The AI Game: If Thailand Doesn’t Start Now, We Could Fall 10 Years Behind the World

On December 4, 2025, at the GLOBAL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MACHINES AND ELECTRONICS EXPO (AIE) 2025 in Macau, Oranuch Lertsuwanakit—CEO and Co-Founder of Techsauce—joined a panel discussion titled Digital Bridges: AI & Market Analytics Transforming China ASEAN Global Trade, organized by the Thai e-Commerce Association and TeC.

In her session, Oranuch painted a vivid picture of how global trade is being rebuilt by AI. She emphasized that technology is no longer just a tool—it’s becoming a new infrastructure layer connecting China, ASEAN, and the world. She outlined three critical points that Thai businesses and the country must urgently address.

The new global supply chain: AI embedded from factory to customer

One key point Oranuch stressed is that AI’s role today extends far beyond the chatbots or coding assistants many are familiar with. AI is the key driver powering the entire global supply chain—upstream, midstream, and downstream—making every step smarter because each step now has its own brain.

Upstream: Predictive AI for production planning, Physical AI like factory robotics, and AI Vision for real-time quality inspection

Midstream: Blockchain + Digital Twin combined with AI creates transparent, easily traceable logistics systems

Downstream: AI analyzes markets and personalizes customer experiences, making every touchpoint resonate with consumers

AI breaks down cross-border barriers

Before diving deeper, Oranuch set the stage: international expansion used to be fraught with obstacles—language, culture, regulations, and understanding local consumers. These barriers made cross-border market testing slow and risky. Now AI is making those walls thinner and more flexible:

Accelerated Prototyping: Market testing and prototyping that once took weeks now takes minutes, letting businesses experiment with new ideas faster than ever

Cultural Resonance: AI doesn’t just translate—it helps adapt brand identity and communication to match each country’s culture, maximizing customer engagement

Infinite Scalability: AI Multimodal Agents manage workflows across multiple markets simultaneously, reducing the need for large local teams

Oranuch concluded that the real bottleneck isn’t language, capital, or headcount—it’s AI Fluency. If organizations don’t understand and use AI intelligently, they’ll fall behind competitors and miss business opportunities.

Thailand must build its own edge—not just keep up

If Thailand wants to compete globally, we can’t be just AI users—we must build deep, defensible advantages of our own.

Since every country is moving in the same AI direction, merely adopting AI makes us just another user. Thailand must focus on what’s uniquely ours and turn it into strength:

Building truly Thai Sovereign AI

Oranuch explained Thailand’s potential lies in local data and domain expertise that other nations lack. Thailand possesses highly valuable, unique datasets and knowledge—such as decades of agricultural data, deep expertise in food processing and supply chains, and health-related insights.

If we leverage these assets to develop specialized AI models and applications, we create genuine competitive advantage for the country.

Investing more in deep tech—and top talent

Another key point: Thailand needs a support system that helps deep tech scale in time, not die in R&D. Deep tech startups often hit the "valley of death"—the stage requiring massive capital before revenue materializes.

Oranuch proposed Thailand should have:

• Smart Capital: Investment that brings knowledge, networks, and expertise
• Support systems for research, testing, and prototyping
• Talent development in AI, robotics, and BioTech + AI (e.g., drug discovery, new materials) and other future-defining industries

If we can stand on our own technological foundation, it becomes a long-term national strength.

Planning for the long game—not quick wins

Oranuch concluded clearly: now is the time Thailand must act seriously. Technology decisions aren’t one- or two-year moves—they’re a long game defining national capabilities for the next 10–20 years. If we focus only on short-term results, we risk falling behind. But if we start cultivating our own competitive advantages today, Thailand still has a real chance to rise and compete regionally.

Ultimately, Oranuch’s message was clear: Thailand doesn’t need to compete on size, but on strengths others can’t copy—whether specialized data, food and agriculture potential, health expertise, creativity, or Thai entrepreneurs’ speed of adaptation. And we must look beyond just the Thai market.

If Thailand dares to invest in deep tech starting today, builds and attracts top talent into the ecosystem, and commits to the long-term game—not short-term projects—Thailand’s opportunity is bigger than many think. Not just keeping up with the world, but stepping up to compete in the region’s most critical industries.