Businesses across six Southeast Asian markets are favoring selective hiring and operational efficiency as they reassess growth plans, while AI and technology remain among their leading investment priorities, according to a new regional survey from Reeracoen Group and Rakuten Insight.
The Great Restructuring: ASEAN Consumer & Business Pulse Survey 2026 surveyed 3,630 consumers and business respondents across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in June.
Across the six markets, 32 percent to 47 percent of surveyed businesses said they were hiring selectively, compared with 7 percent to 16 percent that reported active workforce expansion. Operational efficiency ranked as the top growth priority at 35 percent to 43 percent, while AI and technology were among the top three priorities at 24 percent to 33 percent.
Hiring remains active but becomes more targeted
The survey suggests that companies are still adding people, but are doing so more selectively as they try to strengthen specific capabilities rather than expand headcount broadly.
Indonesia and Vietnam recorded the highest share of businesses reporting selective hiring, both at 47 percent. The figure was 39 percent in the Philippines, 36 percent in Malaysia, 33 percent in Thailand and 32 percent in Singapore.
Vietnam also recorded the highest active hiring expansion rate among the six markets at 16 percent. The broader picture is one of businesses balancing growth ambitions against an uncertain operating environment, with more attention being paid to where new roles can improve capability or efficiency.
Kenji Naito, Group CEO of Reeracoen Group, said talent strategy has become increasingly important as companies decide where to invest ahead of the next growth cycle.
AI priorities look different across ASEAN markets
Singapore had the highest share of businesses identifying AI and technology as a growth opportunity, at 33 percent. The regional range was 24 percent to 33 percent, putting technology among the leading priorities even as companies focused heavily on operating efficiency.
The six-country results also show that the region is not moving in a single pattern. Indonesia recorded the highest business confidence figure in the study at 66 percent and a 29 percent career-mobility reading. Malaysia had the strongest domestic-market focus at 75 percent, while Thailand led the survey’s investment-growth measure at 28 percent.
The Philippines combined 65 percent business confidence with a cautious consumer-spending reading of 89 percent. Vietnam recorded the highest consumer optimism at 48 percent as well as the survey’s highest active hiring expansion rate.
Those differences make broad ASEAN averages useful only up to a point. Companies operating across the region still have to account for different labor markets, consumer conditions and investment priorities in individual countries.
AI is starting to influence career decisions
The survey also looked at how workers and consumers are responding to economic pressure. Income diversification emerged as a common strategy. In Indonesia, 71 percent of surveyed consumers said they were seeking additional income, while the figure was 70 percent in the Philippines.
Vietnam stood out on career change. Among consumers considering a career move, 39 percent cited AI and automation as a primary motivator. Reeracoen and Rakuten Insight said Vietnam was the only market in the study where technology ranked ahead of income growth and work-life balance as the leading career-change driver.
That does not necessarily mean AI is directly eliminating jobs or forcing workers to move. The survey measures reported motivations and expectations, so the figures are better read as a signal of how technology is entering career decisions rather than as proof of a single cause.
TNGlobal recently reported on International Labour Organization estimates that AI could affect nearly 80 million jobs across ASEAN, with the impact expected to vary substantially by occupation and market.
Efficiency and capability are moving together
The latest survey adds a business-side view to that workforce discussion. Companies are not simply reporting a push to automate. They are also trying to decide where selective hiring, process improvement and technology investment can reinforce one another.
For employers, the next challenge will be determining which skills are genuinely scarce and which tasks can be redesigned as AI tools become more capable. For workers, the same transition can change which roles look attractive and what kinds of training are worth pursuing.
The findings are based on a regional survey conducted in June 2026. They provide a snapshot of sentiment rather than a forecast of employment or investment outcomes, but they show that AI is increasingly part of both corporate planning and individual career decisions across Southeast Asia.
Featured image: Anelale Nájera on Unsplash
AI may affect nearly 80 million workers in the ASEAN region – ILO