ASEAN business survey finds AI optimism amid power-cost concerns
Among six-market BT/Kantar survey respondents, 78% expected AI benefits to outweigh energy needs while 46% anticipated rising electricity or operating costs.
Among 514 business decision-makers surveyed across six ASEAN economies, 78 per cent expected artificial intelligence benefits to outweigh its energy needs, while 46 per cent anticipated rising electricity or operating costs as adoption grows. The Business Times and Kantar findings, released on 12 October after July fieldwork, put an immediate enterprise planning tension in view: more AI investment alongside pressure on power and infrastructure.
In the preceding 12 months, 62 per cent of respondents said they had increased investment in AI or data-driven technologies. That is a reported past action, while the 78 per cent view about benefits and 46 per cent cost concern are expectations. Another 39 per cent expected pressure to upgrade existing infrastructure. Together, the results show why technology spending and facilities planning are becoming linked decisions for the surveyed firms.
The regional picture is uneven
In the Philippines, 64 per cent of respondents expected AI benefits to outweigh energy requirements, below the six-market figure of 78 per cent. The survey also covered Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This difference cautions against treating ASEAN business sentiment as one uniform view of the AI-power trade-off.
More computing also means more power planning
Across the sample, 41 per cent anticipated a moderate increase in energy demand as AI use expands and 40 per cent expected a significant increase. Separately, the ASEAN Centre for Energy says future data-centre electricity needs depend on hardware density, how intensively AI is used and facility efficiency; concentrated demand can also strain local grids. That system-level uncertainty gives context to the operating-cost concern raised in the survey.
The BT/Kantar survey questioned senior leaders who make or co-lead energy, utility or sustainability decisions. About 60 per cent were from large enterprises and 40 per cent from smaller businesses. The published account does not provide recruitment, country weighting or a response rate, so the percentages describe those respondents rather than every ASEAN firm. They measure reported investment and expectations, not realised returns or bills from individual AI projects.
Sources: The Business Times and Kantar Powering Asean’s Future survey report; ASEAN Centre for Energy data-centre electricity-demand insight.
