ASEAN's digital economy has entered a new phase of transformation. Over the past decade, e-commerce has connected millions of businesses and consumers across the region, driving digital trade, expanding market opportunities, and strengthening regional economic integration. Today, advances in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) or AI systems capable of planning, making decisions, and taking actions on behalf of users are poised to redefine how businesses buy, sell, and participate in cross-border commerce.
This evolution marks a transition from digital commerce, where people use digital tools to conduct transactions, to AI-driven commerce, where AI agents increasingly assist or independently perform commercial activities such as product discovery, procurement, customer engagement, regulatory compliance, logistics coordination, and payments. These technologies have the potential to enhance productivity, expand market access, and lower barriers for market entry particularly MSMEs to participate more effectively in regional and global markets. At the same time, they raise important policy questions relating to trust, accountability, interoperability, data governance, consumer protection, competition, and digital skills.
As ASEAN commemorates the 7th ASEAN Online Sale Day (AOSD), this 3rd Regional Policy Forum provides a timely platform for policymakers, industry leaders, technology providers, academia and international organisations to examine how AI is reshaping digital trade. The Forum will explore how ASEAN can foster an enabling policy environment that supports innovation while ensuring that AI-enabled commerce develops in a trusted, secure, interoperable, and inclusive manner, consistent with ASEAN's broader digital economy ambitions and the objectives of the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA). The session will provide deeper understanding on how MSMEs can utilize AI in expanding market reach, translate product listing to multiple languages, provide more accurate delivery estimates, and making cross-border transactions more efficient.
Friday, 7 August 2026 from 13.30 to 15.35 (GMT+7).
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81346822040?pwd=A4REplzRJpg2elfi0DcHHIaXLNRryk.1
Meeting chat link
https://us02web.zoom.us/launch/jc/81346822040
Meeting ID: 813 4682 2040
Passcode: 468537