Thai businesses expect AI investment and return to accelerate, SAP research finds | ThaiPR.NET
Business15 ก.ย. 69 17:12
A new study by SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Oxford Economics has revealed that Thai businesses are seeing growing returns from AI as investment and adoption accelerate, with companies expecting AI ROI to nearly double over
A new study by SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Oxford Economics has revealed that the average company in Thailand expects to spend US$18.3 million (THB602.9 million) on AI this year, below the global average of US$28 million (THB922.5 million). However, AI investment is expected to grow by 44% in the next two years. The average Thai company expects to drive 18% ROI this year (US$3.5 million / THB115.3 million), a figure that is expected to grow to 35% in two years’ time (US$8.8 million / THB289.9 million).
Agentic AI is also emerging as an important source of future value. Nearly 8 in ten (78%) Thai businesses see agentic AI as having moderate to very high potential to transform their organizations, while expected ROI from agentic AI is projected to reach US$8.5 million (THB280 million / 13%) over the next two years. These insights have been revealed in new global research, The SAP Value of AI Report 2026, which surveyed 2,600 business leaders across 13 countries, including 200 from Thailand.
Commenting on the research, Kulwipa Piyawattanametha, Managing Director, SAP Indochina, noted, “Thai businesses are moving from AI experimentation toward execution, and we are beginning to see that momentum reflected in growing returns. The next opportunity is to connect AI with the data, processes and governance that enable businesses to scale AI responsibly and turn adoption into lasting business value.”
AI in Thailand coming closer to enterprise maturity
Today, almost a quarter of all tasks (24%) in the average Thai business are enabled by AI, a figure projected to increase to 42% over the next two years. Yet despite a rise in strategic AI investment (13%), nearly half of organizations (47%) still rely on fragmented AI deployments rather than enterprise-wide adoption.
Siloed approaches to AI adoption may be due to organizations still building the leadership, skills and operating models required to scale AI effectively. Less than half of Thai companies have a dedicated AI leader responsible for AI adoption (40%), leadership KPIs for AI (30%), or even leadership training on AI capabilities and risks (35%).
Yet, despite those challenges, 71% of Thai businesses are satisfied with their current AI ROI, while 55% believe their AI implementation is not yet delivering its full potential.
Some of this optimism is due to agentic AI. Yet, it is still early days for the technology, with only 2% of businesses saying they are fully prepared for agentic AI, while the majority say they are either partially prepared or not prepared at all.
Data, skills and governance gaps could hold back AI value
Thai organisations are facing a range of challenges achieving ROI from AI, including data, workforce, and governance issues.
Data readiness remains an important foundation for unlocking greater AI value. While 57% of Thai businesses say they are currently data-ready for AI, 70% identify data quality or availability issues as a challenge to achieving greater AI ROI. 79% of businesses experience low-quality AI outputs at least occasionally, causing rework, delays or backlogs.
The workforce is also evolving alongside AI adoption. Some 76% of Thai businesses are not convinced company-led upskilling is keeping pace with the evolution of AI tools. While 99% expect AI to have some impact on workforce planning, 81% are not convinced existing roles are changing quickly enough to fully take advantage of AI-enabled workflows.
The research also highlights the growing importance of responsible AI adoption. Some 74% of Thai businesses say employees use third-party AI tools at least occasionally without formal approval or oversight. Among the impacts reported, 63% cite inconsistent or inaccurate outputs and 62% report data leakage or intellectual property exposure.
“The next step to achieve value in AI will be to bring together data, processes, and AI. But businesses in Thailand must understand AI often provides value that is harder to measure than expected, and risk that moves faster than most governance can keep up with. Businesses are quickly discovering that AI governance plays a foundational role in unlocking the value from AI,” continues Kulwipa Piyawattanametha
Governance is a critical obstacle in the way of enterprise AI value. Only around one-in-ten businesses say either their skills (13%) or their processes and frameworks (14%) are fully ready to govern AI effectively.
These issues may be exacerbated in an agentic future. Today, 40% of Thai companies do not have a human-in-the-loop process for agentic workflows, 40% don’t have a standard approval process for agents, and only 39% have a registry of the agents in their business. This is critical, given almost two-thirds of Thai businesses (65%) either agree or don’t know if they’re deploying agents quicker than they can govern them.
“Realising real value from AI is not going to be easy because it demands a new approach,” concluded Kulwipa Piyawattanametha. “Businesses in Thailand, large and small, will need to connect AI to the data and processes that run their organisations, and make sure it has the context and governance to drive trusted results. That’s what we call the Autonomous Enterprise.”
This isn’t a technical change; it’s a human one. Because you can only achieve real value if agents, processes, and people work as one.”
Source: Spotlight Asia
Spotlight Asia