Being in the dark, these firms could be making decisions that may need to be unwound when the agreement kicks in
[SINGAPORE] The landmark Digital Economy Framework Agreement (Defa) is touted as the world’s first such regionwide pact that could unlock up to US$2 trillion for South-east Asia.
Yet, more than a third of the regional business leaders said that their organisation is unfamiliar with it.
The 2026 Asean Business Outlook Survey, released at the American Chamber of Commerce Singapore’s regional economic conference on Tuesday (Sep 8), found that some 35 per cent of the business leaders polled said that their organisation is unfamiliar with Defa; 49 per cent said they were aware of it, but have not assessed what it means for their operations.
Another 12 per cent said their organisation has assessed Defa’s relevance, and the remaining 4 per cent have an action plan in place.
The study, jointly carried out by the business association, Accenture and Google, drew responses from 184 firms in eight Asean markets: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
It assesses organisational artificial intelligence capabilities in five dimensions: trust and governance; operating model; data readiness; market strategy; and agentic deployment.
“It’s a blind spot,” said Bani Trehan, managing director for AI and data at Accenture and AmCham Singapore’s vice-chair. “The business leaders are talking about it… but if you go to the companies and you ask them where they are, they don’t really know.”
Asked why this was the case, she told The Business Times that regional firms have likely not realised the practical implications of Defa on their operations. Yet it is so important for them to, she said.
Companies with low familiarity are not just missing a policy conversation, they are likely making architecture and compliance decisions today that may need to be unwound when Defa provisions take effect.
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Equally important are the implications for agentic AI.
Defa’s nine pillars that cover cross-border data flows, digital trade and AI governance will set the regulatory environment in which AI agents operate in Asean.
For instance, organisations deploying agents that move data between markets, make automated decisions or interact with customers across borders will face direct operational implications, it noted.
Speaking at a fireside chat at the conference where the findings of the study were unveiled, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong described Defa as a “pathfinder” for Asean to develop ways to work together in the digital economy, and a good example of further integration of the bloc.
“We hope to be able to sign it by the end of this year and have it … take effect next year under our chairmanship,” he said.
Because of the disparity in digital readiness among the Asean member states, it is very difficult to negotiate an agreement that applies to all, he added.
“Usually, what happens is that you tend to then fall back to the lowest denominator because you want to accommodate everyone… but we want to make sure that Defa is an ambitious one (and), at the same time, accommodate the diversity within the Asean region.”
AI ambition vs adoption
Another key finding of the survey is that Asean member nations are a middle-heavy market in agentic AI adoption: Companies have put it on the agenda, but most have not yet built the capability to turn it into an operating advantage.
The study noted that ambition is high and early deployment is widespread – but most companies lack the foundations to turn pilots into scaled value.
Said Accenture’s Trehan: “You have a lot of investment that goes in, and when you look at the pockets of use cases that are created, they’re hard to adopt because they are not enterprise-scale – that is the challenge.”
Half the surveyed firms fall in the “exploring” category with pilots and experiments under way; 23 per cent of them are considered to be “scaling”, meaning that deployment is active with measurable impact.
About a fifth are “beginners”, with either no or insufficient deployment activity to qualify as a programme. The remaining 7 per cent are the top performers who have AI-first operations and scaled deployment in the region.
What separates them is skill at translating AI capability into market-specific execution in Asean’s regulatory, customer and operating environments, said the survey.
The biggest internal barriers flagged by polled firms to scaling agentic AI are culture and change management (27 per cent), followed by legacy information technology and data readiness or accessibility (17 per cent each).
Singapore’s strategy
Singapore’s AI strategy covers several aspects, including ensuring that workers have a basic level of literacy so they can embrace the technology and not be afraid of it, said the minister.
The Republic also wants to develop specialists and experts in AI; it has a set of national AI missions in four core sectors of advanced manufacturing, financial services, connectivity and healthcare.
“We want to focus on the AI applications and embrace and keep our options open to technologies from both the US and China,” he said. He cited as an example the trials in Punggol of autonomous vehicles, which use technology from the two major powers.
Acknowledging that AI will affect jobs, the minister added: “The only way for us to mitigate the impact is to prepare our workers.
“We may not be able to save every job because jobs will change, but we do intend to save every worker – to ensure that they will continue to have relevant jobs, whether in AI-enabled (ones or others) available to them.”
