In recent years, there have been a series of companies developing and applying AI in various fields, such as education, telecommunications, retail, healthcare, and others, which have not only gradually dominated the market but also earned huge profits.
AI is currently the focus of the global technology circle and governments around the world. Many countries have spent billions of US dollars on AI development strategies with the ambition to make their countries become the leaders in the area of AI.
Vietnam is not outside this development trend either. In recent years, Vietnam's AI industry has made visible strides with increasing AI content in various products.
Large domestic technology corporations such as Viettel, FPT, and VNPT are all interested in investing in and building AI sources in addition to implementing AI projects. Many domestic companies as well as innovative start-ups, also tend to invest in AI and carry out many new applications in new business models.
However, like many countries which are prioritising investment in AI, Vietnam lacks large databases, infrastructure, resources and solid foundation from AI businesses. Currently, international technology corporations and the world’s leading AI companies have opened branches in Vietnam to take advantage of well-trained resources to make products for their markets.
These activities have attracted a significant force from Vietnam's fledgling human resources in this field. Meanwhile, the training of human resources in the AI area in Vietnam remains weak, in addition to having only a small number of people who can provide training in AI area. Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnam to take suitable steps in training human resources to develop AI.
Notably, there are quite a lot of Vietnamese people who are conducting AI research and applications abroad, including excellent AI experts in developed countries. Thus, it is necessary to connect with them and build policies to encourage them to contribute to the country.
Opinions raised at recent domestic and international AI conferences have shown that Vietnam has a lower starting point compared to many countries, if Vietnam follows the trend of AI development like developed countries with solid AI resources, it will be difficult for Vietnam to keep up with them.
The focus on solving small and specific "problems" in real life is a trend which has been recognised and selected by AI companies. But they are still small and separate units who have not found a common voice in forming a common platform and data source on AI to serve the AI ecosystem.
Therefore, Vietnam must have its own direction for the AI industry. The State needs to develop preferential policies for the training and developing of talents in the high technology area while connecting AI communities that have formed spontaneously to boost the sharing of data and AI research and application towards building a strong AI platform. These factors will help Vietnam to take advantage of opportunities to catch up with advanced countries.
