AI is paving the way for Ho Chi Minh City to become a megacity.

Start with small steps, digitizing simple services before expanding to more complex areas.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key technology, guiding Ho Chi Minh City's development into a smart megacity by 2050. At events such as the Autumn Economic Forum 2025, GRECO 2025, and WISE HCMC+ 2025 recently held in the city, AI was assessed as a decisive factor in improving urban governance, quality of life, and sustainable economic growth.

Smart Management

In late October 2025, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee issued the AI普及 Program for citizens in the period 2025-2030, aiming to equip them with basic knowledge and skills to apply AI in work, study, and life, towards building a workforce adaptable to the smart city and digital economy. In the 2026-2027 period, more than 100,000 people will be trained annually to proficiently apply AI (1% of the city's population), increasing to 5% per year in the 2028-2030 period, reaching 15% of the population (approximately 2 million people) by 2030.

AI offers many opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City to become a smart city, but it also comes with significant challenges.

Ho Chi Minh City plans to organize short-term training courses at government offices, cultural centers, libraries, community centers, and online, guiding the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. At the same time, the city aims for 50% of its citizens to correctly understand AI and be interested in the program, with approximately 1 million views through television and digital platforms.

Mr. Tran Bao Dinh, General Director of TitKul, said that AI is expected to become the "brain" helping Ho Chi Minh City manage and operate a smarter city, from image recognition and automated control to analyzing citizen behavior and forecasting population needs. By combining AI with IoT, sensors, AR, and simulation, the city can make decisions based on real-time data. Thanks to AI, Ho Chi Minh City's smart city models will not only upgrade technical infrastructure but also improve the quality of life through smart transportation, energy, water supply and drainage, education , healthcare, and housing.

Representatives from Becamex Group shared that the corporation is accelerating digital transformation and automation, particularly the application of AI in management and operational processes. Industrial parks are being encouraged to adopt technology to become smart, green, and enhance their digital transformation capabilities. This is also a way to attract investors to participate in the city and its business ecosystem.

Professor Yuan Feng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences believes that Ho Chi Minh City can achieve optimal results by deploying new digital infrastructure and smart governance models, quickly catching up with international standards in greening and technology, especially AI.

Complete the data platform.

However, to realize its vision of becoming a smart megacity, Ho Chi Minh City is facing many challenges related to digital infrastructure and data governance. Ms. Vo Thi Trung Trinh, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Transformation Center, stated that the city currently has 168 wards, communes, and special zones. Without implementing technology towards a centralized platform and a unified database, it will continue to be stuck in fragmentation. The city is prioritizing the removal of these bottlenecks to gradually improve its data platform, better serving the activities of the government, businesses, and citizens.

Mr. Dang Van Tu, Vice Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of CMC Group, stated that the private sector faces obstacles in the acceptance, payment, and operational support mechanisms, hindering the momentum of digital transformation projects. The biggest challenge is the lack of data consistency among ministries, departments, and localities, with each implementing solutions in its own way, making it difficult to achieve the goal of "accurate, complete, clean, and vibrant data." A smart city relies not only on technological infrastructure but also on ensuring that all citizens can access and use public services equally. AI assistants, with their voice recognition, automatic language translation, and user-friendly interface, are opening up many opportunities in this field.

Professor Young Sup Joo, honorary professor at Seoul National University and former Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Entrepreneurship in South Korea, suggested that Vietnam should strengthen cooperation with international partners, such as the European Union – which has standards for developing AI megacities – as well as learn from South Korea's experience. Sam Conroy, President of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (AusCham), proposed that Ho Chi Minh City should start with small steps, digitizing simple services before expanding to more complex areas, while maintaining regular dialogue with businesses, universities, and social organizations.

Global cooperation - Local action

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, Nguyen Van Duoc, acknowledged that AI brings unprecedented opportunities but also unprecedented challenges. To adapt, the city has adopted a strategy of "Global Cooperation - Local Action," aiming to become a hub for technology, finance, and knowledge for the entire country and the region. Specifically, Resolution No. 98/2023/QH15 dated June 24, 2023, of the National Assembly on piloting some specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City has opened up new space for the city to experiment and create breakthroughs with unprecedented models. Strategic initiatives such as the Ho Chi Minh City International Finance Corporation (IFC) are being actively implemented.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ai-dan-loi-tp-hcm-thanh-sieu-do-thi-196251206201459872.htm