The AI-Robotics Revolution, China-US Rivalry and Southeast Asia

Author: John Lee

Published:  3 October 2025

ISEAS Perspective 2025/74

 

Over the past decade, robots have played a growing role in Southeast Asia, primarily in manufacturing. Singapore, which has had a national robotics programme promoting development of robots and ‘embodied artificial intelligence (AI)’, is the second-ranked country worldwide for robot density relative to workforce. Malaysia has a National Robotics Roadmap 2021-2030, which aims to ‘extract the value of robotics as the key enabling technology and catalyst for the nation’s productivity (and) competitiveness’.

 

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