The tech landscape in Southeast Asia is buzzing. Countries are attracting billions of dollars of Big Tech investments; drafting and implementing digital policies, strategies, and masterplans; and anchoring their growth trajectories on digitalization and playing a key role in global tech value chains. On the ground, developers are innovating language models to better suit and represent local contexts, and e-commerce is already one of the fastest rising sectors in the region. As Southeast Asia's digital transformation begins to unfold, it’s worth asking fundamental questions about who this tech will ultimately benefit and at what cost.

Elina Noor is a senior fellow in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on developments in Southeast Asia, particularly the impact and implications of technology in reshaping power dynamics, governance, and nation-building in the region.

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