AI can help promote sustainable development of ASEAN

What does it take to ensure sustainable development in the ASEAN, home to 700 million people and the world’s third-most populous region? 

Answering this question, speakers in the ‘Sectoral Scene-Setting on AI and Innovation in ASEAN’ session on April 28 at the National Innovation Day 2026 in Manila, the Philippines, were unanimous in their view that artificial intelligence (AI) was the emerging driver of sustainable development in the region.  

Themed ‘AI for Growth, Opportunity and Sustainability in ASEAN,’ the two-day event was organised by the country’s National Innovation Council (NIC) and Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev). 

GovInsider was a supporting media partner at the event. 

The specific session featured presentations by Southeast Asia Regional Offices and Centres of Excellence, highlighting major development challenges and opportunities to use AI to address priority issues such as productivity gaps, climate risks, and the digital divide. 

The speakers stressed on the importance of regional cooperation, policy alignment, and capacity building to ensure that the benefits of AI-driven innovation were more widely shared across the region. 

GovInsider highlighted how AI is reshaping approaches to four vital sectors: food and agri-business, healthcare, education and climate change. 

Food and agriculture

Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)’s Centre Director Mercedita A Sombilla, noted that AI “was a strategic enabler that could transform today’s agrifood challenges into inclusive and sustainable opportunities for tomorrow”. 

She noted that predictive analytics ensured better climate intelligence for risk mitigation, improved market decisions, and digital advisory systems that reached even the most remote farmers, enabling better decision making. 

Sombilla said that agri-food systems were central to Southeast Asia’s economic growth and had been facing mounting pressure from climate shocks, slow growth in productivity, resource degradation, and widening inequalities.  

With a rapidly growing population and rising food demand, there was an urgent need to tackle these issues before they became more challenging and complex.  

Sombilla added that barriers such as infrastructure gaps, limited access to finance, and the digital divide had to be addressed to ensure inclusivity.  

She emphasised that integrating AI across four pillars, such as pocket, plate, place, and people, communities was essential in transforming these pressures into opportunities for transformation. 

Health and well-being 

Tropical Medicine and Public Health (TROPMED)’s Centre Director, Fernando B Garcia, noted that anti-microbial resistance (AMR) has become a critical public health crisis in the Philippines and Asia, with more than 15,000 deaths recorded.  

He said that an effective AMR response increasingly relied on the integration of AI within health and governance systems.  

AI has significantly expanded opportunities by turning fragmented surveillance into predictive, real-time systems that can identify resistance patterns earlier than traditional approaches. 

Garcia emphasised that AI was a critical enabler in shifting AMR response from reactive control to proactive prevention. 

Laying AI on top of integrated data from hospitals, laboratories, farms, pharmacies, and environmental sources has allowed holistic monitoring and the development of policymaking tools to combat AMR spread. 

Calling for stronger regional cooperation, Garcia stressed on the need for standardised data systems and the institutionalisation of One Health approaches to address persistent challenges like incomplete surveillance coverage and fragmented governance across sectors.  

Learning and education 

Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (INNOTECH)’s Centre Director, Dr Majah-Leah V Ravago, shared how AI had been reshaping education by strengthening human capital development and supporting nation-building.  

However, she observed that its outcomes depended heavily on how education systems and enabling environments were designed.  

She said that while AI had created significant opportunities in the education sector, there still remained persistent challenges, including unequal access to digital infrastructure, limited teacher readiness, fragmented governance, and widening gaps between and within Southeast Asian nations. 

These disparities had affected the region’s ability to fully harness AI’s potential in education, she added. 

To address these issues, Ravago stressed the need for stronger domestic policies, improved institutional coordination, sustained capacity building for teachers and education leaders, and curriculum reform aligned with emerging technologies.  

She also underscored the importance of balancing innovation with safeguards such as data privacy, child protection, and academic integrity. 

At the regional level, she called for collaborative frameworks, knowledge sharing, and contextualised strategies that reflect the different readiness levels among ASEAN countries.  

“In education, AI is an enabler, but human capacity remained the true foundation of progress,” Ravago said. 

AI and climate change 

According to Oscar M López Centre’s Executive Director, Rodel D Lasco, climate change remained the world’s most pressing global challenge, with increasing frequency of extreme weather events. 

The centre was established to support the generation of science and technology needed for building resilient communities in the Philippines. 

AI holds vast potential to tackle climate change by improving early warning systems with better climate modelling, disaster risk forecasting and urban resilience planning.  

However, he emphasised critical challenges, particularly climate change mitigation.  

The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, especially data centres, contributed significantly to global warming due to high energy and water consumption, he said.  

Lasco also stressed on the less-discussed issues such as the digital divide, unequal data access between the Global North and South, and limited local datasets.  

He noted that this constrained the effective use of AI by developing countries for climate change mitigation. 

He called for stronger investments in data systems, equitable access to AI technologies, sustainable digital infrastructure, and integrated climate governance that balances innovation with environmental responsibility. 

“AI can strengthen our climate response, but only if we ensure that its growth does not deepen the crisis it seeks to solve,” Lasco said.