Artificial intelligence can help Vietnam become a new technology bright spot

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Vietnam is developing rapidly and gradually asserting itself as a key and breakthrough technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This process also faces many challenges and barriers while simultaneously affecting all aspects of life, economy and society.

The race is getting stronger

Globally, the race to develop AI is getting stronger and is expected to significantly change behavior, not only for individual users but also for businesses.

To promote the potential and practical opportunities for AI development solutions, the National Innovation Center (NIC), Ministry of Planning and Investment, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), organized the seminar "AI Frontier: Funding and Futures in Vietnam" within the framework of the Vietnam Innovation Challenge (VIC) program on May 22.

Sharing about the future of AI, Mr. Kai Yong Kang, Business Development Manager for startups from Amazon Web Services (AWS), commented that 2024 is called "the year of products."

“We’re going to start seeing people talking about how to integrate and leverage AI. The use of foundation models (which are used to provide a basis for AI systems to perform different tasks) is just one part of a larger system with technologies like vector databases and orchestration engines,” Kai stressed.

In the very broad scope of AI, GenAI (Generative AI) is the hottest topic in recent times. This is a step forward in technology that can simulate human intelligence by creating new content (typically text, images, music, videos) from the data it is trained on. Accordingly, GenAI completely changes the behavior and way people work, study, entertain, create art, having a profound impact on all aspects of life.

Regarding this, Ms. Le Vy, CEO of Do Ventures fund, said that technology companies are investing heavily in generative AI.

“It was surprising when I met the founders of GenAI, even though they were still university students, they had created products that brought in significant revenue,” Ms. Vy shared.

According to Ms. Vy, the startup environment in Vietnam has made great strides in the past few years. In fact, the most important factor for startups to develop is creating a nurturing environment and favorable infrastructure. Currently, Vietnam has a stable economy, a rapidly developing ecosystem, a favorable startup environment, low costs, and support from government policies and large enterprises, creating favorable conditions for AI startups to develop.

“From Do Ventures’ portfolio, I see that many GenAI founders have benefited from partnering with large corporations, which have huge systems and data. This is especially impressive when corporations in Vietnam all have policies to cooperate with startups,” said Ms. Vy.

Huge capital flows are pouring in

In addition, Ms. Le Vy said that a huge amount of capital is being invested in GenAI startups in leading technology centers such as Silicon Valley and Europe. However, she also noted that the AI ​​market, although "fertile", is also changing rapidly, as applications are constantly updated. Therefore, investors in the region need to consider carefully before deciding to cooperate with a GenAI startup.

Ms. Vy believes that one should only invest a small amount initially to assess the situation, or wait for the technology product to become more "mature" and this is a popular strategy being applied by investment funds.

“The three key factors when evaluating an AI startup are competitive advantage, revenue model (usually created within 6 months to 1 year), and human resources,” said Ms. Vy.

Meanwhile, Ms. Laura Nguyen, Partner at GenAI Fund, emphasized that the top concern of investment funds is to ensure the sustainability of startups' business models. Especially in the context of technology "giants" such as Google and Microsoft with huge amounts of data that can "jump in" at any time.

Therefore, Ms. Laura believes that GenAI startups need to focus on protecting their businesses from risks from the AI ​​market, while always being innovative and creative.

In the field of AI, pioneering countries such as the US and China have a big advantage in technology infrastructure, but experts agree that Vietnam still has the opportunity to participate and compete at the application level.

According to Ms. Valerie Vu, Founder of Ansible Ventures, with their intelligence and capabilities, Vietnamese engineers can completely reach out to the world with AI applications.

“While Western countries focus on software development, Vietnam has the advantage of high-quality human resources, taking on both software and hardware development,” said Ms. Valerie.

Ms. Valerie added that many founders in markets with developed innovation ecosystems such as the US and Singapore are interested in and looking to enter the Vietnamese market. They are looking for opportunities to connect with local partners and believe that the AI ​​sector in Vietnam can be upgraded with support from large global technology corporations. In addition, many startups developing or applying AI in their operations believe that the AI ​​sector in Vietnam can be upgraded with support from large global technology corporations.

AI is still the future trend

At the seminar, investors said that AI and its applications have been the hottest topic attracting the attention of technology investors in 2024 and will continue to be a trend in the next 3-5 years.

For AI to penetrate every corner of life, contribute to the country's socio-economic development and further improve work efficiency as well as the quality of life of each citizen, Vietnam needs strong incentives from policies, many highly applicable products and especially high-quality human resources, data and computing infrastructure as well as increased international cooperation with the world's leading "brains" and AI research and development enterprises.

Representing the Best Typical Solution of the Startup category at VIC 2023, Mr. Taddy Truong, General Director of BenKon, shared about the business journey at the program.

In addition to the networking opportunities and support packages from VIC, BenKon and 3 other solutions were honored by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the Inauguration Ceremony of NIC Hoa Lac in October 2023. From the stories of businesses, Mr. Taddy hopes that solutions wishing to participate in this year's program will clearly understand their competitive advantages, know how to effectively persuade, thereby building positive recognition.

With the role of coordinating, creating legal corridors and supporting policy mechanisms, the representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that there are initial efforts in building the foundation for the ecosystem. Specifically, the Vietnam Innovation Challenge Program co-organized with Meta Group is one of the key programs.

With the 2024 theme focusing on the semiconductor and artificial intelligence industry, businesses participating in the program will have the opportunity to introduce solutions and cooperate with technology corporations and receive investment commitments from investment funds and leading domestic and international corporations. In addition, businesses will also be connected and join the NIC and Meta ecosystems with support packages, capacity building, trade promotion opportunities, and many other awards.

According to a representative from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, although the full potential of GenAI has yet to be fully assessed, its significant impact on governance, the labor market, careers and daily work is undeniable. Therefore, in 2024 and the coming period, businesses need to make this topic one of their key topics. This is the opportunity to break through or become backward.

With strong policy incentives and support from programs such as the Vietnam Innovation Challenge, speakers shared the view that AI has great potential to contribute to socio-economic development, improve the quality of life and work efficiency in Vietnam.