Lenovo Study: ASEAN+ Leads in Hybrid Infrastructure Adoption at 68%, Surpassing Global and AP Organizations!

Lenovo’s CIO Playbook 2025 reveals a rapid shift toward ROI-driven AI investments, with spending increasing 3.3x in Asia Pacific and 2.7x in ASEAN+1, based on a global IDC study of over 2,900 respondents from 12 AP markets. Despite this trend, AI adoption in ASEAN+ remains in its early stages—only 47% of organizations plan to implement AI within the next year, compared to 56% in Asia Pacific and 49% globally. ROI challenges are a major barrier, with Singapore leading in AI maturity while other ASEAN+ countries struggle with limited resources and expertise. To meet expectations, AP organizations are targeting a 3.6x ROI, emphasizing the need to balance experimental and scalable AI projects and to address issues in data management, talent, and security.

Overcoming Organizational Readiness Challenges

Business priorities are shifting as organizations gain a better understanding of AI growth drivers and risks. Despite ethical concerns and biases being the top AI risks, only about 24–25% of organizations worldwide and in Asia Pacific have fully implemented AI governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) policies. Similarly, 24% of CIOs in ASEAN+ report complete adoption of these policies, underscoring the urgent need for structured AI governance—now the top priority in Asia Pacific. Effective governance requires transparency, ethical frameworks, accountability, model oversight, robust privacy and security, and integrated human oversight.

Sumir Bhatia, President of Lenovo's Asia Pacific Infrastructure Solutions Group, emphasized that GRC has jumped 12 spots to become the top priority for 2025, alongside a significant boost in the focus on employee productivity. Lenovo remains committed to making AI accessible, ethical, and impactful for businesses of all sizes.

GenAI Adoption Accelerates GenAI is set to transform enterprise workflows, commanding 42% of AI implementation spends in 2025 in ASEAN+:

• In Asia Pacific, IT Operations emerged as the top use case, while in ASEAN+, Customer Service took the lead.

• There is more focus on cybersecurity (#2) and software development (#3) in AP.

• For ASEAN+ IT Ops (#2) and Engineering / R&D (#3) take precedence.

On-Prem and Hybrid Infrastructures Dominate 

A recent report indicates that 65% of Asia Pacific organizations prefer on-premise or hybrid solutions for AI workloads, seeking secure, low-latency environments and operational flexibility, while 19% rely on public cloud services. In ASEAN+, 68% adopt hybrid or on-premise solutions, with the rest using public cloud. Varinderjit Singh, General Manager of Lenovo Malaysia, stated, "Hybrid architectures offer the best of both worlds—scalability and control." He noted that globally, 63% of organizations choose on-premise and hybrid infrastructures for AI, with ASEAN+ leading in adoption rates. This trend highlights a focus on innovation, security, and compliance in AI initiatives. Lenovo supports this by providing end-to-end AI solutions, advanced infrastructure, and strategic partnerships to promote accessible and ethical AI for all businesses

AI PCs: Early Adoption Signals Productivity Gains

AI-powered PCs are gaining traction in AP, with 43% of organizations seeing significant productivity gains. While awareness is increasing, local adoption remains slow across markets. In ASEAN+, 65% of organizations are already in the planning stage for AI-powered PC adoption. As the technology matures and demonstrates ROI, the adoption curve will accelerate driving more digital workplace solutions.

The Need for Skilled Partnerships 

As organizations ramp up their AI initiatives, 34% of Asia Pacific CIOs and 44% of ASEAN+ CIOs are already using professional AI services to tackle challenges like data management, talent shortages, and cost efficiency—with another 56% of ASEAN+ CIOs planning to adopt these services soon. These partnerships are key to bridging internal capability gaps, upskilling teams, and ensuring long-term resilience.

Fan Ho, Executive Director and General Manager at Lenovo Asia Pacific, stressed that successful AI adoption goes beyond short-term gains. He emphasized that organizations must invest in efficient design, deployment, and integration of AI solutions to accurately track impact. Professional AI services, like Lenovo’s AI Fast Start, are crucial in providing expert guidance and proven frameworks to help businesses quickly pilot, optimize, and scale their AI initiatives.

For more information:

Download the Lenovo AP CIO Playbook 2025

Download the Lenovo Global CIO Playbook 2025