AI powers business growth amid Vietnam’s digital transformation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly seen as a key driver of business growth in the new era as Vietnamese enterprises accelerate digital transformation and harness AI to improve efficiency, cut costs and unlock new revenue streams.

Amid sweeping digitalisation, AI is being rapidly deployed across core business functions, from customer service and operations to risk management and product development.

Irreversible trend

According to a report by Amazon Web Services (AWS) Vietnam, about 61% of Vietnamese businesses either expect or have already recorded improvements in operations and revenue growth thanks to AI, while 58% anticipate or have achieved cost savings through its adoption.

Domestic firms report that AI applications are now widely used across sectors. Common use cases include chatbots and virtual assistants providing 24/7 customer support, automated call centres classifying requests, electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) systems, and optical character recognition (OCR) for automated data extraction.

As a major AI solutions provider, the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said AI is playing an increasingly critical role in modernising the banking sector.

Beyond reducing costs and processing time, AI enhances accuracy and efficiency in complex tasks such as big data analytics, credit risk forecasting and personalised services. Leading banks can improve business performance by 27–35% through AI adoption. AI is also proving highly effective in fraud detection and prevention, helping cut up to 90% of fraudulent account-opening cases.

VNPT AI has deployed facial recognition (Face ID) solutions for many major domestic and international banks, processing nearly two billion authentication requests to date.

Meanwhile, FPT Corporation has partnered with global firms to develop AI agents capable of assisting users anytime and anywhere. In customer service centres, AI systems now handle around 70% of common inquiries and service requests, leaving the remaining 30% to human staff. As a result, labour productivity per employee has tripled.

According to a representative of Viettel AI under the Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel), AI is no longer confined to large and capital-intensive companies but is now widely adopted across businesses. Common applications include customer service, network operations and internal management. Customers can interact with chatbots or voicebots to request services or report issues, while many free AI tools are increasingly used by individuals as personal assistants—effectively acting as a “second brain.”

Pillar of growth and development

As AI reshapes the future of the economy, mastering core AI development capabilities has become vital for every nation. Recognising this trend, many companies are aiming to develop sovereign AI to address Vietnam-specific challenges.

VNPT General Director Huynh Quang Liem said the group began making strong and systematic investment in AI seven years ago, developing large-scale models capable of nationwide deployment. Alongside infrastructure, VNPT AI now brings together more than 200 well-trained AI and data science experts.

To date, VNPT has built over 100 specialised AI models, processed more than two billion requests and served around 40 million users, while partnering with over 200 enterprises and many state agencies. In late 2025, the group established VNPT AI, underscoring its determination and commitment to consolidating AI capabilities and advancing a “Data-Driven, AI-First” transformation strategy.

Analysis by Viettel AI shows Vietnam ranks among the countries with the world’s most active users of social media and digital platforms, generating vast volumes of data—an abundant resource for AI development. However, much of this data is held by foreign technology giants. Building strategies to leverage such data for AI training could enable the creation of models better tailored to local users while boosting domestic technological capacity.

Viettel is therefore developing a sovereign AI ecosystem, focusing on high-performance computing infrastructure and foundational AI models, supported by advanced platforms such as those from Nvidia, the firm said.

At FPT, AI is one of the five strategic pillars for future growth. Le Hong Viet, CEO of FPT Smart Cloud, said the group aims to master AI for Vietnam and has developed the AI Factory platform.

Initially designed for non-technical staff, the platform enables individuals to build their own virtual assistants. It also supports developers and researchers in creating, fine-tuning and commercialising AI models.

FPT has therefore proposed that the Government introduce mechanisms to accelerate AI adoption across businesses, ensuring that not only tech firms but all enterprises can leverage AI based on their readiness and needs. It also called for stronger public – private partnerships to expand access to computing power for people from all social strata, researchers and companies./.