New Agoda report reveals the forces shaping the next phase of AI maturity in Southeast Asia and India

PRNewswire
Singapore, November 14: AI is rapidly becoming an integral part of developers' workflows across Southeast Asia and India, and new findings from Agoda's AI Developer Report 2025 show that governance -- not adoption -- will define the region's next phase of AI maturity.
The study finds that AI adoption among developers is nearly universal, with 95% of developers using AI on a weekly basis. Tools such as ChatGPT, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot are increasingly embedded in daily workflows, though usage remains concentrated on code generation (94%). Although still high, adoption rates drop for downstream tasks, including documentation (72%), code review (67%), testing (57%), planning (56%), and deployment (36%), highlighting uneven integration across the development process.
Formal guidance has not kept pace. Only 25% of teams operate under official AI guidelines, and 60% of organizations lack a formal AI policy, leaving developers to navigate AI integration largely on their own. Governance is still largely shaped by team culture and practices rather than formal structures.
Leading organizations are closing this gap through structured governance frameworks that strike a balance between developer autonomy and organizational oversight. Agoda, for example, is building governance infrastructure through its GenAI Proxy, a unified layer that authenticates usage, enforces limits, monitors costs, and ensures compliance across multiple LLM providers. This approach allows Agoda to measure adoption patterns, understand real usage behaviors, and refine policies based on actual practice rather than theoretical guidelines. These foundations position the company to scale AI usage responsibly as the technology continues to evolve.
To address this gap, developers have built bottom-up accountability into their workflows. Peer review is evolving, with 57% reporting changes to their code review processes. Meanwhile, 67% always review AI-generated code before merging, and 70% routinely rework outputs.
However, most respondents indicate that AI-generated code functions correctly less than half the time without significant revisions. This finding shows that widespread adoption does not automatically lead to reliable or consistent results. The next challenge is to transform this emerging culture of code review into measurable processes that can be scaled across teams and organizations.
"The next differentiator will not be who adopts AI first, but who builds a clear framework around it for consistent and productive usage," said Idan Zalzberg, Chief Technology Officer at Agoda. "Southeast Asia and India's strength lies in speed and adaptability. Developers are advancing AI adoption with peer oversight and disciplined practices, but the next step is to pair that momentum with stronger foundations in trust, quality, and governance. Companies that do so will set the standard for reliable and responsible AI across the region."
The Agoda AI Developer Report 2025 draws on extensive input from developers across Southeast Asia and India, along with insights from leading regional companies such as Carousell, MoMo, Omise, and SCB 10x. It provides a comprehensive view of how AI is being adopted, integrated, and experienced across the region's developer ecosystem.
For more information and to download the free report, visit APAC developer report.

METHODOLOGY: This research was conducted via an online survey between August to September 2025, gathering responses from over 600 developers across seven key markets in Southeast Asia and India: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and India. Participants spanned a mix of experience levels, company sizes, and industry sectors, providing a representative view of how AI is being adopted, integrated, and experienced across the region's developer ecosystem. As a global digital travel platform exploring the role of AI in developer workflows, Agoda conducted this study to understand not only adoption and productivity trends, but also how developers are learning, collaborating, and building long-term AI capability. The survey examined five key themes: developer mindset, tools and stack trends, AI in the workflow, productivity and collaboration, and talent and growth, with findings supplemented by case studies from regional companies to illustrate real-world applications and trends. ABOUT AGODA: Agoda, a digital travel platform, helps anyone see the world for less with its great value deals on a global network of 6 million hotels and holiday properties worldwide, plus flights, activities, and more. Agoda.com and the Agoda mobile app are available in 39 languages and supported by 24/7 customer support. Headquartered in Singapore, Agoda is part of Booking Holdings (Nasdaq: BKNG) and employs more than 7,000 staff in 27 markets, dedicated to leveraging best-in-class technology to make travel even easier. For more information, visit www.agoda.com. CONTACT: press@agoda.com
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