Finding 01
Deep adoption, shoestring budgets
52% have AI embedded across the business, yet 77% pay $500 a month or less and cost is still the most-cited obstacle (53%).
Deep dive coming soon
Original research · Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific AI adoption in 2026, by the numbers
We asked founders and business leaders across 15 Asia-Pacific markets what their companies really do with AI: how deep it runs, what they pay, which tools they reach for, and what they get back.
91% are founders or co-founders and 73% run teams of 15 or fewer. This is the small-business and early-stage reality, not the enterprise one.
15 Asia-Pacific markets Founder-led, small teams Independent, original data
Fielded with the support of 
Three headline numbers run through the data: 83% of respondents use AI regularly or have it embedded, 77% spend $500 a month or less, and 89% plan to scale AI use in the year ahead.
83%
use AI regularly or have it embedded
AI is part of daily work in at least one area of the business, not parked in a side experiment.
77%
spend $500 a month or less
Deep adoption, shoestring budgets. 44% spend under $100 or use free tiers only.
89%
plan to increase AI use this year
64% plan to increase it significantly. Not one company plans to cut back.
Want the whole picture in one place?
Read the full report online, or take the PDF with you.
The findings
What the data shows
Three patterns run through the responses. Each one gets a full breakdown in the report, and a dedicated deep dive of its own, coming soon.
Finding 02
The frontier is a three-horse race
ChatGPT leads at 87%, but Gemini (74%) and Claude (73%) sit within 14 points. Google has caught the field, not trailed it.
Deep dive coming soon
Finding 03
Productivity is here. Revenue is not, yet.
71% report time savings and 66% faster development, but only 17% see revenue from AI so far. Efficiency lands first; revenue is the later prize.
Deep dive coming soon
Monthly AI spend
$0 (free tiers only) 13%
Under $100 / mo 31%
$100–$500 / mo 33%
$501–$2,000 / mo 13%
Over $2,000 / mo 8%
Share of respondents, by monthly spend band. Explore tools, results and areas in the interactive below, or see every breakdown in the full report.
In their words
The single biggest challenge, named
Things move fast in the world of AI, and things become outdated quickly. The constant staying-up-to-date is challenging, and then realigning workflows to match.
PM 
Pallavi Misra Professional Services, Singapore
Cost, and the customisation to what we are doing or plan to do. It is a supporting tool for now, rather than a main tool for our business.
FJ 
Fadzhairi Jabar Healthtech, Malaysia
The biggest challenge is that we haven't used AI for generating revenue. Current usage is mostly to optimise internal operations. We haven't found an AI tool we can use to help generate revenue in our current market.
AS 
Aldo Suryokusumo HR Tech, Indonesia
Having the time to experiment and swim through the sea of AI tools and noise that is out there.
JH 
James Hine Professional Services, Thailand
While AI has empowered our team to increase productivity significantly, the challenge remaining for us is making sure we can build the infrastructure and redesign our workflow to fully take advantage of AI.
TN 
Thu Nguyen B2B SaaS, Vietnam
We're using AI a lot, but we have potential for more complex automations and implementations that we're not able to do yet.
JE 
Juan Edgardo Tanyag Media & Content, Philippines
The single biggest negative factor is the reliability of the output with the same input. The second is rising cost, especially with video and audio in inputs and outputs.
GD 
Govinda Das Fintech, India
Turning promising AI pilots into consistent, scalable real-world impact. The challenge is integrating them into messy operations, ensuring data quality, and driving adoption so results actually stick.
NH 
Nahid Hasan Cleantech, Bangladesh
It's the 80/20 rule. We can get AI tools to 80% of what we need for them to flourish, but the effort to take things the rest of the way home is disproportionate.
PI
Phil Ingram Adtech, Hong Kong
The single biggest challenge our company faces with AI is training the AI itself.
FM 
Farhan Morshed B2B SaaS, Japan
There are too many AI tools, so it takes time to evaluate and test before we can really apply one.
CC
Chi-Kang Chiang Professional Services, Taiwan
Our biggest challenge is bridging the gap between fragmented factory-level data and the high-integrity, structured data AI needs to generate verifiable Digital Product Passports that meet strict EU regulations.
KS 
Kosal Sean Fashion Tech, Cambodia
Quoted with permission. Respondents who asked to stay anonymous are counted in the data but not named here.
Interactive
Explore the data yourself
Filter the responses by country, sector, company size and growth stage, and watch every chart recompute in real time. Drop your details to open the explorer.
Based in Asia-Pacific? I will also invite you to add your own company to the next round, so the picture keeps getting sharper.
Interactive explorer
Slice the responses your way
Filters
This filter leaves a small sample. Read the percentages as directional, not precise.
No founders match this combination of filters.
Based on n = 117 responses. Percentages are of the currently filtered group. Single-select questions (spend, outlook) sum to 100%; multi-select questions (tools, areas, results, obstacles) do not.
Founder or business leader in Asia-Pacific?
Add your company to the survey
If you run an APAC startup or SME, take three minutes to submit how your team uses AI. Your response sharpens the next update of this data, and you will see exactly where you stand against the region.
Take the surveyQuestions, answered
About the survey
What is the APAC AI Adoption Survey 2026?
An independent, original survey of founders and business leaders across 15 Asia-Pacific markets, measuring how their companies adopt AI, what they spend, the tools they use and the results they see. It was fielded 13 April 2026 to 2 June 2026 and the findings are free to read in full.
Who took part in the survey?
Mostly small, founder-led companies. 91% of respondents are founders or co-founders and 73% run teams of 15 or fewer, so the data reflects early-stage and small-business AI use across Asia-Pacific rather than large enterprises.
Which Asia-Pacific markets does it cover?
Founders and business leaders across 15 markets responded, with Bangladesh, Singapore and Indonesia the most represented. Markets with fewer than 15 responses are treated as directional rather than precise headline figures.
Can I add my company to the survey data?
Yes. If you are a founder or business leader based in Asia-Pacific, you can take the survey and have your answers reflected in the next update, then use the interactive explorer to see how your company compares with the region.
How can I explore the data myself?
Use the interactive explorer on this page to filter every chart by country, sector, company size and growth stage, and see how any slice of the region compares. For the complete write-up with every cross-break, read the full report.
How was the survey conducted?
Responses were collected from founders and business leaders across Asia-Pacific, de-duplicated by email keeping the most recent submission per person, with out-of-region and test entries removed. Free-text answers are stripped of links and contact details, and names appear only where a respondent gave explicit permission.
Is the survey data free to cite or reuse?
Yes. The findings are free to quote and link to with attribution to Dhawal Shah, dhawalshah.net. Suggested citation: Dhawal Shah, APAC AI Adoption 2026, dhawalshah.net, 2 June 2026.
Where can I see the full results?
The complete findings, every chart and the cross-breaks by company size and market are in the full report, which you can read online or download as a PDF.
Take it with you
Get the full Asia-Pacific AI adoption report
Every chart, cross-break and quote in one place. Read it online, or have the PDF sent to your inbox.
Method & thanks
How this survey was run
The figures on this page (n = 117) come from founders and business leaders across 15 Asia-Pacific markets, with Bangladesh, Singapore and Indonesia the most represented. The sample skews to small, founder-led companies: 91% of respondents are founders or co-founders and 73% run teams of 15 or fewer. Read it as a clear picture of early-stage and small-business AI use, not of large enterprises.
Responses were de-duplicated by email, keeping the most recent submission per person, and out-of-region and test entries were removed. Free-text answers are stripped of any links or contact details before publishing. Names appear only where a respondent gave explicit permission to be quoted; everyone else is counted but never named. All dollar amounts on this page are in US dollars (USD).
Huge thanks to
for sharing the survey with their founder community, and to every founder who took the time to answer honestly.