Thailand’s legal framework includes the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), the Cybersecurity Act, the Royal Decree on Digital Platform Services Business, and the Open Data for Open Government Law. While these instruments provide a foundation for digital governance, they are not yet equipped to address AI-specific risks.
Despite legal provisions for open government data, the country still lacks a unified, enforceable framework for data sharing across public and private sectors.
Thailand’s copyright law has not yet clarified whether training AI models falls within existing exceptions, creating uncertainty for researchers and developers. Intellectual property protections for AI-generated outputs are also undefined.
Although national commitments to gender equality and digital inclusion are in place, actual AI deployments rarely undergo public consultation or community review.
One of the key constraints in the development of the AI industry in Thailand is the limitation of R&D expenditure. Thailand’s gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) in 2021 was 195.6 billion THB (1.21 percent of GDP), with government R&D spending reaching 42.3 billion THB. Furthermore, the government has set aside 1.29 billion THB for AI research and development from 2023 to June 2024
The lack of integration of AI ethics and interdisciplinary perspectives in curricula, limited support for open science and academic freedom, and weak alignment between research and industry constrain the country’s ability to develop locally relevant and ethically grounded AI technologies.
The expanding demand for AI capabilities reveals a critical skills gap, with an estimated shortage of 80,000 AI professionals. This talent deficit poses a considerable barrier to scaling AI-driven innovations and achieving economic transformation.
Thailand demonstrates a robust path to advancing its digital economy, particularly through the NAIS, which prioritizes reskilling and upskilling initiatives to meet the growing demand for AI talent.
AI adoption in the private sector shows promising momentum. While 18 percent of firms currently employ AI solutions, an additional 74 percent are actively preparing for integration, reflecting strong forward-looking engagement.
Thailand’s digital economy is expanding, represented by the significant growth various sectors. The software and software services industry grew by 12.8 percent in 2023 to reach 215 billion THB (includes cloud services, system integration, software maintenance services and consultants), whereas the digital services sector also expanded by 9.3 percent to 308 billion THB (services that integrate with other sectors, such as e-logistics, edtech, fintech, health tech, etc.), reflecting increasing demand for digital solutions among Thai businesses.
Thailand’s digital infrastructure faces notable gaps, including a limited data center capacity of just 0.59 per million people, a heavy concentration of facilities in Bangkok, and the generally poor quality of geospatial and government data, which collectively hinder nationwide digital development and equitable access.
Thailand already has the foundational elements of a National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) including metrology, standardization, accreditation, and conformity assessment bodies but these systems are not yet fully prepared to support the unique demands of AI technologies.