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Hamzah Rifaat

Western analysts often frame automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as an existential threat to workers, with the risk of impending unemployment potentially triggering economic unrest.
However, 74 per cent of all industrial robots deployed last year were in Asia, where they do not appear to be replacing workers but are instead redefining roles amid innovative modes for production and higher efficiency.
As digital factories become ubiquitous, countries such as Vietnam and China are embracing AI “factory brains”, making manufacturing more resilient and competitive by reshaping work and traditional supply chains.
East Asia is not simply “mechanising”. It is building systems whereby technology, productivity and human capital are merging for a sustainable future.
China’s automation drive, for example, is anchored in pragmatism, with its creation of digital factories and AI systems optimising production by easing tasks for workers. Companies such as Midea Group have deployed AI factory brains, leaving some repetitive tasks to robots while workers focus on monitoring and evaluation.
Such automation is not limited to China’s high-end industries but encompasses sectors such as textiles and food processing – reducing labour strain and increasing efficiency, monitoring, logistics and supply chain management.

Similar trends exist in Vietnam. Labour productivity has improved due to digitalisation and AI-related operations. Foxconn’s AI investments alongside infrastructure development by subsidiaries such as Fulian Precision Technology Component are raising productivity in Vietnam – important for a country aspiring to become an AI hub.
Foxconn Industrial Internet revealed that revenue from its new-technology applications in Vietnam has grown by 83 per cent in the past year while the workforce had increased by just 20 per cent – this indicates higher output. Vietnam, it seems, is reaping the benefits of higher worker satisfaction and economic resilience.
South Korea, which has the world’s highest robot density, shows how automation and human capital can converge. From 2018 to 2023, AI-adopting companies witnessed a 5.8 per cent increase in employment, according to a study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), while in another survey, 95.5 per cent of companies reported no workforce changes after adopting AI.
The 2025 OECD report suggests tasks were successfully reconfigured due to AI adoption, increasing demand for higher skills including digital literacy and data analysis. For instance, Hyundai Heavy Industries’ launch of welding robots at its Ulsan shipyard also creates specialised jobs in inspection, oversight and monitoring.
Similarly in Japan, automation tends to involve human-machine coordination instead of simple mechanisation. There is also a strategic dimension to Japan’s automation given its ageing population. Robotics are not mere add-ons for Tokyo but a long-term necessity that generates employment and increases production.


Such examples show how automation complements labour and results in higher productivity, efficiency and resilience in East Asia. A World Bank report released in June said the productivity and scale gains in the Asia-Pacific from automation technologies had largely offset the labour-displacing effects.
Such positive trends in East Asia are a contrast to the alarmist assessments from the West on automation. The National Foundation for Educational Research in the United Kingdom recently warned that up to 3 million low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 due to automation and AI, while Goldman Sachs Research estimates that AI-related innovations could displace 6-7 per cent of the US workforce if widely adopted.
Yet East Asian economies continue to employ automation pragmatically with due consideration for synergising worker productivity and manufacturing resilience. But to maximise the strategic momentum gained from automation, East Asian countries must think strategically. Priority areas should include investments in human capital amid the reorientation towards digital factories to retain productivity.
Companies from Hyundai to Samsung already offer training courses in AI and robotics. But an expansion of vocational training in these areas as well as digital factory operations, for example, can go a long way towards harnessing potential and aligning with manufacturing requirements.


Second, East Asian economies need to expand their social safety nets as they transition workers to reskilling towards automation. This is particularly important for older and more vulnerable segments of the workforce. Public-private collaborations and innovation clusters such as Japan’s Society 5.0 initiative and South Korea’s K-Humanoid Alliance can also synergise automation via workforce development with stakeholders, governments, private workers and research institutions.
Monitoring of labour outcomes and flexible, adaptive policies cognisant of shifting skill sets and employment can also help governments account for workers while keeping the scale of automation unscathed. East Asia’s automation drive is not a zero-sum arrangement. The development of digital factories from Vietnam to China shows how robotics can enhance as well as coexist with employment.
Sustaining the positive momentum from automation adoption can also be made possible if small and medium-sized enterprises are supported with subsidies, shared automation platforms and digital vocational training centres. Doing so helps keep domestic digital economies inclusive, resilient and dynamic.
The strategic prioritisation of skill development by governments, alignment of industrial policies, pursuance of innovative clusters and provision of social safety nets can help workers assume high-value roles, thereby boosting productivity and contributing to the resilience of their domestic economies.
In truth, East Asia is not simply mechanising. It is actively synergising and carving out a future whereby opportunity, technology and productivity can advance together.


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Opinion

Asia Opinion

China Opinion

News

Asia

East Asia

Southeast Asia

China

Science

China Future Tech

Robotics

Studies from Vietnam to South Korea show AI adoption has not cannibalised jobs. Instead of simple mechanisation, economies are synergising


Studies from Vietnam to South Korea show AI adoption has not cannibalised jobs. Instead of simple mechanisation, economies are synergising.


Artificial intelligence (AI)

Asia Tech

China manufacturing

Vietnam

Japan

South Korea

Jobs

China technology

Goldman Sachs

AI: Companies

AI: Industry Trends

Samsung Electronics

Hon Hai Precision Industry

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Midea Group

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Foxconn

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Does AI’s rise have to mean job losses? East Asia tells a different story

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Studies from Vietnam to South Korea show AI adoption has not cannibalised jobs. Instead of simple mechanisation, economies are synergising

Studies from Vietnam to South Korea show AI adoption has not cannibalised jobs. Instead of simple mechanisation, economies are synergising