Vietnam getting ready to ride Artificial Intelligence wave

Tiếng Việt

Vietnam getting ready to ride Artificial Intelligence wave

With the adoption of Artificial intelligence (AI) in its infancy in Vietnam, there’s still time for industry to plan and prepare for its disruption and reap the full benefits, according to academics from RMIT University’s School of Science & Technology.

AI can be used to support virtual assistants.

The growing potential

“At the moment in Vietnam, most AI applications are ‘narrow’, meaning they are most suitable for performing specialised tasks,” shared RMIT Information Technology Lecturer Dr Dang Pham Thien Duy on the technology, which is predicted to increasingly transform the way in which we live and work.

“It hasn’t progressed into emulating human intelligence, to creating intelligent systems and machines that can learn and improve to perform complex tasks. That’s the next big step.”

Despite some notable applications of AI currently in Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh City’s smart traffic management systems, image recognition to support medical diagnoses, and process automation in banking and other services, Dr Duy said there were more emerging AI opportunities to take advantage of thanks to the advance in machine learning (ML) techniques and big data technologies.

“AI can be used to micro-segment customers by analysing a large number of features and online behaviours, it can improve language processing capacities to enable things like virtual assistants, language translation, and handwriting recognition, and now with better algorithms, it can be used for automated robots such as drones, self-driving and unmanned vehicles, surgery assisting robots, and chatbots,” he said.

RMIT University School of Science & Technology lecturers Dr Dang Pham Thien Duy (pictured right) and Dr Dinh Ngoc Minh (pictured left) said that industry and students should make the most out of what AI offers.

Adopting a wait-and-see attitude

RMIT Software Engineering Lecturer Dr Dinh Ngoc Minh added that although there was visible growth in AI and ML, businesses in Vietnam remained sceptical.

“Organisations and businesses want 99 per cent accuracy and reliability, and production-ready AI-driven products. But very few have satisfied the requirements,” Dr Minh said.

“And there are only a few businesses that have been early adopters of AI, while the rest are waiting to see the positive results and case studies.”

While the new technology “is thriving in startup environments where experimenting is encouraged”, like online tool Sentifi, which 'mines' social media text using machine learning algorithms to find financial market insights, Dr Minh believes the reluctance to adopt AI by other businesses can be solved by increasing the volume of data generated from the younger generation.

“AI, especially machine leaning, is less meaningful and practical without a large volume of data. However, the younger generation in Vietnam has been adopting smart devices and online services at a rapid pace which generates big data,” Dr Minh explained.

He also stressed that privacy issues need to be taken into consideration.

With newly-introduced Data Science and AI Stream, RMIT’s science and technology students can have an effective study roadmap to successfully pursue a career in these fields.

A good time to get on board

The two academics agreed that with the rise of AI adoption, combined with a shortage of skilled experts in the field, it is currently an exciting time for industry as well as students.

“Businesses should get on board with AI now and all the relevant aspects, including its pros and cons, required resources, regulations, ethical issues and application to prepare for the wave,” Dr Duy said.

Dr Minh said it is also a great time for students to acquire data science and AI skills.

“Soft skills and business knowledge are both important muscles for IT and engineering students to build, as they give a ‘personal edge’ to those wanting to pursue a career in AI,” Dr Duy said.

RMIT’s School of Science & Technology recently introduced the Data Science and AI Stream to its course to help students have “an effective study roadmap for AI and Data Science”.

This year the School plans to host an international conference on advanced technologies which will include the latest information on AI and data science.

Story: Ha Hoang

Science and technology

03 March 2020