Just like other Asian countries, Vietnam in a bid to compete with its Asian counterparts is now spurring economic innovation with AI. To emerge as an AI leader in Southeast Asia, and become a pioneer in AI products, the country has adopted a distinctive breakthrough strategy and drew up a plan on AI research and development. According to the Boston Global Forum, Vietnam starts at a low point for AI, and faces a difficult environment and challenging conditions, minimal investment, weak technology sector and lack of human resources. However, through its breakthrough strategy, the country has built a vibrant ecosystem with a talent pool and is also attracting intellectual elites from around the globe.

China and the U.S. are the two countries most closely associated with artificial intelligence (AI) technology, but a startup in Korea is out to add its nation to mix after it raised more than $9 million from some big-name investors. Skelter Labs, which was founded in 2015 by Google's former chief technical officer in Korea, announced today that it has raised KRW 10 billion ($9.3 million). Korean internet and messaging giant Kakao is a major backer, investing in the round via both its'KakaoBrain' AI unit and its K-Cube VC firm, both of which are existing investors. Stonebridge Ventures and Lotte Homeshopping, the TV and internet shopping business owned by multi-billion dollar retail giant Lotte, also participated. Skelter Labs started out as an app development house when it was initially founded by CEO Ted Cho, the former engineering site director at Google Korea, with products that include a flight booking app, chatbot network and point-of-sale software, but, over the past year, it began to focus on AI.