VnExpress Survey Finds 95% of Respondents Use AI but Only About 15% Have Used a Vietnamese AI Product

Almost every reader who took part in a VnExpress survey has used artificial intelligence, but few know whether any of their tools were built in Vietnam, the newspaper reported on October 23. The poll, titled “How are you using AI?”, ran from September 28 to October 17 and drew 14,292 responses, mostly from office workers, business owners, freelancers and people in information technology. Men made up 76% of respondents and the 35 to 54 age group dominated.

Some 95% said they had used AI, and 69% use it daily or several times a week. Six in ten said their work would suffer if they lost access. Searching for information and answering questions was the top use, followed by study and research, writing, translation and image or video creation. But 90.2% had run into problems: inaccurate or outdated information (20.6%), difficulty verifying answers (18.6%), worries about how personal data is used (18.3%) and cost (11%). More than 10% said AI did not understand Vietnamese information, regulations or context well.

Asked where they want help that current tools do not give, respondents most often named work and career development at 15.65%, followed by education at about 13%, health at 10%, public services and administrative procedures at 8.8%, and safety and scam prevention at 7.82%.

What it means in practice

The headline gap is awareness. Nearly 76% either knew no Vietnamese AI products or had used one without realising it, and only about 15% said they had knowingly used one. Yet 46% would use locally built AI if it solved their problems, and about 16% would pay for it. Users ranked understanding of Vietnamese language and context, accuracy, fit with domestic needs, personal data protection, ease of use and price as priorities. That is the market case behind Viettel's 120-billion-parameter Vietnamese model, though companies still struggle to turn AI into returns, as a CIO Vietnam survey on AI's financial value found, and the demand for career help matches the AI skills gap facing Vietnamese graduates.

The sample is self-selected and skews male and middle-aged, so it reflects engaged news readers rather than the whole population. VnExpress linked the findings to the Au Lac Grand Prize, a one-million-dollar award backed by FPT for a Vietnamese-built AI product with proven real-world use.

What to watch: whether Vietnamese AI makers turn these priorities, especially accuracy, verification and data protection, into products that win users from foreign platforms.