Artificial intelligence in the activities of Vietnamese startups as a tool for digital support of the ASEAN-led economic integration

The article attempts to identify the potential of Vietnamese startups that use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in stimulating multilateral economic cooperation in Southeast Asia. On systemizing directions on which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provides its multilateral projects and initiatives with digital support, the article proceeds to its efforts to integrate startups, including those using AI tools, into ASEAN-led multilateralism. Salient features of the SRV’s regulatory approach to digital processes, including those in the AI field, are revealed. Exemplified by selected cases, the activity of Vietnamese AI startups and their trans-boundary potential is analyzed. The research question of the article is as follows: why are AI startups, as demonstrated by the Vietnamese experience, unable to contribute significantly to stimulating economic integration in Southeast Asia? The author argues that the reason accounts for a double obstacle that such startups encounter. The first is the modality of ASEAN cooperation, the main components of which have not undergone a fundamental revision in the digital reality, while the second accounts for the conservative approach of national regulators to data localization. The latter is exemplified by the SRV’s experience, but is typical to other ASEAN countries. Collectively, those factors make a serious obstacle for Vietnamese AI startups to expand their trans-boundary activities, which reduces their effectiveness as a tool for stimulating ASEAN-led multilateral projects and initiatives.