Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a global trend, it is reshaping how companies in Vietnam operate, hire, and compete. From enhancing productivity to driving structural changes in organizations, AI adoption is accelerating rapidly across industries.
Based on the “Vietnam AI Adoption Status & IT Hiring Insight 2025 Mini Report” by ITviec, here are 7 must-know key points that every business leader, HRM and IT professional should pay attention to in the AI era.
The mini report by ITviec was created from 846 online survey respondents (June – July 2025), who are C-level, HR Management Leader, Hiring Manager/Executive and IT Professionals in Vietnam. The PDF version is accessible here.
#1. While AI is widely adopted by 73% of companies in Vietnam, only 5.4% fully trust its outputs without heavy human review.
AI adoption is accelerating in Vietnam, with 73% of companies integrating it into operations and 13.8% reaching scaled/fully adoption stage. The most common applications are in IT/Software Development (79.1%) and Marketing (60.5%), where AI drives personalization, market insights, and faster innovation.
Figure 1: AI Adoption Progress Across Companies In Vietnam
Despite high AI adoption, trust in AI-generated outputs remains cautious, especially for critical decision-making. Only 5.4% of companies place very high trust in AI outputs and use them with minimal human checks, while most still apply thorough human review.
Figure 2: Organizational Trust For AI-Generated Outputs In Decision-Making
#2. Nearly half of companies say AI adoption success comes from leadership and people, not tech. These efforts are delivering real business values in product and service quality, cost reduction, and time-to-market.
The top enablers of effective AI adoption are leadership-driven, with 46.2% of companies citing executive alignment and clear direction as the most critical factor. Internal AI talent (40.4%) and employee engagement (32.7%) also rank highly, underscoring the need for workforce readiness and strong change management. Other important factors for successful AI adoption are aligning AI efforts with measurable business values (28.8%) and identifying high-impact use cases (25.7%).
Figure 3: Top 5 Most Important Factors For Effective AI Adoption
These efforts are already paying off, as companies report real outcomes from their AI adoption. The top gains in business values are improving product and service quality (74.4%), cost reduction (48.8%) and faster time-to-market (39.5%), underscoring AI’s role in boosting both operational efficiency and innovation.
Figure 4: Outcomes Have Been Achieved In Your Company As a Result of AI Adoption
#3. Two-third of the companies are reorganizing for AI, with 62% planning to grow their AI teams within a year.
AI is driving structural changes across organizations, with 66.7% of companies restructuring roles or teams to support AI integration. More than half of businesses (65.1%) plan to increase their AI investment budget in the next 12 months.
Figure 5: Plan To Increase AI Budget In Next 12 Months
While 40.5% already have AI teams, most remain small, yet 62% plan to expand them within a year. Demand is rising not only for technical and AI-related skills (47.6%) but for other skills (26.7%), particularly continuous learning, creative problem-solving, and collaboration. At the same time, repetitive tasks like boilerplate coding and manual formatting are rapidly declining in demand. This reflects a growing shift toward the way of working with cross-functional, adaptive teams.
Figure 6: Skill Demand Changes Driven By AI Adoption
#4. For the first time since 2021, companies with IT hiring growth plans drop below 50% as AI helps companies boost productivity with smaller teams.
In the second half of 2025, IT hiring plans reflect a more deliberate and efficiency-driven approach, influenced in part by AI. With only 48.6% of companies planning to expand their IT teams – the lowest growth forecast since 2021 – more than half of them (51.4%) expect no growth or reduction.
Figure 7: Comparison of Plan To Grow IT Team in 1H 2025 and 2H 2025
Among those limiting hiring, 24.7% cite AI implementation as a key factor, aiming to enhance productivity without adding headcount. This marks a significant shift in IT hiring strategy of companies in Vietnam, where AI is enabling leaner yet more effective teams.
Figure 8: Comparison of Reason for No Growth/ Reduction Plan in 1H 2025 and 2H 2025
#5. With AI adoption surging, nearly half of companies face a shortage of AI skilled talent—creating big opportunities but also fiercer competition for professionals able to keep pace with rapid AI upskilling demands.
46.4% of the companies report a lack of internal AI skills, while 41.0% struggle to hire professionals with practical, hands-on AI experience. This gap is widening as demand outpaces supply, intensifying the competition to attract and retain qualified talent.
Figure 9: Top 5 Challenges After AI Adoption
The fast-evolving nature of AI technology is raising expectations even further—continuous AI upskilling tops companies’ soft skill demands at 55.6%, followed by creative problem-solving and team collaboration (both at 52.8%). Professionals who can meet both the AI technical and human skill demands are rare, making successful hiring increasingly difficult.
Figure 10: Skills / Expertise With INCREASED/DECREASE Demand After Company’s AI Adoption, evaluated by IT Professionals
#6. Nearly half of businesses apply AI to core operations, but investment in data infrastructure remains very limited.
48.8% of companies plan to integrate AI into core products, services, or customer-facing operations, and 46.5% are investing in custom in-house AI models to drive productization and competitive differentiation.
Figure 11: Areas Company Plan To Focus Its AI-related Investment In Next 12 Months
Supporting this expansion, 32.6% aim to invest in AI training and upskilling for employees, and 25.6% plan to hire or grow AI-focused teams. Yet, critical foundations remain under prioritized—only 18.6% plan to improve data infrastructure, and just 7% intend to strengthen AI governance and risk management, creating potential gaps in sustainable adoption.
#7. 50.8% of companies apply AI in HR activities, driving notable shifts in recruitment and human resource management.
An increasing number of businesses are integrating AI and GenAI into their HR processes, from recruitment to management, creating significant changes in operations, with 50.8% of companies already using AI in HR and another 27.0% planning adoption.
Figure 12: AI/GenAI Adoption Status In HR Operation
The most common HR applications are candidate screening and shortlisting (62.5%) and generating HR documents (59.4%), showing AI’s dual impact in improving hiring efficiency and reshaping skill demands.
Figure 13: Top 10 Applications In HR Activities
AI is rapidly transforming the way Vietnamese companies operate and hire. While adoption is high, trust and readiness remain challenges. Companies must address gaps in data infrastructure, governance, and especially talent development to fully unlock AI’s potential.
For IT professionals, the message is clear: continuous learning and AI upskilling are no longer optional, they are essential. The combination of technical skills (Python, AI/ML, data) and soft skills (problem-solving, adaptability, collaboration) will define the future of work in Vietnam’s IT sector.
👉 For a comprehensive view of Vietnam’s current AI landscape and tech talent market, check out ITviec’s Vietnam AI Adoption Status & IT Hiring Insight 2025 Report in here.
