More than half of smartphone users in Thailand expect to be using Agentic AI agents by 2030, according to new Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) ConsumerLab research.
Overall, 52 percent of Thai smartphone users say they use AI daily today, and this share is expected to reach 67 percent by 2030. Agentic AI is a separate category: 5 percent of Thai smartphone users say they use it today, and adoption is expected to reach 52 percent by 2030. Daily use of multimodal AI is projected to increase from 15 percent today to 41 percent by 2030, compared with 30 percent globally.
The report, titled “An agentic life – How consumer AI usage is shaping future network needs”, shows how AI is moving from occasional questions and answers towards continuous interactions across different devices and locations. This shift will place new demands on mobile networks as consumers increasingly rely on AI while on the move.
Anders Rian, Head of Ericsson Thailand, says: “AI is already part of daily life for more than half of Thai smartphone users. Overall daily AI use is expected to rise from 52 percent today to 67 percent by 2030. Separately, use of agentic AI is projected to grow from 5 percent today to 52 percent by 2030.”
“As AI agents work in the background and consumers share more images, video and voice with AI services, networks will need to deliver more uplink capacity, predictable response times and secure connections. Capabilities such as 5G Advanced, network slicing and AI-driven network operations will help Thai operators deliver the differentiated experiences AI users expect, and create opportunities for Thai developers and businesses in support of the country’s digital economy ambitions,” he said.
AI super users signal future network demand
In Thailand, 12 percent of smartphone users are AI super users today, and this share is projected to reach 34 percent by 2030. That is above the global projection of 31 percent of smartphone users. Separately, AI super users globally account for 35 percent of all AI usage today and are expected to generate more than 80 percent of all AI usage by 2030.
Sharing images, video and voice with AI services will increase upload traffic and create short bursts of demand, particularly in busy urban locations such as Bangkok.
Network performance matters even more for these users. In Thailand, response time is 3.4 times as influential on network satisfaction for AI super users as for average users, compared with 2.5 times globally, highlighting the importance of the experience across both AI processing and connectivity.
The research also points to the rapid growth of agentic AI, which can carry out tasks such as making bookings or managing schedules on a user’s behalf. In Thailand, use of agentic AI is expected to grow from 5 percent of smartphone users today to 52 percent by 2030, compared with two in five globally. Thai consumers expect AI agents to save them 1.3 hours of screen time per day, compared with one hour globally. These services can continue working in the background, increasing the need for predictable network performance and secure connections.
Trust will also shape adoption. In Thailand, 34 percent of daily AI users are strongly concerned about fake or compromised AI assistants acting in their name, and communications service providers rank as the most trusted organizations to verify an assistant’s identity. For Thai operators, this creates an opportunity to support trusted AI experiences by combining connectivity with secure identity, authentication and service assurance capabilities.
AI moves beyond the smartphone
By 2030, 30 percent of Thai smartphone users expect to use AI on an additional type of device, such as smart glasses or other emerging form factors, in line with the global average. The growth of AI across multiple devices will increase the importance of mobile networks that can support real-time interactions, high-volume data sharing and reliable background connectivity as consumers move between locations and devices.
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