A new study by Agoda reveals that while artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among software developers in Southeast Asia and India is high, its use remains in a developing stage.
Developers are applying AI pragmatically to boost efficiency without sacrificing quality, even as organizations work to establish the policies, practices, and frameworks required to support the next phase of AI growth in the region.
Highlights
- Study finds AI adoption is nearly universal, with 95% of developers across Southeast Asia and India using it weekly.
- 87% of developers are upskilling for the AI era, showing strong optimism despite uneven access to training.
- Developers are using AI pragmatically, prioritizing speed and quality over full automation.
“Artificial intelligence is reshaping how developers across Southeast Asia and India build, learn, and collaborate,” said Idan Zalzberg, Chief Technology Officer at Agoda.
“What began as a way to speed up tasks like writing, testing, or debugging code has grown into a broader shift in how software is built. Today, AI helps teams move faster, learn continuously, and solve problems in new ways.
The report draws on input from developer communities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and India, with insights from leading regional companies including Carousell, MoMo, Omise, and SCB 10x.
Agoda provided a summary of the report’s three interconnected findings on AI adoption across Southeast Asia and India:
AI is mainstream but not mature
Across Southeast Asia and India, AI has become a daily companion in developer workflows. 95% of developers use AI weekly, and 56% always keep an AI assistant open. Productivity drives adoption, with 80% citing speed and automation as their main motivation. Engineers are seeing tangible results, with 37% saving four to six hours per week.
Yet AI remains primarily a productivity tool rather than a creative partner. Only 22% use it to solve unfamiliar problems, and less than half (43%) believe it can perform at the level of a mid-level engineer. While 94% rely on AI for code generation, usage drops for downstream tasks such as documentation, testing, and deployment. This highlights a gap between use and reliability, pointing to the need for more consistent, dependable results.
AI is evolving through accountability
Oversight and verification are increasingly embedded in daily AI workflows. 79% of developers cite inconsistent or unreliable outputs as the primary barrier to broader AI use. To maintain quality, 67% review all AI-generated code before merging, and 70% routinely rework outputs to ensure correctness.
Formal policies are still rare; only one in four teams operate under official AI guidelines. Yet reliability continues to improve through team-led reviews and validation processes. This focus on verification doesn’t slow innovation; it strengthens it, allowing developers to move faster while keeping quality high. Most (72%) developers report clear productivity gains and better code outcomes, proving that human oversight remains central to responsible AI adoption.
AI experience is uneven and risks creating gaps
With adoption now near universal, the focus has shifted to how developers use AI responsibly and effectively. Most developers are self-taught, 71% learning through tutorials, side projects, or online communities, while only 28% receive employer-led training. Access to structured programs also varies by market: developers in Singapore are almost twice as likely as those in Vietnam to have formal AI training programs.
Despite these gaps, developers are driving their own growth. 87% have adjusted their learning or career plans to leverage AI, and 62% expect it to expand career opportunities, laying the foundation for stronger, long-term capability across the region. This self-directed growth reflects a workforce learning faster than organizations can train, ambitious, experimental, and increasingly AI-literate.
Zalzberg added, “In this region, AI use is mainstream but still uneven. Developers are approaching AI with pragmatism – accelerating work, maintaining quality, and experimenting thoughtfully rather than replacing skill or judgment.
The real opportunity lies in supporting this ground-up maturity with structured practices and responsible experimentation, turning high adoption into consistent, lasting capability.”
The study was commissioned by Agoda and conducted in partnership with Macramé Consulting. For more information and to download the free report, visit apacdeveloperreport.com
Methodology: This research was conducted via an online survey between August to September 2025, gathering responses from over 600 developers across seven key markets in Southeast Asia and India: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and India.
Featured image by Vojtech Okenka.
