The editorial of June 2026

Asia in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just an engine of innovation: it has become an instrument of power. While the United States retains a dominant position in certain segments, data centers, AI semiconductors, cloud and advanced language models (Large Language Models or LLM), Asia is asserting itself as a central space for experimentation, deployment and diffusion of these technologies. From China to India, passing through Japan, South Korea and Singapore, the region concentrates between 20 and 30% of global investments in AI in 2025 (approximately 1,500 billion dollars), reflecting a progressive shift of the technological center of gravity.

But beyond financial volumes, it is its capacity to integrate AI into concrete uses, and at large scale, that distinguishes Asia today.

By pursuing national strategies that are certainly differentiated but nevertheless convergent.

The development of AI in Asia rests on varied models, but oriented toward a common objective: technological mastery.

China embodies the most integrated and most ambitious model. Its national plan for AI explicitly targets global leadership by the horizon of 2030. Its cumulative investments are estimated at approximately 120 billion dollars since the early 2010s (compared to 470 billion dollars for the United States), and the country represents approximately one third of global scientific publications in AI, making it the principal contributor in this matter.

But beyond the figures, it is the systemic integration of AI that distinguishes China. In its large southern metropolises such as Hangzhou or Shenzhen, traffic management systems piloted by AI make it possible to reduce traffic jams by 10 to 15% (City Brain developed by Alibaba). In the financial sector, mobile payments (Alipay, WeChat Pay), used by approximately 90% of Chinese city dwellers, rest on algorithms for fraud detection, risk scoring, authentication, and behavioral analysis. In logistics, a player like JD.com, principal rival of Alibaba in e-commerce, automates its warehouses thanks to intelligent systems capable of optimizing in real time the flows of merchandise.

This capacity to rapidly deploy solutions at very large scale rests on a triptych: abundance of data, state support (bank loans and subsidies) and the power of private platforms. It reflects above all a fundamental difference of tempo with Western democracies when China excels, unlike the latter, in massive and rapid scaling on the market once the technology has been validated.

Japan adopts a distinct approach, centered on the integration of artificial intelligence in robotics, industry and personal services.

This orientation is explained in large part by a major demographic constraint, as nearly 30% of the Japanese population is over 65 years old.

In this context, AI is conceived as a tool of structural support. Japan invests nearly 8 billion dollars per year in AI and a consequent share in robotics (45% of world production). In industry, companies like Fanuc (Fuji Automatic Numerical Control) use AI for predictive maintenance and automation of production lines. In services, social robots interacting with humans such as Pepper, developed by SoftBank Robotics, are deployed in shops, banks, airports, hospitals, retirement homes and educational establishments.

The medical sector particularly illustrates this orientation: assistance robots help elderly people, while AI systems facilitate diagnosis. The concept of "Society 5.0" (intelligent), introduced by the Japanese government and the employers' federation Keidanren, aims to integrate these technologies into a society centered on human well-being, while maintaining a high level of trust in human-machine cooperation.

South Korea, a technological production power, and Singapore, a platform of innovation and intelligent deployment, complete this landscape with respectively industrial and normative strategies, while India develops a model founded on scale and accessibility.

India: a power of scale and frugal innovation (doing better with less).

India distinguishes itself by a pragmatic and inclusive approach to AI. With nearly 1 billion internet users (2nd largest market after China) and more than 20 million software developers (2nd largest pool worldwide after the United States), it possesses considerable human potential.

Its public digital infrastructure constitutes a decisive lever. The largest biometric digital identity system in the world, Aadhaar, covers more than 1.3 billion individuals, and the UPI interface (Unified Payments Interface) developed by the National Payments Corporation of India processes more than 20 billion monthly transactions. This base allows the rapid deployment of AI applications in the sectors of health, agriculture and education.

For example, assisted diagnostic tools are used to screen for tuberculosis in rural areas, while agricultural platforms optimize yields thanks to the analysis of climatic data.

The AI market in India could reach 40 to 50 billion dollars by 2030, and approximately 100 billion dollars of economic impact linked to AI, confirming an important and rapid growth dynamic.

A structuring industrial domination.

Asia (Taiwan, South Korea) represents approximately 75% of world semiconductor production, a key element for the development of AI. This industrial domination confers on the region a decisive strategic advantage in the technological value chain.

Between innovation and normative tensions.

The expansion of AI in Asia is accompanied by growing tensions between innovation and regulation.

In China, approximately 700 to 800 million surveillance cameras installed (that is 1 camera for every 2 inhabitants on average) illustrate a model where AI is integrated into governance devices. Conversely, Japan and Singapore are developing more structured ethical frameworks.

India, for its part, attempts to reconcile innovation and data protection, notably with the adoption of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act in 2023.

A progressive recomposition of technological power.

Asia is no longer content with adopting technologies: it now defines their uses. More than one third of large AI companies are today Asian (Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, ByteDance for China; Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix for South Korea; TSMC for Taiwan; SoftBank Group, Fujitsu, NEC Corporation for Japan; Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys for India), against approximately one quarter ten years ago.

Convergence of models, divergence of purposes.

The rise of artificial intelligence in Asia does not reduce to either a catch-up dynamic or a simple technological competition. It reveals a deeper transformation: that of the very conditions of production, diffusion and framing of technology.

On one side, national trajectories converge toward a generalized integration of AI. On the other, the purposes diverge: economic optimization, social control, inclusion or frugal innovation.

In this landscape, Asia acts both as an accelerator and as a revealer. An accelerator, because it deploys AI at an unprecedented scale; a revealer, because it brings to light a fundamental reality: artificial intelligence is not neutral. It carries political, social and cultural choices.

From this point on, the issue is no longer solely technological. It resides in the capacity to understand, anticipate and eventually frame models that are already imposing themselves through their uses. Because in matters of AI, influence is not decreed, it imposes itself through use — often even before having been fully debated, which is also not without risk with regard to machines capable of simulating certain capacities of human intelligence, or even at a longer horizon of surpassing them.