Vietnam’s overall AI score held steady in 2026, but that stability masks two opposing trends. More people are using AI every day and trusting what it tells them. At the same time, fewer feel comfortable with AI as part of society, and concern about misinformation, privacy, and job loss has grown sharply. These findings come from the 2026 WIN World AI Index, released to coincide with World Telecommunication Day on 17 May 2026.
About the WIN World AI Index
The WIN World AI Index measures how people in 44 countries think about and use artificial intelligence. It covers usage habits, trust, acceptance, and concerns. The Index is published annually by WIN MR, the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research.
In Vietnam, the 2026 survey was carried out by DXL Research & Consulting. A total of 900 urban Vietnamese were surveyed across four major cities between November and December 2025. This is the second year the Index has been published, making it possible to track year-on-year changes.
The 2026 edition adds two new dimensions. For the first time, the Index separates personal and professional AI use. It also introduces a country segmentation model that places each market on a global map of AI development.
Vietnam’s Score: Steady Numbers, Shifting Attitudes
Vietnam’s WIN AI Index score moved from 58.5 in 2025 to 58.4 in 2026. The score remained stable because two sets of forces were pushing in opposite directions and almost cancelled each other out.
Four indicators improved. Vietnamese respondents showed higher perception of AI’s efficiency and usability, meaning more people see AI as a practical, effective tool. Trust in AI strengthened. Acceptance of AI grew. And the share of daily users increased. These are all signals of a population that is engaging with AI more seriously than a year ago.
At the same time, two indicators fell, and fell sharply. Interest in AI declined, suggesting the initial novelty has worn off for some. And comfort with AI dropped significantly, meaning fewer people feel at ease with the broader role AI is playing in society. These two declines were large enough to pull the overall score down even as the positive indicators rose, leaving the index in almost exactly the same place it was in 2025.
Vietnam’s AI Law: context for the data.
On 10 December 2025, Vietnam’s National Assembly passed Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence. The law took effect on 1 March 2026, making Vietnam one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to put a comprehensive legal framework for AI in place [2]. It is modelled closely on the EU AI Act [6] and rests on one central principle: AI must serve humans, not replace them.
The timing matters. The parliamentary debate over this law ran through the same months the survey was conducted. That debate was public and widely covered, putting AI risks, e.g., fake content, data privacy, job loss,at the centre of national discussion. It is reasonable to conclude that this shaped how people answered questions about AI concern.
Where Vietnam Sits Globally: A Rising Performer
For the first time, the WIN World AI Index places each of the 44 surveyed countries into one of four maturity profiles, based on how widely AI is used and how people feel about it.
- AI Leaders (Group 01): countries like India, China, and Indonesia where high usage and high belief in AI move together.
- Rising Performers (Group 02): markets that use AI actively but haven’t fully embraced with confidence.
- Cautious Adopters (Group 03): mostly developed Western markets with strong infrastructure but significant concern about AI’s risks.
- Early Stage (Group 04): countries where access and awareness remain the main barriers, and most people have not yet started using AI.
Of these four, Vietnam’s profile in 2026 is categorized in the Rising Performers group. Vietnam is a market where AI has found a real foothold in daily life, but where public confidence in its broader role in society has yet to follow. People are using AI more and finding it useful. But on the bigger questions like what AI means for jobs, for privacy, for the information people trust, comfort has fallen and concern has grown. Vietnam knows what AI can do. What remains unsettled is what kind of place AI should have.
More People Using AI Every Day
In 2025, 13% of urban Vietnamese respondents said they used AI tools on a daily basis. By 2026, that figure had risen to 1 in 5 (19%), which is a 6% pts increase in a single year.
That growth signals a shift in behaviour. More Vietnamese are moving from occasional experimentation to regular, habitual use. It is this group of consistent users that tends to drive how attitudes and norms around AI develop over time.
Personal Use Is Well Ahead of Professional Use
The gap between how Vietnamese people use AI at home versus at work is one of the biggest findings in this year’s data. Personal use stands at 53%. Professional use is at 38%. That 15% pts difference is among the largest of any country in the Index.
Among those who use AI personally, entertainment is by far the main purpose, cited by 76% of respondents. AI-powered content, recommendations, and interactive experiences are driving everyday personal adoption.
In the workplace, the picture is more practical. Research and data analysis is the top use case at 37%, closely followed by productivity and workflow tasks at 36%. When people do use AI at work, they tend to use it for tasks where they can check the results.
What the new law could change for workplaces.
The AI Law introduces two tools that may help close this gap. First, an “AI Voucher” scheme gives businesses financial support to adopt AI. Second, a regulatory sandbox lets companies test AI solutions in controlled conditions before full deployment. 1The law also requires a National AI Workforce Strategy and the inclusion of AI basics in school curricula. 1Together, these measures are designed to give both employers and employees more confidence to use AI at work. Whether the 15-point gap narrows by 2027 will be a practical measure of whether the law is having an effect.
Trust Rose. Comfort Fell. Both at Once.
Vietnam’s most striking result is a split: trust in the accuracy of AI-generated information went up, from 65.6 to 69.4. At the same time, personal comfort with AI went down, from 49.3 to 40.7. That is the biggest single change in Vietnam’s Index this year.
These two numbers are not in conflict. Trust in accuracy reflects personal experience: someone asks AI a question and finds the answer useful. Comfort is about how AI is changing society, what it means for jobs and privacy and the reliability of public information. People can trust their own AI interactions and still feel uneasy about where AI is taking things more broadly.
How the new law connects to falling comfort.
When a government passes a law that classifies AI by risk level, bans certain applications, and requires mandatory human oversight, it sends a clear message: this technology needs to be controlled. 7 For many people, that message is welcome. For others, it raises new questions about what AI is actually capable of doing, and that can increase unease rather than reduce it. The law’s requirement that human oversight must apply to important AI-driven decisions may itself have brought more attention to the kinds of AI decisions that worry people most. The comfort decline, measured before the law came into force, reflects a public that was already aware of these issues.
Three Concerns, All Rising
Concern went up across all three risk areas measured by the Index. Each one also has a direct response in Vietnam’s new AI law, which was drafted and debated at the same time the public’s anxiety was being measured.
1. Personal Data & Privacy
68% of respondents said they have high concern about how AI handles personal information, which increases from 52% in 2025. That 16% pts rise makes privacy the biggest worry among the three areas measured.
What the law says about personal data.
The AI Law requires providers to tell users clearly when they are interacting with an AI system and to flag when AI-generated content could be mistaken for real content. 8High-risk AI systems,those operating in healthcare, education, and finance, face regular audits and ongoing oversightafter they launch [5]. These are the law’s answers to public anxiety about personal data. Whether they bring confidence scores back up will be one of the clearest tests of whether the law is working.
2. False Information & AI Misinformation
Concern about AI spreading false information saw the largest increase of any measure in this year’s Vietnam results. It jumped from 36% in 2025 to 65% in 2026,a rise of 29% pts in a single year.
A question worth pausing on: trust in AI accuracy went up, but so did concern about AI spreading false information. How can both be true at once?
The short answer is that these measure different things. Trust in accuracy is about personal use, i.e., someone gets a helpful, reliable response from ChatGPT. Concern about false information is about what happens at scale, which is how AI is used to produce deepfakes, fabricated news, or misleading content that many people will see.
Using AI yourself and worrying about how others might misuse it are not contradictory. They reflect a public that is both engaged with AI and clear-eyed about its risks.
What the law says about false information.
The law directly targets the content that worries people most. All AI-generated audio, video, and images must be clearly labelled so users can tell they were made by AI. 2Providers must also alert users when AI content could be confused with real events or real people. 5At the top of the risk scale, malicious deepfakes and non-consensual facial recognition are banned outright.6 The 29% ptsjump in false information concern is the strongest signal in this year’s Vietnam data. The law’s response to it is one of the most direct provisions in the legislation.
3. Job Loss & Employment Displacement
6 in 10 respondents (61%) expressed high concern about AI causing job losses. That is up from 48% in 2025, a rise of 13% pts.
What the law says about jobs.
The law addresses job concerns directly. Its core principle is that AI must serve humans and not replace them, and that a human must remain in control of any AI-driven decision that matters.3 Beyond principle, the law also requires a National AI Workforce Strategy and makes AI education a formal part of school curricula [1]. These are practical steps to help people build skills alongside AI rather than be replaced by it. With 61% of respondents now concerned about job loss, this is taken seriously by the government.
From a market expert
“More Vietnamese are turning to AI regularly, and trusting it more than they did a year ago.
At the same time, their concerns about what AI means for privacy, jobs, and public information have grown significantly.
These are not contradictory signals, they reflect a public that is engaging seriously with both sides of what AI brings. Vietnam’s new AI law was built to respond to exactly this kind of informed, mixed picture.”
— Xavier Depouilly, Managing Director, DXL Research & Consulting
What the Numbers Tell Us
Vietnam’s AI Index score of 58.4 is almost unchanged from 58.5 last year. But that steady number sits on top of significant movement in both directions.
More Vietnamese people are using AI every day. More trust what AI tells them. And more are worried about fake content, about their personal data, and about what AI means for their jobs.
What happens next will be shaped in large part by Vietnam’s new AI law. The survey results show what the public was worried about before the law took effect. The 2027 edition of the Index will show whether those worries have started to ease or grown further.
Dive Deeper into the Data. Use our Dynamic Power BI Dashboard to interact directly with the 2026 Index of Vietnam and other countries. Filter by country, track the 7 core indicators (from Trust to Usability), and explore the specific demographic gaps shaping your local market.
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Sources & References
[1] VnEconomy — “National Assembly approves Vietnam’s first AI law” (December 2025) — en.vneconomy.vn/national-assembly-approves-vietnams-first-ai-law.htm
[2] Duane Morris Vietnam — “Vietnam: The First Law on Artificial Intelligence” (March 2026) — blogs.duanemorris.com/vietnam/2026/03/03/vietnam-the-first-law-on-artificial-intelligence-what-you-must-know/
[3] Baochinhphu — “First-ever Law on Artificial Intelligence approved” (December 2025) — en.baochinhphu.vn/first-ever-law-on-artificial-intelligence-approved-111251211093619398.htm
[4] Vietnam Briefing — “Vietnam AI Law: Regulatory Milestone and Business Implications” (December 2025) — vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnams-ai-law-regulatory-milestone-business-implications.html
[5] IAPP — “Vietnam’s first standalone AI Law: An overview of key provisions” (February 2026) — iapp.org/news/a/vietnam-s-first-standalone-ai-law-an-overview-of-key-provisions-future-implications
[6] JURIST — “Vietnam implements sweeping AI law” (March 2026) — jurist.org/news/2026/03/vietnam-implements-sweeping-ai-law/
[7] Baker McKenzie — “Vietnam: Artificial Intelligence Law — Foundation and Outlook” (February 2026) — bakermckenzie.com/en/insight/publications/2026/02/vietnam-artificial-intelligence-law-foundation-and-outlook
[8] The Legal Wire — “Vietnam AI Law passed by National Assembly, taking effect on 1 March 2026” (December 2025) — thelegalwire.ai/vietnam-ai-law-passed-by-national-assembly-taking-effect-on-1-march-2026/
