Jakarta, ThedailyID — Indonesia has become Southeast Asia’s largest market for artificial intelligence (AI) users, recording approximately 69 billion AI queries annually.
The country has more than 162 million monthly AI users, equivalent to 58 percent of its working-age population.
These figures come from the e-Conomy SEA 2026 report, compiled by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company.
Google Indonesia Country Director Veronica Utami said AI adoption across Southeast Asia continues to grow alongside improvements in technology and public confidence.
More than 60 percent of users in the region feel increasingly confident using AI, she said. Better tools now deliver more accurate answers and reduce the occurrence of AI-generated inaccuracies.
Veronica also highlighted the growing shift toward agentic AI, which allows users to delegate tasks to AI agents for automated execution.
She said 72 percent of users already rely on at least one form of automation in their daily activities.
Examples include AI agents that sort and deliver news every morning, track stock prices, order food, and purchase tickets based on users’ price limits.
This growing familiarity with automation could provide an important foundation for wider adoption of agentic AI.
Veronica projected that AI usage could increase up to 60 times by 2030, with agentic AI becoming one of its key growth drivers.
She also encouraged businesses to integrate AI beyond marketing and customer personalization. Companies could apply the technology to essential business operations, customer service, user interfaces, and cybersecurity.
However, she stressed that companies must also invest in employee skills and leadership capabilities to support AI adoption.
AI Productivity Still Has Room to Grow
Despite rapid user growth, AI adoption for productivity across Southeast Asia remains relatively limited.
Veronica said AI token usage in the region is significantly lower than in the United States and Europe. Southeast Asia’s usage currently stands at only around 10 percent of the US level.
In Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, approximately 80 to 85 percent of AI token usage remains concentrated in relatively simple consumer applications.
For example, asking AI to find nearby cafes requires less complex processing than asking it to build an application that simulates restaurant operations during breakfast service.
Veronica said one contributing factor is that most users access AI through mobile phones, which encourages everyday consumer applications.
Meanwhile, corporate AI adoption remains more widespread in countries such as the United States.
Across Southeast Asia, many AI users are small business owners, solopreneurs, freelancers, and students. They primarily use AI for everyday tasks rather than complex business operations.
She said the next opportunity lies in expanding AI use from information searches and daily assistance to coding and larger-scale applications.
Ultimately, AI’s value will become clearer when it helps people simplify tasks that were previously complex, Veronica said.
