CIO Vietnam Survey Finds Only 6.3% of Firms Can Prove AI’s Financial Value

Artificial intelligence is spreading quickly through Vietnamese companies, but very few can show that it pays, according to the CIO Vietnam Survey 2026 from the CIO Vietnam community and EY Vietnam, Thời báo Ngân hàng (the Banking Times) reported on October 12. Nearly 75% of surveyed businesses have started testing or deploying AI at some level, and more than 81% say it saves time and lifts productivity. Only 6.3%, however, say they have demonstrated clear financial value across their AI portfolio through measurable effects on revenue, costs, profit or other business indicators.

Thái Hữu Lý, head of domain development at the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center, told the paper that if time saved cannot be turned into more output, more customers, higher revenue or lower staff costs, the economic value has not been established. Companies can quickly buy tools, give staff access, add a chatbot to a website or trial AI agents, he said, but those are only the inputs of a transformation.

Nguyễn Trung Chính, chairman of CMC Corporation, said firms tend to see the visible cost of AI and miss the larger hidden part: good enough data, suitable infrastructure, integration with existing systems, security, data governance, staff training and controls on outputs. Where data is scattered or processes are not fully digitised, AI can end up as another layer on top of old operations, making one task faster without improving the whole value chain.

What it means in practice

The survey hints at a shift in priorities, with 78.4% of CIOs naming revenue growth and new business models as top technology goals. Chính argued that AI used to draft documents and reports mostly saves time, while AI built into demand forecasting, supply chains, pricing, sales or product development can move revenue and margins directly. Every AI project, he suggested, should have a clear objective, output metrics and a review deadline, and be treated as an investment with return requirements rather than an innovation expense.

Measurement is also becoming a compliance matter in finance after the State Bank of Vietnam set risk tiers and human review rules for banking AI, while a Pearson and AWS report flagged an AI skills gap among graduates. What to watch: whether next year’s survey shows the 6.3% share rising, and which sectors first report audited returns from AI.