How Competing AI Clusters Are Rewriting Asia Growth

Artificial intelligence in Asia is no longer a future‑gazing experiment—it is fast becoming the backbone of the region’s next‑generation economy, with India, China, Japan, and Southeast‑Asia clusters racing ahead in both adoption and innovation. From Tokyo’s SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 showcasing AI‑driven urban resilience and robotics, to surging AI‑centric startups across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Shenzhen, and Singapore, the story of “AI in Asia” is now one of concrete, sector‑by‑sector transformation.

Mounting market momentum

Estimates place the Asia‑Pacific AI market at around USD 102 billion in 2025, with projections to exceed USD 735 billion by 2030, making APAC the world’s fastest‑growing large‑scale AI technology market. China currently accounts for roughly 31% of the regional total, while India is the fastest‑growing major contributor, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 38.9%. In Tokyo, the forthcoming SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 event highlights AI as a core pillar, expecting AI‑linked startups and enterprises to drive over 10,000 business matchmaking sessions among 60,000 attendees, signalling a shift from hype to hard‑edged commercial deployment.

In an interview with CNBC TV 18 recenly, Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google & Alphabet said, “AI is the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes, and Asia is where that shift is being tested at scale—in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and across millions of small businesses.”

Sector‑wise AI adoption

Banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) lead AI adoption in Asia, deploying AI for fraud detection, credit‑risk scoring, customer‑service chatbots, and algorithmic trading. In India, over 92% of organisations already use some form of AI, far above the Asia‑Pacific average, while Japan lags at about 51% despite stronger hardware and robotics maturity.

According to Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI in The Vietnamese, “India and Southeast Asia have all the ingredients to be full‑stack AI leaders—huge talent, entrepreneurial energy, and a massive unmet demand for digital services.”

“AI has moved from ‘nice‑to‑have’ to a core risk‑and‑revenue control layer,” observes a Singapore‑based fintech strategist, who adds that regulators in Malaysia, Singapore, and India are now pushing for “explainable AI” standards in loan‑approval and anti‑money‑laundering systems.

Healthcare and manufacturing follow closely, with AI‑driven diagnostics, robotic surgery planning, and predictive‑maintenance tools reshaping operations in China, South Korea, and India. Chinese AI firms have funneled over 22% of VC dollars into autonomous‑vehicle and computer‑vision systems, underpinned by government funding of some USD 91–98 billion in AI between 2023 and 2025. In Tokyo, SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 is featuring AI‑enabled robotics not only on factory floors but also in elder‑care and hospital logistics, where “human‑AI co‑workers” now handle routine tasks from inventory tracking to tele‑medicine triage.

Startup and unicorn ecosystems

In 2026, Asia’s tech‑startup ecosystem is pivoting toward AI‑centric models, with AI/ML and fintech together accounting for 41% of total deal value across the region. India leads in unicorn creation, with five new AI‑driven startups entering the billion‑dollar club in 2025, lifting its total to 118 unicorns, many anchored in AI‑enabled SaaS, logistics, and ed‑tech. In China, emerging AI players such as Zhipu AI have raised over USD 400 million, while Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai absorb 71% of national AI investment, diversifying beyond consumer‑facing apps into industrial‑grade AI and autonomous systems.

Startups in Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam are also leveraging AI to crack regional pain points: from automated crop‑monitoring platforms in Indonesia to AI‑powered logistics optimisation in Singapore‑based SaaS firms. “Asia’s AI startups are not just copying Silicon Valley; they’re building tailored stacks for fragmented markets, multilingual contexts, and underserved SMEs,” says a venture partner at a Bengaluru‑based fund investing in AI infrastructure. Tokyo’s SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, with its 700‑plus exhibitors, is designed explicitly as a “match‑making engine” between such startups and global corporates, underscoring the city’s ambition to become an AI‑and‑resilience hub beyond pure consumer tech.

Practical AI and governance

Executives across Asia now talk less about “AI as a buzzword” and more about “AI as an operating system.” A recent industry survey cited by IDC found that 70% of Asia‑Pacific organisations expect so‑called “agentic AI” (AI agents that autonomously plan, execute, and monitor workflows) to materially disrupt their business models within 18 months. This shift is driving companies to adopt “right‑sized” models—smaller, domain‑specific systems tuned for manufacturing, agri‑tech, or regional banking—rather than generic, large‑language models.

At the same time, Asia’s fragmented regulatory landscape has pushed national regulators to draft bespoke AI governance frameworks. Singapore’s Monetary Authority has published guidelines for “fairness” in AI‑driven lending, while India’s central bank is piloting AI‑risk‑dashboards for system‑wide fraud monitoring. In Japan, Tokyo’s SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 is scheduled to host several panels on “AI and resilience governance,” where city planners and corporate CTOs will debate how to embed AI‑based disaster‑response systems without compromising citizen privacy.

Labour, skills, and the human‑AI balance

The rapid spread of AI has also intensified anxieties about job displacement, even as productivity gains lure investment. BCG research notes that while 92% of Indian firms adopt AI, only 48% of workers express strong fear of job loss, reflecting a belief that AI will mainly augment white‑collar roles rather than erase them. By contrast, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand report higher concern levels, with more than half of workers worrying that AI agents could replace mid‑level administrative and customer‑service roles.

A Bengaluru‑based AI‑infrastructure fund partner speaking to CNBC TV18: “India’s AI ecosystem is turning from ‘use‑cases’ into ‘full‑stack’ players—infrastructure, data platforms, and domain‑specific models that can serve the entire APAC region.

To counter this, governments and tech firms are building AI‑skills pipelines. In India, training programmes for AI‑data‑engineering and prompt‑engineering roles are expanding through public‑private partnerships, mirroring similar initiatives in Malaysia and Indonesia. “The winning companies in Asia will be those that reinvent jobs, not just automate them,” argues a human‑resources AI lead at a Japanese multinational participating in SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026. “We’re seeing AI handle routine reporting and scheduling, while humans focus on ethical oversight, relationship‑building, and creative problem‑solving.”

Asia as the AI workshop

Speaking to The Times of India, Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic on recently-held AI Summit in India, “AI could drive major economic growth across Asia, but only if we build systems that are transparent, auditable, and aligned with local values and regulatory frameworks.”

By 2030, Asia‑Pacific is projected to host over 80% of the world’s AI‑related patents, with East Asian institutions already holding 82.4% of global AI‑patent families. As SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 and similar regional expos move from showcasing “AI marvels” to measuring “AI‑driven GDP impact,” the continent’s role is evolving from a consumer of Western AI tools to a co‑creator of global‑scale AI infrastructure. For journalists, policymakers, and investors watching this shift, the key question is no longer whether Asia will adapt to AI, but how it will shape the next rules of engagement for human‑AI co‑existence in an increasingly interconnected world.