The disconnect is evident in earnings, with 60% of companies reporting that AI adoption has had less than 5% impact on ebit. “It’s not about technology, but how do you really think about going for the adoptions and thinking about capturing the value,” says Vivek Lath, a partner at McKinsey Singapore who co-authored the study. “Companies are moving, but we are seeing only a small portion of the companies are able to capture the value.”
Companies in Southeast Asia are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) faster than the global average, but most are failing to turn the move into profits.
A survey of 330 companies across six Southeast Asian markets by McKinsey, Singapore’s Economic Development Board and Tech in Asia found that 46% have moved beyond pilots. However, most remain in the “experimentation trap”, or isolated AI projects that stop short of changing the workflows that drive profits.
