Vietnam Is Not Just a Low-Cost Delivery Center Anymore. It Is Becoming an AI Operations Hub. 

Last week, I was sitting with our engineering team reviewing continuous improvement ideas –something we’ve done regularly for years.

But this time, something was different.

For the first time in the history of our operations in Vietnam, we were able to present a solid business case for automating manual tasks using artificial intelligence that were previously performed by people.

That may sound obvious. But historically, it wasn’t.

For years –even going back to our early experiments with IBM Watson– we struggled to justify meaningful AI investments. The technology was promising, but the economics rarely worked. When highly capable people could perform manual tasks reliably and at low cost, the return on automation simply wasn’t there.

That equation has now fundamentally changed. The shift is not theoretical. It is operational.

Three things are happening simultaneously:

• AI infrastructure costs are falling rapidly,
• Token costs are decreasing dramatically
• AI engineers are becoming far more capable and productive.

What was expensive and experimental just a few years ago is now accessible and economically viable. And this changes Vietnam’s role in the global services ecosystem.

Vietnam is no longer just a destination for labor arbitrage. It is becoming an ideal environment for AI-enabled operations – combining human capability with technological leverage.

What makes Vietnam uniquely positioned is the combination –not just the technology. Technology alone is not enough. What matters is the system around it.

Vietnam offers several structural advantages that are difficult to replicate: first, a young, highly adaptive workforce that is comfortable adopting new tools and ways of working.

Second, deep and growing process expertise. After decades of building delivery capability across industries, teams here understand operational discipline, quality management, and continuous improvement.

Third, a leadership mindset increasingly focused on transformation, not just execution.

When you combine capable people, strong process foundations, and now economically viable AI infrastructure, something powerful emerges. AI does not replace Vietnam’s value proposition. It amplifies it.

The implications for global companies are significant. Organizations evaluating where to build or expand operations should reconsider outdated assumptions. Vietnam is no longer just a place to execute defined processes. It is a place where those processes can be continuously improved, augmented, and reimagined through AI.

This enables a new model:

• Human expertise driving judgment and quality
• AI accelerating execution and automation
• Continuous improvement happening faster than ever before.

The result is not just lower cost. It is higher capability.

We are entering a new phase.

For many years, Vietnam’s strength was its people. That remains true. But now, those people have access to tools that dramatically extend what they can do. From what I see on the ground, Vietnam is evolving from a delivery center into something far more powerful: an AI-enabled operations hub, where human capability and artificial intelligence work together to create entirely new levels of performance.

The companies that recognize this shift early will have a significant advantage.