ASEAN companies see AI benefits outweighing energy costs, survey finds

ASEAN business leaders are bullish on AI even as they expect it to push up energy demand. In a survey of 514 executives across six economies, 78% said the benefits of AI would outweigh its energy costs, while 81% expect a moderate or significant jump in demand. Respondents in Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand were most optimistic; the Philippines was the least, likely because electricity is already expensive and less reliable there. Experts in the report argue that companies should measure an AI application's carbon footprint, not just its token price, and use smaller task-specific models when possible. The bigger question is whether AI-driven power demand gets managed at the grid level. Clean power standards for data centres and investment in renewables, storage, and transmission could turn that demand into a driver of decarbonisation instead of a reason to build more gas capacity.