Thailand floats automation tax as AI puts millions of jobs at risk

Thailand’s National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) is pressing the country’s new National AI Committee to make AI-driven job displacement a priority, warning that the technology could reshape the domestic labour market.

The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council recently forecast that nearly 9 million employees could be affected by generative AI (GenAI), with 2.2 million at risk of being replaced. Thailand’s unemployment rate stood at 0.94% of the labour force in Q1 2026 – about 390,000 people, up 9.9% year-on-year.

Chai Wutiwiwatchai, Executive Director of Nectec and Assistant Secretary of the AI committee, said displacement could carry a high economic cost and called for rules requiring employers to retain employees to work alongside AI rather than be replaced by it.

“I think implementing an automation tax as a financial penalty for employers who lay off their workforce in favour of AI would help slow the replacement of human employees,” he said.

Not everyone shares that level of concern. According to Reuters, OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman has said the rapid adoption of AI would not trigger a global “job apocalypse”, adding that the technology has not claimed as many white-collar roles as he had feared.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul appointed the committee last year to oversee the National AI Strategy and Action Plan. Unlike its predecessors, the body is expected to become permanent. “We hope to hold the first committee meeting this month because AI integration is an urgent national issue, and it will guide major upcoming AI projects,” Wutiwiwatchai added, reported Bangkok Post.

READ MORE: The broken rung: Why Thailand’s boardrooms are missing half their talent

Workforce development sits at the centre of the national plan. Its first phase, covering 2022 to 2027, aimed to train 30,000 high-level AI personnel – 20,000 innovators, 9,000 engineers and 1,000 top-level graduates. Wutiwiwatchai said the programme had surpassed that target, producing 50,000 AI-skilled employees, with the Big Data Institute now leading work on phase two.

Part of the committee’s agenda involves establishing specialised Centres of Excellence to host different AI sectors, with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation slated to lead one focused on education and a network of universities and hospitals overseeing healthcare.

Nectec is also working with the Digital Government Agency to develop AI tools that help state officials draft and audit terms of reference for government AI procurement, and plans to set up a National Quality Infrastructure to test and standardise AI models should funding be approved.