APAC CEOs take the wheel on AI as the region pulls ahead
APAC is outpacing North America and Europe in enterprise AI adoption. Forrester's AI Adoption Across Regions, 2025 shows bigger bets, faster deployment into core functions, and tighter executive ownership across the region.
The headline: 26% of APAC firms invested US$400,001-US$500,000 in GenAI (vs. 19% North America, 17% Europe), and 33% of APAC AI decision-makers say the CEO owns AI strategy (vs. 18% and 8%). That leadership clarity is translating into execution.
What the data says
- Investment: 26% of APAC firms invested US$400k-US$500k in GenAI; North America 19%, Europe 17%.
- Ownership: CEO leads AI strategy at 33% of APAC firms; 18% in North America, 8% in Europe.
- Deployment: 63% adoption in IT operations and 46% in data management/engineering across APAC.
- Workforce: 76% expect new roles, 47% report headcount reductions or replacements, and 66% are slowing hiring.
- Readiness: 91% of APAC employees feel motivated to learn AI, 91% received formal training, 89% can prompt GenAI.
- Usage leadership: Four of the top five countries in Anthropic's 2025 AI Usage Index are APAC (Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea).
Why APAC is moving faster
APAC firms operate in high-growth markets where speed wins. CEOs are taking direct ownership, aligning funding, data platforms, and business outcomes without extra layers of approval.
Europe leans governance-first due to regulation and labor protections. North America splits focus between operational efficiency and new digital experiences. APAC is extending AI from infrastructure into customer-facing functions because the basics are already in place.
Executive takeaways
- Make AI a CEO-level agenda item or appoint a single accountable executive with budget and P&L impact.
- Prioritize IT operations and data engineering use cases first; they deliver fast, measurable gains and enable downstream AI.
- Codify guardrails early: data sources, IP usage, model access, human-in-the-loop, and audit trails.
- Stand up an AI training pipeline tied to job families; certify on prompting, tooling, and measurement.
- Update workforce plans: role redesign before replacement, then targeted automation to lift throughput.
- Allocate 10-20% of AI budget to governance, evaluation, and security-including model risk management.
90-day execution plan
- Days 1-30: Name the owner, define three business outcomes, and lock a data/infra baseline. Pick 3-5 use cases with 12-week ROI potential.
- Days 31-60: Launch pilots in IT ops (incident response, change management) and data engineering (pipeline automation, data quality). Ship weekly.
- Days 61-90: Prove ROI, harden governance, and scale what works across two additional functions.
Governance and spend outlook (2026)
Forrester expects a pragmatic reset: governance, literacy, and ROI will take center stage. Enterprises will delay 25% of planned AI spend into 2027, and 60% of Fortune 100 will appoint heads of AI governance.
APAC leaders will lean into sovereignty, security, and responsible deployment as AI becomes part of national infrastructure and enterprise strategy. Build board-level oversight now to avoid costly rewrites later.
Regional operating notes
- APAC: Double down on infra-led expansion into customer-facing workflows; keep the CEO close to the data and ROI.
- North America: Balance efficiency plays with high-impact experience redesign; avoid tool sprawl with a unified platform strategy.
- Europe: Lead with compliance and worker enablement; design governance as a product that accelerates delivery instead of slowing it.
Metrics that matter
- IT operations: mean time to resolve incidents, change failure rate, automated runbook coverage.
- Data: pipeline cycle time, data quality scores, feature reuse rate.
- Productivity: hours saved per role per month, percent of tasks augmented or automated.
- Risk: model evaluation scores, policy exceptions, audit findings closed on time.
- People: training completion, certification rates, satisfaction and adoption by role.
- Financials: payback period, cost to serve reduction, revenue influenced by AI features.
Workforce: reskill before you replace
The fastest movers are building skills while they deploy. With 91% of APAC employees motivated and trained, leaders are converting interest into impact through structured learning paths and hands-on projects.
If you need a simple starting point, curate job-based training and certify on prompting, automation, and analytics. See courses by job and a round-up of popular certifications.
Use cases by region
- APAC: IT operations, data management/engineering, then customer service and sales enablement.
- North America: Operational efficiency, digital experiences, and AI-assisted software delivery.
- Europe: Governance frameworks, employee enablement, and compliant data activation.
"Asia Pacific's leadership in AI adoption reflects bold investment, decisive leadership and a clear understanding of regional dynamics," said Frederic Giron, VP and Senior Research Director, Forrester. "With CEOs taking ownership of AI strategy, organisations can better align technology with transformation."
The bottom line
APAC's edge comes from clear ownership, focused investment, and workforce readiness. Copy the intent, not the template: align leadership, pick use cases with fast payback, and build governance that speeds delivery.
Do that, and your AI program will stop being a science experiment and start moving the numbers that matter.
Your membership also unlocks:
