Nearly 80 million workers across Southeast Asia—22.9 per cent of total employment in ASEAN member states—are in occupations where artificial intelligence can automate or augment at least some tasks, according to a new International Labour Organisation report. Yet employment in the roles most exposed to AI has expanded since 2017, including after the emergence of generative AI, indicating that companies are adapting work processes rather than replacing workers outright. Around 11.7 million workers, or 3.3 per cent of the region’s employment, are in the highest-exposure category, while 67 per cent of jobs show no identified AI exposure.

The pattern of augmentation over displacement is echoed in US labour market data. An analysis by the Indeed Hiring Lab shows the number of “AI-touched” job titles—those with at least five postings mentioning AI in a quarter—rose from 264 in 2022 to 822 in the first quarter of 2026, with 63 per cent of those titles in non-tech fields such as management, marketing and education. The relationship between AI exposure and job postings appears to be flipping from destruction to creation, the platform’s economists note. A software engineer at Google, interviewed separately, described spending more time reviewing AI-generated code than writing it, reinforcing the view that the job is changing rather than disappearing.

Viewed from Jakarta, the challenge is not only technological but also one of human capital readiness. Indonesian officials told the UN’s WSIS Forum in Geneva that 92 per cent of the country’s knowledge workers already use generative AI, yet only 23 per cent of organisations are classified as fully prepared to exploit it. The government is finalising a presidential regulation on AI governance and has used the forum to promote a three-pillar digital model—connectivity, growth and protection—that includes mandatory age restrictions on high-risk platforms. More than five million child accounts have been deactivated under the policy, a step praised by domestic Islamic organisations as essential to safeguarding young people.

In the United States, the competition for AI talent is reshaping employer brands. Google, long the sector’s most desirable workplace, has seen its ranking among US business students slip from first to fifth, as layoffs and a perceived loss of stability push some employees toward AI startups offering equity upside and greater personal impact. The ILO report underscores that future labour market outcomes will depend less on exposure alone than on policy choices that build worker and institutional resilience. The next concrete milestone is Indonesia’s forthcoming AI governance regulation, which will provide a legal framework for innovation and investment while attempting to embed ethical safeguards into the region’s rapidly evolving digital economy.