Thailand AI Advantage: Turning Sovereignty into a Competitive Edge

For years, the conversation around a Thailand AI Advantage seemed to mean one thing: using a global model. Whether at the corporate or startup level, the approach was to pay a subscription to OpenAI or another frontier lab, built an application on their API, and hoped for the best. 

Today, for any enterprise serving a Thai-speaking market, that passive, consumer-only approach is no longer just a compromise; it’s a strategic risk. This shift creates a new, non-negotiable challenge. As Weerin Chantaroje, Head of Innovation Lab at SCBX, warned, relying on these models is a stability nightmare. "OpenAI released a new model... and the Thai language just [went] wild, and it hallucinated a lot," she shared. "We can't control anything." The question for Thai enterprises is therefore no longer if they should look at local AI, but how to leverage it for a concrete strategic and financial advantage.

This article draws from that session at the Techsauce Global Summit 2025, titled "AI Advantage for Thai Enterprises: Local Language Models in Action." The panel featured Kasima Tharnpipitchai (Head of AI Strategy, SCB 10X), Weerin Chantaroje (Head of Innovation Lab, SCBX), Sarana Nutanong (Faculty Member, VISTEC), and Narin Tananitaporn (Researcher, TDRI), and was moderated by Lin Prasongthanakit (Co-founder & CEO, Davoy.tech).

The "Global Model" Problem: Why Thai is a Second-Class Priority

The core challenge, as Kasima explained, is that frontier labs simply don't prioritize the Thai language, knowledge, or cultural context. "In terms of priority," he stated, "Thai is just not very high."

This creates a "risk premium" for any business building on their platforms. Global models are essentially "black boxes"—a Thai company might build its entire product on a specific version that works well, but the AI lab in San Francisco can roll out a mandatory "single update" to a new, "better" version at any time.

As Weerin's experience shows, this uncontrollable update can break a critical business function in Bangkok overnight. He shared a specific instance where a new model version "just gone wild, and it hallucinated a lot" in Thai, and because it was a global, closed system, his team was powerless to stop or roll back the change.

We believe... that we really need to take matters into our own hands and be in control of how these models perform specifically for Thai.

— Kasima Tharnpipitchai, SCB 10X

For many enterprises, this risk feels unavoidable. The perception is that global models are simply "better" or "smarter," and local alternatives are a passion project, not a practical solution. But the panel argued that this perception is outdated and misses the point.

We're not saying that we're better than OpenAI, that's for sure. But sometimes you just don't need the best model. You just need the right model.

— Weerin Chantaroje, SCBX

A New Ecosystem for a First-Class AI

The speakers argued that this is precisely where the local ecosystem, centered around models like SCB 10X's open-source "Typhoon," is evolving. New financial and strategic advantages are emerging to help enterprises overcome these exact challenges.

1. Reframing the Cost: The Hard ROI of Local AI

The "risk premium" of global models also comes with a literal price tag. Weerin explained how they are reframing the bank's role to solve this, using their own use case of training bank Relationship Managers (RMs) with a voice-to-voice AI.

He gave a tangible example: the project was a choice between a global model and the local Typhoon model. The result was a landslide.

When we try to benchmark OpenAI real-time... it costs us a lot. But if you use a localized model, the cost reduces like eight times.

— Weerin Chantaroje, SCBX

This transforms the decision from a "cost" into a massive, efficiency-driven saving. Furthermore, Weerin noted that global models sound like a "foreigner learning Thai," which is unsuitable for a bank's customer experience. The local model provided the authentic customization needed, creating a unique, long-term business differentiation that competitors using off-the-shelf global tools cannot replicate.

2. Reframing the Mindset: From Passive Consumer to Active Partner

The second major barrier is the strategic one: "If I use a local model, who supports me?"

This, Kasima argued, is the single biggest advantage. Instead of being a "silent consumer" of a global black box, you become a partner in an active ecosystem.

If you choose to use a local model, we're here. We speak Thai. We are in your community. We can work with you and we can have a dialogue with you... Instead of just being a passive consumer... we can engage as partners.

— Kasima Tharnpipitchai, SCB 10X

He extended an open invitation for startups and developers to join their Discord channel and speak directly, in Thai, with the researchers who built the model. This shifts the dynamic from a "burden" to an "opportunity"—an opportunity to co-develop a tool that is precision-built for your specific business needs.

Data-Backed Market Disruption

The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) serves as the ideal case study for this new, integrated approach. Narin Tananitaporn provided a concrete example of how the local Typhoon model accomplishes tasks that global models, despite their scale, simply get wrong.

TDRI uses Typhoon to analyze job posting data to advise on national labor policy. A key task is identifying jobs that require "AI" skills.

If I were to use something like keyword matching, I get a lot of false positives because "AI" is short for Adobe Illustrator as well. So we use Typhoon because we only want AI which refers to artificial intelligence.

— Narin Tananitaporn, TDRI

This isn't a minor error. It's a fundamental failure of context. But beyond this anecdotal proof, Narin shared hard data demonstrating a massive, ongoing market disruption.

His research found that from the second quarter of 2024 to the second quarter of 2025, jobs requiring AI and machine learning skills quadrupled. In that exact same period, jobs related to Robotic Process Automation (RPA) decreased by 30%.

This is not a future theory; it is a market shift happening right now. For Thai enterprises, this data is a clear warning: the technologies and skills that were valuable yesterday are already being replaced. The ability to understand and adapt to this AI-driven trend is an immediate strategic necessity.

The Engine Room: Building a Sustainable AI Advantage

This enterprise advantage is not a happy accident; it's the product of a deliberate, sustainable innovation pipeline, as described by the panelists.

Sarana Nutanong (VISTEC) explained the "key success factor" of the collaboration. It starts with his academic team at VISTEC tackling "nice academic machine learning problems," such as investigating why AI safeguard models fail. They do the deep research to discover the root cause (e.g., the models are just detecting keywords, not user intent).

This "pure knowledge" is then passed to Kasima Tharnpipitchai's (SCB 10X) R&D team, who "operationalizes" it—turning academic theory into a robust, deployable, and industrial-strength tool.

Finally, that tool is handed to Weerin Chantaroje's (SCBX) innovation lab, which deploys it to solve tangible business problems, like the RM training program.

This three-step pipeline—Research (VISTEC) > Operationalize (SCB 10X) > Deploy (SCBX)—is the real engine of Thailand's AI advantage. It absorbs the massive cost of fundamental R&D, allowing Thai enterprises to leverage world-class, locally-optimized tools and focus their own resources on the "last mile" of application.

The Real Question for Thai Enterprises

The panel concluded on a note of urgent practicality. The challenges of relying on global AI are clear: high costs, a lack of control, and being a low priority.

The old excuse that global models are "just better" is fading. With a local ecosystem now providing proven 8x cost savings, superior performance on Thai-specific tasks, and an open, supportive community, the real question is no longer if a Thai business can afford to adopt local AI, but if it can afford not to.

Based on the session: “AI Advantage for Thai Enterprises: Local Language Models in Action” at the Techsauce Global Summit 2025.