When we look at what parts of the world are most aggressively moving in AI disruption, Asia looms large. It’s a region where, for one reason or another, there’s a focus on what artificial intelligence can do, a willingness to experiment with its capabilities, and proactive integration into societies.
“Across the continent, innovation is seen as a strategic lever to unlock economic growth, accelerate transitions and shape new markets,” writes Claudia Ukonu for the World Economic Forum, with an included tagline: Innovation ecosystems across Asia are enabling tech-driven solutions through collaboration, financial innovation and policy alignment. “Whether it’s policy labs in Thailand, clean energy corridors in China or deep tech clusters in Singapore and Tokyo, innovation is now firmly embedded in Asia’s economic development story.”
Ukonu speaks to a common observation by experts around the trajectory of technology in Asia, over the course of the twentieth century:
“As we enter the Intelligent Age, the wave of AI is allowing Asia’s leapfrog into a new era of innovation, reshaping industries, labour markets and investment flows at unprecedented speed,” Ukonu writes. “From AI-enabled logistics to predictive climate technologies, we’re seeing startups reimagine solutions tailored for local resilience with global relevance.”
What’s behind all of this new innovation on the continent?
Thoughts from Boston: Asia At Work
At a recent Imagination in Action event in April, a panel came together to talk about this regional phenomenon. My colleague from MIT, Ramesh Raskar, interviewed Alvin Graylin of HAI, Nivruti Rai of Invest India, Rohit Bansal of Reliance Industries, and Yashraj Akashi of Edge Community, about Asian advances in AI.
“Grandpas and grandmas and aunties and uncles were all lining up to get their computers installed with OpenClaw, and people were being paid something like $100 to come to homes to install it,” Graylin said of the auspicious debut. “There’s definitely an openness to adoption of experimentation that’s in Asia, that is less apparent in places like America, because here, unless you’re a techie, you’re probably not playing with these kinds of technologies. I think the openness is where the key is with Asia.”
By the Numbers
As Raskar explained that in India, digital public infrastructure is leading to a reinvention of payment systems, Rai mentioned the levels of adoption of device technology, which leaves the population more open to apps.
“Internet access through phones is to 80% to 90% of households,” she said. “Now if the world is looking at a market of more than 500 million people, the activity has to be enabled on the phone.”
She suggested people think of the phone itself and its connectivity as a “digital highway,” describing QR code use and other techniques, and noting that India is driving its sovereign model based on an open source model: Mistral.
This democratization, Rai argued, means that more people will have access.
“Literacy will not be a requirement anymore, and access to these magical applications of AI enabled on the phone will be very critical,” she said, also enumerating India’s community of what she estimated as around 6 million software engineers, many of whom, she noted, have pivoted to AI applications. Of this number, she applied, rather than 10x, a 3x projection.
“6 million could become 18 million, with digital programmers and physical programmers,” she said.
Rai also mentioned harnesses and agent validation.
“Somebody’s got to be thinking about it,” she said. “I view agentic harness as the library that goes along with the agents. I feel that the human has to be in the loop, and therefore India will play a part, and agents will multiply the software capability: agent harness will drive more requirements of software programmers.”
A full 70% of all programming, she suggested, takes place in India, or in the U.S. That’s some context to keep in mind, too.
Projections for Innovation
Toward the end of the panel discussion, Raskar got quick takes from the group about what is to come.
“The mobile part is going to be the driver,” Bansal said. “We will do for AI what we did with data.”
“Even if there is someone else who develops the innovation, the adoption is what really ends up being more important,” Akashi said. “I think that’s going to define the future ahead.
Graylin pointed to the future role of edge AI.
“These systems are getting so small and so capable that soon, we’re going to get GPT-5 level capabilities directly on your phone, and when that happens, you don’t even need a network.”
This, he predicted, will lead to much innovation in education.
“Every child in the world, every child in Asia, can have an MIT-level tutor that’s right in their pocket,” he said, “and I think that will completely change the sophistication of the societies around the world, and I think that will totally upgrade and improve innovation and deployment.”
The above presents a picture of what’s happening in a part of the world where people tend to view AI and robotics quite seriously. In Beijing, people are used to humanoid robots walking down the street, and participating in races and other events. But here in Boston, we have our very own marathon coming up, in which embodied AI entities will run with humans for the first time, so keep that on your calendar, and stay tuned.
