Performance is
accelerating
55%
of developers now save at least seven hours each week using AI.
Agoda AI Developer Report 2026
From AI Assistants to Autonomous AI: How Developers Navigate the Next Shift
AI agents are reshaping software development across Southeast Asia and India.
The question is no longer whether to adopt them, but how to scale them responsibly.
Four Findings Shaping Agentic AI in 2026
Performance is
Agents are moving into production
53%
of developers report AI agents in production or broad use across their organization.
Cost is the leading barrier
to scale
28%
of developers cite cost as the main barrier to wider AI-agent adoption.
Human oversight
remains central
79%
require human approval before an AI-led production deployment.
Voices from the Report
The winners won't be whoever adopts agentic AI first, but whoever builds trust and accountability around it.
Harley Young
Head of High-Tech, Microsoft
Over the next few months, I expect the shift from AI assistants to more autonomous agents to deepen.
Derrick Choi
Head of Codex Applied AI, APAC, OpenAI
The generation is cheap, the trust-building around it is where the spend actually lives.
Erik Perttu
Head of Engineering, Edu2Review
Speed has genuinely surprised us. Trustworthiness in production hasn't.
Oravee Smithiphol
Tech Intelligence & Insights Manager, SCB 10X
Inside the Report
The AI Assistant Era
Performance, usability, and time saved
Agentic AI Adoption
Where developers are putting agents to work
The Real Cost of Agentic AI
Moving beyond model costs
Trust, Governance, and Accountability
Where humans retain control
The Developer’s New Reality
Skills, leverage, and experience gap
Implications for the Region
What leaders can do next
AI in Action Across Southeast Asia and India
Agoda
Built CodeMaster, a platform that gives coding agents a governed environment in which to work, targeting 10% of merge requests written by agents this year.
Omise
Extended AI across the software development lifecycle, from payment spec analysis to autonomous customer support and underwriting agents.
SCB 10X
Runs agentic systems in production, from news sourcing to venture-capital research, while proving speed must be matched by strong evaluation and accountability.
Dataxet:Sonar
Built an agentic pipeline that turns monthly data into decision-ready insights for the CTO and Board, a shift from static reporting to autonomous, judgment-driven analysis.
Get the Full Report
Explore the full dataset, country-level insights, executive perspectives, and developer stories from across Southeast Asia and India.
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