e-Conomy SEA 2026: Southeast Asia's Digital Economy Hits $368B as 243M Use Generative AI

Southeast Asia's digital economy will grow 17% year on year to $368 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2026, according to the 11th e-Conomy SEA report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, published on 21 October 2026. The report, titled "Building the Intelligent Economy", says generative AI is now actively used by 243 million people in the region, or 58% of the working population, and that the region is on track to pass $1 trillion in GMV by 2035. For marketers the sharper findings sit underneath the headline: search engines still lead travel planning, generative AI has overtaken social media as the second-most used planning tool, and three in four surveyed AI users say they would let an AI agent find the best price and buy for them.

What Google, Temasek and Bain published on 21 October 2026

Google announced the report in a post on its Keyword blog written by Nitin Gajria, Google's Managing Director for Southeast Asia and South Asia Frontier Markets. You can read the announcement in Google's e-Conomy SEA 2026 blog post. The full report and an interactive summary sit on the e-Conomy SEA website, which also hosts a downloadable PDF.

This edition widens the scope. Earlier e-Conomy SEA reports sized five digital sectors: e-commerce, online travel, online media, mobility and food delivery, and digital financial services. The 2026 report keeps those and adds an "AI economy" layer that tries to measure AI usage, consumer behaviour with AI, and how AI gets paid for. Google's post says the report uses tokens, the units AI models process, as "the new benchmark for the AI economy", and projects a 60-fold increase in regional AI usage by 2030.

Geographic coverage, per the blog post's footnote, is ten countries: the SEA-6 markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) plus Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Timor-Leste is excluded because of data limits. All dollar figures are US dollars.

The sector numbers for 2026

Google's blog post gives a 2026 figure and a growth rate for each of the five sectors. The table below lists them exactly as published on 21 October 2026.

The first four rows make up the $368 billion regional GMV: the report's note defines GMV as e-commerce, online travel, online media revenue, and mobility and food. The published sector figures are rounded, so they sum to $369 billion. Digital financial services sit outside that total and are reported as gross transaction value (GTV). Online media is counted as revenue rather than GMV.

E-commerce: AI assistants and conversion

E-commerce remains the largest sector at $226 billion. Google's post says shoppers use "multimodal discovery and in-app assistants" for complex purchases, and that these personalised experiences drive 10% higher conversions and order volume uplifts as large as 75%. The post does not name the platforms behind those uplift figures, and it does not say whether they are averages or best cases. Treat the 75% as an upper bound reported by the authors, not a typical result.

The report's executive summary adds a detail that matters for anyone running product search or marketplace ads: 69% of SEA-6 consumers use AI to compare product options, 93% say they trust the recommendations they get, and many then check those recommendations against search engines, reviews on shopping platforms and social media. In other words, the AI answer is often the first step of the research, not the last.

Online travel: search first, generative AI second

Online travel GMV reaches $59 billion in 2026. Google's post states that "traditional search engines remain the top platform people use to plan travel", while generative AI has overtaken social media to become the second-most used tool for organising complex itineraries. The report describes search engines themselves as evolving into AI-powered planning tools, with generative overviews that pull together websites, maps, reviews and comparisons. It also says Southeast Asian travellers typically interact with more than 20 digital touchpoints before booking.

Online media: ads lead, commerce media grows

Online media revenue grows 22% to $44 billion, and the report's sector page says online ads remain the biggest contributor. Three points from the report are directly relevant to media planning:

• AI-powered campaign tools on major platforms are linked to uplifts of 10-20% in click quality, per the report. Google's blog post describes this as a 10 to 20% quality engagement uplift.
• Commerce media (ads sold by e-commerce, travel and super-app platforms on their own traffic) is, in the report's words, creating "a ~$4B SEA ad market in five years", and Google's blog post says commerce media "becomes a $4 billion market". Neither source gives a 2026 size. The report notes these platforms' ads are only 1-3% of their GMV, compared with 9-10% for Amazon in the US.
• Advertising on standalone generative AI platforms is called "nascent". The report expects it to scale over the next two to three years, but gradually, citing limited inventory, uncertainty about ad effectiveness and differing platform strategies.

The same section says online video keeps gaining share from TV, particularly through connected TV, and that video is broadening from brand formats into shoppable and clickable performance formats.

Mobility, food and financial services

Mobility and food delivery grows 15% to $40 billion GMV, helped by predictive suggestions, smarter routing and pooled rides, per the blog post. The report says AI plays a limited role in low-stakes, routine tasks such as ordering food or booking transport. Digital financial services reach $1,650 billion in gross transaction value, up 16%, with the post pointing to real-time fraud detection, wider credit access and personalised recommendations.

The consumer survey: how ready people say they are for AI agents

The consumer findings come from a Google and YouGov survey titled "Uncovering AI Adoption, Trust, and Autonomy in SEA", fielded in July 2026 across the SEA-6 markets, Thailand included, with 9,006 AI users. Note the base: these are people who already use AI, not the whole online population, so the percentages describe enthusiasts and regular users more than the average shopper.

The main figures in Google's post:

• 72% of users rely on everyday automation features such as price tracking.
• 75% say they would let AI agents compare prices and complete transactions on their behalf.
• 62% trust AI tools more today than a year ago. The top reasons given are a proven track record (56%), rising familiarity (55%) and output accuracy (53%).
• To feel comfortable with agentic features, users want privacy safeguards (44%), transparent information on what AI can and cannot do (36%) and the ability to reverse an agentic transaction (30%).

The report also tempers the willingness figures. It says consumers rely on AI heavily for discovery and evaluation, but "continue to execute final transactions manually" because of high values and low tolerance for errors. Stated willingness to delegate a purchase is not the same as delegating it today.

Thailand in the survey

The e-Conomy SEA website breaks the agent-delegation question down by country. Asked whether, assuming the assistant is generally reliable, they would be comfortable letting AI do each task on their behalf, Thai respondents gave these answers in the July 2026 survey:

• "Find the best price and buy a product for me": 85% in Thailand, the highest of the six markets, against a SEA-6 average of 75%.
• "Plan and book trip based on my budget and preferences": 60% in Thailand, also the highest, against a 47% average.
• "Schedule follow-up appointments automatically": 60% in Thailand, close to the 59% average.

The report's executive summary also says users in Thailand and Vietnam are "not far behind Malaysia" in their AI usage, while Singapore leads the region on adoption and usage depth.

What the report does not say about Thailand

No Thailand-specific 2026 GMV figure appears in Google's blog post or on the report site's summary pages, and as of 25 October 2026 the only country report offered for download is Singapore's. Anyone quoting a 2026 size for Thailand's digital economy should wait for a published Thai figure rather than estimate one from the regional total. The regional PDF does mention Thai policy in passing: it notes Thailand reclassified digital platforms as accountable service providers, granted three virtual bank licences in 2025, and now requires electronic issuance of compulsory motor insurance policies.

Funding, infrastructure and policy

The report says AI-focused companies captured about 80% of private funding in the first half of 2026, up from 32% in the first half of 2025. The interactive site puts AI application funding at $3.2 billion across 101 deals in H1 2026. To support the projected growth in AI usage, the authors call for roughly a threefold expansion in data centre capacity over the next five years and point to the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA), due in November 2026, as the first region-wide digital trade pact.

On monetisation, the report says only about 1-2% of the SEA-6 population pay for generative AI accounts, compared with 3% of US households, and that ads on standalone generative AI platforms are only beginning to roll out.

Why the search and AI findings matter for planning

This section is analysis, not a claim from the report. Two findings point in the same direction. Search still leads travel planning, and AI users who get a product recommendation often go on to check it in search, on marketplace reviews and on social media. That suggests budgets built purely around "AI replaces search" are early. At the same time, generative AI has already passed social media as a planning tool in travel, and the report describes search engines adding generative overviews. Brands that want to be named in those answers need content and product data that AI systems can read and cite, which is the work covered under generative engine optimisation, alongside classic SEO for search results.

The commerce media figure matters as well. The report itself calls ads at only 1-3% of those platforms' GMV "significant headroom". In practice that usually means more ad inventory, and more competition, inside the platforms where Southeast Asian shoppers already buy.

What this means for Thai marketers

Thailand recorded the highest willingness of any SEA-6 market to let AI find the best price and buy a product (85%) and to plan and book a trip (60%) in the Google and YouGov survey. That is a stated attitude among existing AI users, not a measure of agent-led sales. Still, it gives Thai e-commerce and travel brands three practical checks: are your product feeds, prices and stock accurate enough for an AI agent to compare; do your listings and reviews hold up when shoppers verify an AI suggestion; and does your e-commerce marketing plan include commerce media inside the marketplaces where your buyers already shop? Until a Thailand country cut of the report is published, use the regional and survey figures above and label them as such.

FAQ

How big is Southeast Asia's digital economy in 2026?

The e-Conomy SEA 2026 report puts it at $368 billion in GMV, up 17% year on year. That total covers e-commerce, online travel, online media revenue, and mobility and food delivery across ten countries, and the authors say the region is on track to exceed $1 trillion by 2035.

Does the report give a 2026 figure for Thailand?

No Thailand-specific 2026 GMV figure was published in the blog post or on the report site's summary as of 25 October 2026. The site does publish Thai survey results, such as 85% of Thai AI users saying they would let AI find the best price and buy a product for them.

Who ran the consumer survey and how many people took part?

Google and YouGov ran it in July 2026 across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with 9,006 respondents who already use AI. Because everyone in the sample uses AI, the results should not be read as representing all online consumers.

Is search still important if people use generative AI?

Yes, according to the report: traditional search engines remain the top platform for planning travel, with generative AI second and social media now behind it. The report also says many people check AI product recommendations against search engines, shopping platform reviews and social media.

What is commerce media and how big is it in Southeast Asia?

Commerce media is advertising that e-commerce, travel and super-app platforms sell on their own traffic, and the report says these platforms are creating a roughly $4 billion SEA ad market within five years; it does not give a 2026 size. Those ads are only 1-3% of the platforms' GMV, against 9-10% for Amazon in the US, per the report.

The bottom line

The 2026 e-Conomy SEA report confirms steady double-digit growth across Southeast Asia's digital sectors and puts numbers on how fast generative AI has spread. For Thai brands, the useful parts are the survey cuts showing Thai AI users among the most open to agent-led shopping and travel booking, and the evidence that search and reviews still sit in the middle of the buying journey. If you want help turning these findings into a search, AI visibility and marketplace plan for the Thai market, Relevant Audience can review where your brand shows up today.