Agoda report: Asia's developers grant AI more autonomy but keep human accountability
Agoda released its AI Developer Report 2026, covering Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and India. 53% of surveyed developers already use AI agents in production or broadly, led by Thailand at 64%; the share saving seven or more hours a week rose to 55% from 18% in 2025; 71% expect AI agents to handle most development work within three years, while 79% still require human approval for production deployment. Cost is the top barrier at 28%.
Impact and considerations
The report quantifies AI adoption progress and governance constraints among Asia-Pacific travel-tech firms, offering a reference for assessing supplier capability, cost structure and compliance risk.
Key points
- The report was commissioned by Agoda with Macrame Consulting, covering Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and India.
- 53% of respondents already use AI agents in selected production workflows or broadly, led by Thailand (64%), Vietnam (59%) and Singapore (58%).
- The share saving seven or more hours a week rose to 55% from 18% in 2025, with the largest gains in Thailand (70%), Vietnam (63%) and the Philippines (57%).
- Only 38% describe their codebase as mostly or fully ready for a fully autonomous agent.
- Cost is the top barrier at 28%, ahead of integration complexity (24%) and lack of governance (19%); four in five respondents work under some AI usage limits such as token quotas, caps or budget restrictions.
- 79% require human approval for production deployment, rising to 84% in both Vietnam and Thailand; 86% always or mostly review AI-generated outputs.
- 49% of junior developers feel less secure about their career prospects, versus 16.7% of CTO and VP Engineering respondents.
Sources and time
- Primary source
- Web in Travel
- Other sources
- 0
- First source publication
- 25 Sept 2026, 14:06
- Page published
- 25 Sept 2026, 18:00
- Last updated
- 25 Sept 2026, 14:06
- Original links
- Web in Travel：Asia's developers are granting Al more autonomy but retaining human accountability - WiT (opens in a new tab)Primary source · en · Published 25 Sept 2026, 14:06