Thailand must balance AI push with 'Heartware' and nature, says Higher Education Minister

 

Deputy PM Yodchanan Wongsawat tells Bangkok Business Summit that human capital, nature and regional collaboration must underpin AI-driven growth.

 

Thailand’s push to escape the middle-income trap must rest on people and nature as much as on artificial intelligence, the country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Professor Dr Yodchanan Wongsawat, told delegates at the Bangkok Business Summit 2026 on Thursday.

 

Speaking in a fireside conversation with Professor Annie Koh under the "New Horizons: Future Industry, AgriFood and Human-Centric Economy" track, Dr Yodchanan argued that while the world races to adopt AI, Thailand's competitive edge will come from what he called "Heartware"—a combination of skilled people, scientific fundamentals and an economy rooted in nature.

 

The session, held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre ahead of the 2026 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings, brought together Thai policymakers and international investors to discuss how the country can build a new economic engine beyond low-cost manufacturing.

 

 

Bridging the gap from research to real-world application

Dr Yodchanan traced his own shift in thinking back to his time as an academic researching brain–computer interface (BCI) technology, which helps people with disabilities operate computers using neural signals.

 

A turning point came, he said, when a student asked what use the qualification would be if Thailand had no industry to employ it in.

 

 

 

That question pushed him to move from pure research towards building ventures that could commercialise laboratory work — including a drowsiness-detection system, developed from brainwave data, which was later adopted by logistics companies.

 

That experience, he said, now informs national policy: Thailand cannot rely on production alone to reach high-income status. It needs a systematic effort to build scientific and technological foundations alongside its people.

 

 

Beyond the tip: Why 'deep infrastructure' powers the AI iceberg

To illustrate his strategy, Dr Yodchanan used the metaphor of an iceberg with three layers. At the visible tip sits AI technology itself — the layer most people see and discuss.

 

The middle layer, "AI for All", concerns the everyday application of AI across society, paired with large-scale upskilling and reskilling to prepare the workforce for disruption.

 

Beneath the waterline lies what he called Deep Infrastructure: semiconductors, fibre optics and photonics — the unglamorous but decisive layer that determines whether a country can sustain advanced technology at all.

 

It is this submerged layer that the government's newly announced "Siam Silica" initiative targets, aiming to attract semiconductor investors and specialists to build both production capacity and a domestic engineering workforce.

 

Dr Yodchanan was explicit that the tip of the iceberg can only stay stable if the base — fundamental science, physics, biology and even the liberal arts — is strong enough to support it, given how quickly technology trends shift.
 

 

 

Regional synergy: Scaling up at home, raising capital abroad

Asked by Professor Koh whether Thailand should try to poach international talent in the way Singapore once did, Dr Yodchanan rejected the premise, favouring regional collaboration instead.

 

He described ASEAN's unity as a borderless strength, with Thailand positioned as a logistics hub linking southern China, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore through to India.

 

He set out a three-stage regional model: Thai start-ups should "go regional" to raise capital in Singapore's deeper financial markets; once ready for production, they should "scale up at home", using Thailand's manufacturing capacity; and finished products — tested under Thailand's tropical conditions — should then be exported globally.

 

 

Grounding innovation in local problems and tropical expertise

A recurring theme was the need for Thai research to begin with local problems rather than importing research agendas from abroad.

 

Dr Yodchanan pointed to examples such as breeding rice varieties suited to specific local soils and developing Thai herbal ingredients for the health industry, arguing that researchers who start from problems they understand intimately end up producing solutions that are far harder for competitors to replicate.

 

He also highlighted Thailand's long-accumulated expertise in tropical diseases such as dengue fever and malaria. As climate change pushes warm, humid conditions — and the diseases that come with them — into new parts of the world, he argued that this body of knowledge is fast becoming a globally relevant export in its own right.

 

To prepare graduates for this shift, the ministry is expanding its Cooperative and Work-Integrated Education (CWIE) scheme, which embeds students directly in industry, in a similar manner to how medical students train inside hospitals.

 

Universities, he said, are being reshaped into incubators, supported by pilot manufacturing plants and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards to help move ideas out of the laboratory and into industrial-scale production.

 

 

Harnessing 'Nature Finance' as a counterweight to AI

Dr Yodchanan closed the session with what he described as a necessary counterweight to the AI narrative: Nature Finance. High technology, he argued, means little if the natural foundations that supply food, clean water and biological raw materials are allowed to degrade.

 

Given Thailand's biodiversity, he suggested the country should position itself not merely as a participant in global Net Zero commitments, but as an active protector and value-creator from nature — a stance intended to draw green capital from international investors, including ahead of discussions at the forthcoming IMF–World Bank meetings.

 

Professor Koh, summing up the exchange, awarded the vision what she called an "A" grade, noting that it framed technology policy not around hardware or software first, but around "Heartware" — human understanding and ecological stewardship guiding technological development, rather than the other way round.

 

 

The panel formed part of the Bangkok Business Summit 2026's broader public–private dialogue, which convened Thai government leaders, global development partners and foreign investors to chart a path towards high-income status ahead of the 2026 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings.

 

Dr Yodchanan was joined at the event by ministry advisers, including Dr Sriyada Palimapan and secretary Chatrin Chanhom, alongside a mix of domestic and international investors.

 

For Thailand, the message from the ministry was consistent: AI adoption, semiconductor infrastructure and start-up capital are necessary, but not sufficient. Without deep investment in people, locally grounded research, regional cooperation and natural capital, officials argue, the country's technological ambitions will lack the foundation needed to endure.