The ASEAN+ markets are outpacing Asia Pacific (AP) peers in hybrid infrastructure adoption for AI workloads, with 68 percent of organizations favoring on-premise or hybrid setups, according to Lenovo’s latest CIO Playbook 2025: It’s Time for AI-nomics, developed in partnership with IDC. The uptake, the study finds, reflects the region’s drive for secure, low-latency AI operations, particularly in fast-digitizing economies like the Philippines.
The study, surveying 2,900+ global IT leaders, including 900+ from 12 AP economies, also reveals a 3.3 times increase in AI spending across AP, and a 2.7 times rise in ASEAN+1, signaling strong regional momentum toward AI deployment. Yet, despite this investment, return on investment (ROI) remains the top challenge, especially in ASEAN+ where only 47 percent of organizations are actively implementing or planning AI initiatives within a year—below AP’s 56 percent average.
While AI Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) has emerged as the #1 priority for AP CIOs, only 24–25 percent of organizations in ASEAN+ and AP have fully implemented AI GRC frameworks. This exposes a critical gap: accelerating AI adoption without comprehensive guardrails may heighten organizational and regulatory risks.
The Philippines, in particular, is leveraging national initiatives like the AI Roadmap (2021–2028) and the proposed National Center for AI Research to build AI capacity. But the broader corporate sector must follow through with robust governance practices to ensure ethical, secure, and transparent AI use.
Companies are strategically favoring hybrid AI architectures for better control and scalability, aligning with Lenovo’s infrastructure vision. In parallel, Generative AI (GenAI) is expected to drive 42 percent of ASEAN+ AI spend in 2025, with customer service, IT operations, and engineering/R&D leading use cases.
Lenovo’s leadership in AI infrastructure and services—backed by initiatives like AI Fast Start—positions the firm to be a key enabler for businesses navigating the complexities of AI deployment, from compliance to capability building.
With 44 percent of ASEAN+ CIOs already engaging professional AI services—and another 56 percent exploring them—there’s a clear demand for external expertise to compensate for internal skill shortages and implementation complexity. This trend highlights the growing role of AI service providers in shaping commercially viable and scalable AI strategies across sectors.
As ASEAN+ economies lead in hybrid infrastructure adoption and AI investment scales rapidly, the lag in governance implementation presents both a regulatory risk and strategic opportunity. For both policymakers and business leaders, closing the governance gap will be crucial to sustaining momentum, ensuring responsible AI adoption, and realizing long-term economic gains.
