Thai SMEs and AI: No Need to Rush, but Start With the Work You Repeat Every Day

ETDA (the Electronic Transactions Development Agency) surveyed Thai organisations on AI readiness in 2024. About 17% already used AI, while about 73% planned to, up from roughly 57% the year before (580 of 3,758 organisations contacted responded). In other words, most businesses are where you probably are: they know they should start, but have not started yet.

ETDA's Digital Maturity Index 2025 scored Thai SMEs 2.45 out of 4 and called them "digital followers": they use technology, but not yet to build a real advantage. The main barriers owners named were not knowing where to start and not being sure the investment would pay off.

One principle answers both: start with work you repeat every day and can measure easily. Keying in sales bills, issuing tax invoices, reconciling stock, answering the same customer questions. You can count the hours these take each month, so you know straight away whether a new system pays for itself.

Step 1, let sales data flow into the books on its own. If the shop already runs a POS, connect sales to the accounting or ERP system instead of typing them in twice. Once the data lives in one system, profit, stock and tax reports come from the same numbers, and you do not have to wait for the month-end close to see how the business is doing.

Step 2, issue electronic tax invoices. The Revenue Department runs e-Tax Invoice by Time Stamp (formerly e-Tax Invoice by Email) for VAT-registered businesses. You apply on rd.go.th with form Kor.Or.01, and you can use only one of this scheme or e-Tax Invoice & e-Receipt. Many accounting programs, PEAK included, can issue these documents. The revenue conditions have changed over time, so check with the Revenue Department before applying.

Step 3, add AI where it helps. Once the data is in order, AI is genuinely useful: reading expense receipts and recording them, drafting replies to customer chats on Messenger or LINE for staff to check before sending, or summarising weekly sales so the owner can read it in minutes. If the data is still spread across notebooks and several Excel files, AI can do little.

Before you invest, write down three numbers: the hours your team spends on repeated work each month, the mistakes that keep happening (stock that does not match, wrong invoices), and the monthly cost of the system you are considering. If it saves more hours than it costs, start. If that is unclear, start smaller.

On customer data: if AI or a chatbot will answer customers, check where their personal data is sent and stored, and tell customers clearly what you collect and why, in line with Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

The figures here come from news reports citing ETDA surveys, and from articles by the Revenue Department and accounting software providers. Some sources give inconsistent dates, so the links are below for you to check the originals.