APAC moving towards ROI-driven AI investments

Lenovo’s CIO Playbook 2025 revealed AI spending in Asia Pacific has increased 3.3x but businesses are seemingly more focused on ROI-driven AI investments.

AI spending has increased by 3.3x in Asia Pacific, but there’s a catch as business leaders and IT decision makers seem more focused on ROI-driven-AI investments. This was revealed in the third edition of Lenovo’s CIO Playbook 2025 – It’s Time for AI-nomics. The study, which was commissioned by Lenovo, is based on a global IDC study from 12 APAC markets.

There is no denying that there has been any slowdown in AI investments in APAC. But with businesses now focused on ROI-driven-AI investments, the tech ecosystem may have to reevaluate existing strategies to ensure the end goals are achieved.

In Southeast Asia, while organizations are spending 2.7x more on AI, the study revealed that AI adoption in the region remains in its early stages. Specifically, 47% of organizations are either evaluating or planning to implement AI within the next 12 months, which is lower than both APAC (56%) and global (49%) averages. Despite ROI challenges emerging as a key barrier to faster adoption, Singapore leads as the regional hub with advanced AI maturity and infrastructure, while other ASEAN nations are still in the early stages of adoption due to constraints in resources and expertise.

“AI adoption in ASEAN is characterized by the region's diverse economic landscape, where businesses are focusing on optimizing supply chains, improving employee productivity, and leveraging emerging AI technologies to remain competitive in fast-growing markets. While challenges such as data quality and integration complexities persist, success lies in forming partnerships with strong AI providers and ensuring data sovereignty, which is particularly critical in markets with varying regulatory environments,” stated the report.

With ROI top of the agenda, planning and implementing the right AI strategy is crucial. This means companies will want to relook at business priorities and understand which areas can give them the best ROI. The challenge is however convincing organizations in APAC as they expect a 3.6x ROI on average from their AI projects.

Not only does this require a measured approach to scaling AI and building internal capabilities, but also brings the question of how should ROI be measured? Is it merely just by increased profits through AI investments? Or is it just from cost savings businesses have when using AI in the workforce?

In Southeast Asia, the gradual pace reflects a focus on optimizing supply chain, improving regulatory compliance, and boosting employee productivity while overcoming business challenges such as data management, AI expertise, and data security.

This is also why Sumir Bhatia, President, Asia Pacific Infrastructure Solutions Group at Lenovo believes it all goes down to having the right AI strategy and business priorities.

"Business priorities are shifting in Asia Pacific. For 2025, governance, risk, and compliance have jumped 12 spots to become the top priority, highlighting the focus on secure and responsible AI. Employee productivity has also climbed from #7 to #2, underscoring its growing importance. Lenovo is committed to making AI accessible, ethical, and impactful — helping businesses of all sizes thrive in the AI era,” commented Bhatia.

Making the right choices

With ROI the priority for AI investments, organizations also need to understand that implementing AI and getting ROI from it is not just like taking a walk through the park. While there will eventually be some ROI, the reality is the journey can be rather challenging if there is no proper planning.

For example, cybersecurity and data privacy when it comes to working with AI. According to the study, ethical issues and biases remain the top AI risks this year, yet only 24% of organizations globally and 25% in AP have fully enforced AI GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) policies. In Southeast Asia, 24% of CIOs report having fully implemented enterprise AI GRC policies, aligning closely with global and AP trends. This underscores the urgent need for a structured approach to what has become the #1 priority for businesses in AP.

As Bhatia clearly pointed out, effective AI governance requires explainability, ethical frameworks, accountability, model governance, enhanced privacy, security and integrated human oversight.

But this does not mean that AI is slowing down. As the study clearly indicated, GenAI is set to transform enterprise workflows, commanding 42% of AI implementation spends in 2025 in the region. In Asia Pacific, IT Operations emerged as the top use case, while in Southeast Asia Customer Service took the lead.

The study revealed two of the top 3 AI investment areas in the next 12 months are data related. 34% of APJ respondents also highlighted that they will be developing data management capabilities in the next 12 months. The top skill APAC organizations are currently developing to support AI projects is data management and governance.

Going back to having the right AI strategy, the report revealed that 65% of organizations in APAC are opting for on-premise or hybrid solutions to power AI workloads. This preference is driven by the need for secure, low-latency environments, and operational flexibility. Meanwhile, 19% still rely on public cloud services.

"Hybrid architectures offer the best of both worlds—scalability and control. Globally, 63% of organizations choose on-premise and hybrid infrastructures for AI, and ASEAN is leading with a higher adoption rate. This demonstrates a clear focus on driving innovation while ensuring security and compliance for the unique demands of AI. With its end-to-end cutting-edge AI solutions, smarter infrastructure, and strategic partnerships, Lenovo is driving Smarter AI for all,” said Varinderjit Singh, General Manager, Malaysia.

The AI ecosystem

This is also where organizations will rely on the tech ecosystem to help them in their AI journey. With partners playing an important role in helping organizations strategize and implement AI, 34% of APAC CIOs are actively leveraging professional AI services to navigate complexities in data management, talent shortages, and cost efficiency.

Moreover, 56% of CIOs in Southeast Asia are exploring or planning to engage in these services in the near future. These collaborations help bridge internal capability gaps, enabling organizations to focus on upskilling their teams and building long-term resilience.

"AI adoption is not just about the short-term gains. Organizations need to invest in the efficiency of the design, deployment and integration of AI solutions to their operations that enable tracking of the impact. Professional AI services play a key role here and help organizations successfully adopt AI through an outcome-led approach. Solutions like Lenovo’s AI Fast Start further accelerating this process, helping businesses quickly pilot, optimize, and scale AI initiatives with expert guidance and tested frameworks,” commented Fan Ho, Executive Director and General Manager, Solutions and Services Group, Lenovo Asia Pacific.