Vietnam leads Southeast Asia in using Google AI in academia
According to Gemini usage statistics in Southeast Asia announced by Google on the morning of July 14, Vietnam leads in applying AI to learning. Of these, academic activities account for 17% of the total number of orders of Vietnamese people, higher than the regional average of 11%. The report also said that more than 160,000 students use Gemini Canvas test prep tools every month, while educators create 55,000 requests related to teaching support every day.
According to Dang Thanh Nga, Google student ambassador, features like Gemini's Canvas can act as a "companion" when preparing for exams, helping her analyze complex math formulas or find source code errors whenever she encounters difficulty.
"This is an effective way to solve problems and systematize data, but critical thinking and the final result must still come from ourselves," Nga said, arguing that the tool "simple helps the learning process become faster, more effective and more organized."
Vietnam also leads in native language adoption rates on Gemini. Specifically, Vietnam has the highest rate of native language usage in the region, with 89% of commands in Vietnamese, while Thailand is 87% and Indonesia is 84%. In the example shared by the company, a Shan Tuyet tea farmer in Lao Cai used Gemini to translate, write emails, invoices in professional English and sell directly to European and American markets.
From that data, Google evaluates Gemini "plays an important role as a bridge to reach the global market. Vietnamese users rely on Gemini's translation and localization capabilities more than any other country in Southeast Asia."
Vietnam is also in the leading group of countries in the number of requests related to programming and mathematical thinking support on Gemini, with 4% of the commands being about programming, 5% about mathematics. Meanwhile, the majority of users interacting with Gemini are still chatting (29%) and creating content (17%).
32% of orders from Vietnam were sent via computer, the second highest in the region after Singapore, while 66% of orders were sent via mobile phone. This rate of computer usage, according to Google, shows the great demand of Vietnamese people for technical work that is in-depth and requires concentration.
This is the first time Google has reported on the use of AI Gemini in Southeast Asia, with countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Gemini is Google's fastest growing app in the region, with the number of active users on the app more than doubling in the past year. The application was also recorded as the most searched AI assistant in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
According to Ms. Sapna Chadha, Google Vice President in charge of Southeast Asia and South Asia, this region is special because technology is naturally integrated into everyday life. "Users don't simply adapt to Gemini, they use it in their own way, through the methods they prefer, in the languages they speak and in the specific contexts of their lives," Ms. Chadha shared.
At the report announcement, Google said it wanted to make Gemini "the most useful AI assistant" for 600 million people in Southeast Asia. They also plan to bring AI agents to consumers like Gemini Spark to transform Gemini from a question-answering assistant into a "partner" that directly helps users get work done.
Spark is a 24/7 personalized AI agent designed to proactively manage tasks, deeply integrated with Workspace tools like Gmail, Docs and Slides. Gemini Spark is available in English for Google AI Ultra subscribers. Google said it will deploy the agent across all local languages in Southeast Asia from this week.
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