Hello Betamax, Predictions are hard. Just ask Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, who in 2023 said hallucinations by LLMs would largely be eliminated by 2025. That hasn't quite panned out. But that hasn't stopped our journalists and editors from making their predictions for 2026. One thing is clear across what our newsroom sees for next year: AI will continue to dominate the tech conversation in Asia. If 2025 was the year it became obvious that AI would touch nearly every part of our lives, bubble or not, 2026 will be pivotal for a different reason.  As major players such as OpenAI and Anthropic deepen their push into Asia, the key question is whether AI turns the region into a source of value to be extracted or a place where value is created and retained. The answer will hinge less on model-building and more on who controls data, distribution, and pricing power. That tension between value creation and extraction runs through Tech in Asia's predictions for 2026. Old-school shopping here to stay For most people, shopping is therapy, and they don't get an adrenaline rush from an item that another person - or bot - bought on their behalf. AI agents still can't purchase items without human supervision, but more importantly, there's no indication that that's what shoppers actually want. ~ Melissa Goh, senior editor Say goodbye to web crawlers and hello to APIs! In 2025, we discovered that almost everything on the public internet was being scraped and used to train AI models. So in 2026, expect many companies to try to reassert control over their data. Anything with even a whiff of proprietary data may soon require a login or a subscription to access. Social media posts, financial data, and news stories could soon be inaccessible to web crawlers, which will kill web searches as we know it. So how will you find anything online? AI-based search engines that get their data from APIs are the likely replacement. However, APIs can be expensive, and there is no guarantee that AI search engines will have access to all the data you might be looking for. So don't be surprised if by 2027, Chrome and Safari will no longer be your preferred search tools. ~ Scott Shuey, senior editor Sovereign data > sovereign models Indonesia's AI landscape in 2026 will hinge less on sovereign models and more on data partnerships with global tech firms. The stalling of Sahabat AI, a GoTo-Indosat project, underscores the limits of building national models from fine-tuned open-source foundations. The country's real leverage lies in its proprietary local data, from ecommerce and ride-hailing to healthcare and finance. Global AI players may control compute, but they need local data to win regional markets. ~ Glenn Kaonang, journalist Vietnam's moment? With Indonesia's startup momentum cooling, Vietnam has a window in 2026 to position itself as a regional tech hub. The AI wave plays to Vietnam's strengths, particularly its deep pool of engineers and affordable technical talent. That said, many of the country's brightest minds in tech remain under the radar or based overseas, often building profitable businesses without venture backing or media attention. As a result, Vietnam's next breakout may look less like a headline unicorn and more like a quiet, globally integrated success. ~ Thu Huong Le, managing editor PS: This will be the last edition of our Daily Newsletter for 2025. The next edition will be out on January 6, 2026. Happy holidays! Peter Cowan, engagement editor | 
