Southeast Asia AI Agent Adoption to Reach 86% by 2026, Survey Finds

A survey by IDC, commissioned by UiPath, projects that 86% of Southeast Asian firms will adopt artificial intelligence agents by 2026, up from 42% currently. Adoption is being driven by productivity gains, faster product development, and improved decision-making, with financial services, manufacturing, and retail among the leading sectors. Key use cases include customer support automation, risk management, and fraud detection. Challenges remain in data security, governance, costs, and talent shortages. Firms are increasingly turning to agentic automation to scale workflows and drive innovation across operations.