Regional firms ramping up AI deployment

Interest in agentic expected to surge

- SUCHIT LEESA-NGUANSUK

Asia-Pacific companies are shifting rapidly from artificial intelligence (AI) trials to full-scale deployment.

Some 96% of regional IT leaders plan to increase Al spending this year, up 15 percentage points from last year, despite tight global IT budgets, according to the 2026 CIO Playbook commissioned by Lenovo.

The report highlights a strategic pivot from routine automation towards revenue growth and reinvention in a tight economic climate.

"The word race here is intentional. It's no longer about Al experimentation.

It is all about how fast and how at scale you can drive AI to drive business outcomes in your organisation," said Rakshit Ghura, vice-president and general manager of Lenovo Digital Workplace Solutions.

"This is all about making Al a business growth engine."

According to the report, which surveyed 920 chief information officers (CIOs) in Asia-Pacific, including Southeast Asia and Thailand, 88% expect a positive return from investment from Al this year, with an average return of 2.8 times.

Funding is primarily directed towards Generative AI (GenAI), AI agent development, public cloud AI services, on-premise AI infrastructure and Al security/transparency tools.

The top three business priorities for Al among respondents include changes to increase revenue, enhancing/innovating business, and improving the customer experience.