In late 2017 and 2018, Zalo organized Zalo AI Summit which gathered many AI (artificial intelligence) experts from Vietnam and foreign countries. After one year of ‘throwing itself into the AI field’ Zalo set up Zalo AI Lab and two key research projects on Zalo Brain and Zalo Assistant.

Ki-Ki chatbot is one of the products created by Zalo AI engineers. The difference between Ki-Ki and chatbots created by foreign technology firms is the recognition of a Vietnamese voice.

In Vietnam, as foreign-made ecosystems from Google and Amazon have not touched the life of the majority of people, Zalo plans to integrate Ki-Ki into hardware. It is expected that smart loudspeakers with Ki-Ki will be marketed in the near future.

Chatbot is a key product of the world’s tech giants including Apple, Google and Amazon. The firms all want to integrate chatbot into more devices, from smart loudspeakers to smart TVs and smart screens.

Viettel, established as a military telecom, has also jumped into the AI field. It has established Viettel Cyberspace Center (VTCC) with AI being the focus of research.

Large retail brands such as FPT Shop and The Gioi Di Dong(Mobile World) are using AI solutions to analyze data about customers to recognize groups of potential clients.

Vietnamese AI apps have also become better known in the world market. ELSA, an app for practice of English pronunciation developed by Van Dinh Hong Vu, has been listed among top AI apps globally.

Besides integrating AI directly into products, technology firms have also developed platforms and supplied AI solutions suitable to the conditions and requirements of institutions and businesses.

“FPT, ALT+ and AI Academy are firms doing this. Their engineers understand the requirements of clients to apply existing AI models in the most effective way,” said Nguyen Phong, an AI researcher from Hitachi.

Phong said that thanks to pioneering firms in AI, the application of AI is better than in many other countries in terms of existing models.

“If the application of AI at Silicon Valley is given a 10 score, Vietnam would get 6,” Phong commented. However, he stressed that the score is given to assess the capability of existing models. In research & development, Vietnam is still at the very beginning.

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Thanh Mai