‘AI is a test of the adaptive capacity of Vietnamese workers’

Salesforce is a global software corporation, founded in 1999 in San Francisco, providing a management platform for millions of businesses. At the end of 2025, the company caused a stir when it replaced 4,000 customer support employees with AI to improve efficiency. On the occasion that the Artificial Intelligence Law will take effect in Vietnam from March 1, Ms. Quy Nguyen, Country Director of Salesforce Vietnam, shared about the rare opportunity with AI in Vietnam, and said that only those who are willing to adapt will take advantage of the opportunity.

– Many people worry that their brains will be “empty” if they depend on AI. In your opinion, is this a scary warning or a natural reaction to new technology?

– Concerns about the potential risks of AI are valid, as with any emerging technology. However, in testing and implementing new technologies, we cannot just “wait and see”.

AI is developing very quickly, creating new standards in work. If they stand outside, workers will really face risks. Instead of worrying about the consequences, it’s important to maintain an open mind to keep up with change and learn how to responsibly integrate AI into your work.

That requires critical thinking and the ability to evaluate the results generated by AI. Users need to be equipped with the ability to work with AI assistants, know how to ask the right questions, and identify potential biases.

The young generation needs to cultivate soft skills such as adaptability, responsibility and cooperation – unique human qualities that create a competitive advantage in a working environment combining humans and AI.

It can be said that we are the last generation to work in an environment entirely run by humans. In the future, workflow will be redefined when AI assistants will take over the work.

– Looking more broadly, where is Vietnam in the AI ​​race?

– Vietnam is one of the fastest growing digital economies in Southeast Asia with a strong growth market for AI services. Support from the Government, investments in both the public and private sectors and the digital transformation process taking place in many fields are the driving forces for this.

According to the World AI Index 2025 published by the Global Independent Market Research Network (WIN), Vietnam is in the top 10 in terms of awareness and readiness for AI. Vietnam also faces an unprecedented opportunity to promote economic growth thanks to AI. By 2040, AI is expected to contribute 130 billion USD to GDP, equivalent to 25% of the current economic size.

With a young, tech-savvy and aspirational workforce, and not constrained by outdated technology infrastructure, Vietnamese businesses possess great potential to “leap into the agentic era” (AI agents). Vietnamese businesses can accelerate the transition to a business model that applies AI agents, opening up a new labor model, where people and agents work together to execute work.

By harnessing an unlimited digital workforce of AI agents, Vietnamese businesses can unlock unprecedented levels of productivity, enhance customer experience, and scale without being limited by the number of employees.

In fact, in Vietnam, Vietcombank has applied AI to build an overall picture of customers, or Fulbright University Vietnam has used an AI agent to provide an assistant capable of answering students’ questions.

– But many businesses still struggle when implementing AI. So where is the problem?

– The biggest barrier is data availability. Many businesses have fragmented systems and uncentralized data, making it difficult for AI to reach its full potential. To be successful, businesses need to build a standard data strategy from the beginning. This starts with creating a unified, trusted data platform that can be activated in real time. When the data is good enough, AI will produce highly accurate results.

Another barrier is the skills gap. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, 62% of Vietnamese businesses said skills shortage is the biggest obstacle to transformation. Meanwhile, 59% of Vietnamese workers need to be retrained or upskilled by 2030. This shows that investment in people is an indispensable factor.

– There is an opinion that AI is being “hyped”, which can lead to a crisis of overcapacity when rushing to invest. How do you view this?

– If a business invests in AI based on practical needs and is linked to strategy and business goals, the risk of redundancy, in my opinion, is relatively low. We often recommend that customers start with the investment that brings the clearest value, then expand their deployment. In particular, businesses should not develop AI themselves but need to cooperate with technology partners to optimize the value they bring.

Developing AI yourself sometimes makes it difficult for the project to go into actual operation, despite large investments in infrastructure and technology. This is mainly because this technology is often only added to existing systems, rather than designed to be directly integrated into operational processes.

– What is your assessment of Vietnam’s Artificial Intelligence Law, which will take effect from March 1?

– The Law on Artificial Intelligence is built towards a balance between controlling risks and promoting innovation, in accordance with international practices. Legal frameworks based on risk assessment, which are highly practical and compatible, will have a positive impact on the development and application of AI.

For businesses, this is an opportunity to develop products within the framework of established ethical standards, prioritizing responsible technology development. This approach also helps many organizations, including tightly regulated sectors, shorten the time to deploy AI solutions, instead of spending months building their own governance framework.

Innovation and trust are not opposites. On the contrary, governance and control and safety mechanisms are not barriers, but catalysts that promote the development of AI agents.

Promulgating AI regulations early helps businesses have clear directions to apply technology safely, responsibly and in accordance with ethical standards, improving the speed and quality of AI deployment on a national scale. However, legal frameworks and guidelines on AI need to be built on a foundation of cooperation between the Government, the business community and social organizations.

– In your opinion, how will AI impact Vietnam in 2026?

– AI is shifting from heuristic chatbots to agents capable of generating more consistent, reliable, and secure results.

Over time, businesses will realize that the intelligence of large language models is not enough. To turn that intelligence into predictable and reliable outcomes, AI needs to connect with accurate data, business logic, and governance mechanisms. Vietnamese businesses that have a long-term vision and know how to take advantage of opportunities will be able to unlock growth at an unprecedented scale.

For Vietnam, this is an opportunity for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), accounting for 98% of the total number of businesses, to solve the problem of limited resources and expand their scale thanks to the source of “digital labor” as AI agents. Thanks to AI, small businesses can improve their capacity and scale of customer service, approaching the capabilities and standards of large businesses.

AI agents also drive innovation, allowing entrepreneurs to pursue ideas and implement new business models with minimal investment, but still have the ability to scale. AI can become a driving force for a bottom-up transformation of the economy, as more and more small and medium-sized enterprises apply AI. The emergence of localized models and applications will also open up opportunities, helping to effectively solve specific domestic problems.

In that context, AI is not just a technology, but becomes a test of the adaptive capacity of Vietnamese businesses and workers.