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Aidan Jones

Iman Muttaqin Yusof

For Malaysian tech worker Sam, there were three short steps to being replaced by robots at a global social media company’s Kuala Lumpur office.
First came weeks spent training the company’s artificial intelligence systems. Then came the ominous warnings of “restructuring”. Finally, the inevitable: redundancy.
“One day, out of nowhere, we had to attend a town hall,” said the 29-year-old, who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his job prospects.
“They never explicitly said it was due to AI, but we all knew the direction they were heading.”

Across Southeast Asia, millions face a similar threat as AI reshapes companies’ business models, erases old roles and creates new ones in what experts warn could be an upheaval without modern parallel.
A new report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the technology’s impact in the Asia-Pacific warns that while the region manufactures one-third of the chips driving the AI boom, it is also home to some of the world’s most unequal societies – amplifying the risk of millions being left behind.
The study, titled “The Next Great Divergence: Why AI May Widen Inequality Between Countries”, says that the progress made over centuries in narrowing global wealth gaps through trade and development could be undone in a single technological generation.
“Is AI going to be the great equaliser or a great amplifier of global inequality?” asked Philip Schellekens, chief economist for the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau.
He urged governments and tech companies to “above all, put people first” in the AI race.

AI “enters a world where inequality between countries – and within them – is massive” and could make it worse, as automation displaces jobs and the poorest lose access to emerging technology, Schellekens warned.
“We must make sure that the marginalised users participate,” he said, pointing to Pakistani women as one large cohort already being sidelined, with their limited access to smartphones.
The report also outlines the tremendous potential of AI, from streamlining public services and bringing healthcare and education to remote areas, to improving job quality, climate analysis and economic growth.
But it cautions that without deliberate inclusion, the technology could deepen divides: hollowing out labour markets, concentrating wealth and leaving nations without access or ownership of the core technologies further behind.
AI could close gaps or widen them, depending on the choices made now
‘The Next Great Divergence’, UNDP report
“Human development is more than productivity and jobs,” the report said. “It is about opportunities, choices, freedoms and agency for people to live their life with dignity beyond wants and fear.”
While AI “can expand people’s freedoms and capabilities”, it warned that “new technologies rarely spread evenly. Moving faster than any technology before it, AI could close gaps or widen them, depending on the choices made now”.
Those choices will matter most in countries like Thailand, where 10 per cent of the population hold 70 per cent of national wealth.
For Thai AI trainer Prin Chamroenpanich, founder of Artificial & Emotional Intelligence of You (AEIOU), the gap in AI literacy is already significant and growing fast.
“Thailand has high adoption, but when it comes to using AI to its full capacity, most people barely scratch the surface,” he told This Week in Asia.
“The real divide today isn’t between people who use AI and those who don’t. It’s between people who use AI at a basic, surface level and those who can leverage it to build businesses, drive revenue and scale their capabilities. This inequality gap will only grow.”
But it is not all doom and gloom, according to Yusuff Ismadi. The advertising art director in Kuala Lumpur believes AI does not necessarily have to destroy creative work.
“These days you’ll likely spend more time structuring the idea than crafting the visual to get your idea across,” the 29-year-old said. “It’s a great tool, but you’re not an artist just from using it. You just know how to use a brush.”


AI is already taking jobs in Southeast Asia. Next comes a ‘great divergence’, UN warns

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Asean

A Thai engineer services AI-powered healthcare robots in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE

AI and automation are increasingly being cited as a factor driving job cuts and hiring freezes. Photo: TNS

Women arrive to work at a leather factory in Karachi last year. A UNDP economist cited Pakistani women as an example of an Asian cohort already losing access to technology. Photo: AFP

From Singapore to Malaysia, tech firms double down on AI despite bubble fears

An electronic chip board used for AI processing. Photo: Shutterstock

Dylan Tan, founder of replyr.ai, thinks a reset may be good for the industry. Photo: Dylan Tan

SkyeChip has invented Malaysia’s first home-grown AI processor. Photo: SkyeChip

Southeast Asia’s tech reliance on China poses economic promise – and cybersecurity risks

The logo of China’s Huawei Technologies is displayed in the middle of city road in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: EPA-EFE

A man walks past a sign advertising Huawei in Beijing in 2020. Southeast Asia’s reliance on Chinese tech like Huawei offers economic growth but raises cybersecurity and geopolitical concerns amid US-China tensions. Photo: AP

Widodo hails Southeast Asia’s rise as ‘global force’ in entrepreneurship

Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s former president, has urged Southeast Asian countries to prepare for an “intelligent economy”. Photo: dpa

The city skyline of Jakarta on Monday. During Joko Widodo’s tenure as president, Indonesia’s GDP growth consistently hovered at about 5 per cent. Photo: EPA

This Week in Asia

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Southeast Asia

Asia makes the chips driving the AI boom, but the technology threatens to erase jobs and widen the region’s wealth gap, a new UN report says


Asia makes the chips driving the AI boom, but the technology threatens to erase jobs and widen the region’s wealth gap, a new UN report says.
