAI have achieved an average AI return on investment of 31% in 2023, surpassing the 13% ROI in 2022. Anothai asserts that despite the lack of full readiness for AI adoption, it will become a fundamental technology in the near future.
To expedite organizations’ adoption of GenAI, IBM is focusing on four critical factors. These include open-source AI models to foster innovation, a trusted data foundation for interoperability, scaling GenAI with governance for risk mitigation, and ecosystem integrations to support model growth.
IBM’s open-source Granite 3.0 AI model offers smaller, customizable solutions for GenAI deployment, enabling cost-effective alternatives to large language models. With the Thai GenAI market projected to reach US$180 million this year and a compound annual growth rate of 46.5% from 2024-2030, the AI market in Thailand is poised for significant expansion, reaching an estimated market volume of $1.77 billion by 2030.
By 2030, Thailand’s AI market size is expected to reach 114 billion baht, with 300 AI use cases contributing significantly to industries such as manufacturing, insurance, automotive, and healthcare. As Thailand navigates the evolving landscape of AI adoption, IBM remains committed to driving innovation and collaboration to propel organizations towards AI-driven success.
