The Agoda AI Developer Report 2026 found that software developers across Southeast Asia are open to granting AI agents more autonomy for lower-risk, reversible work, but demand for human oversight is rising.
The majority (79%) report requiring human approval for production deployment.
Idan Zalzberg, chief technology officer at Agoda, said, “Across industries, developers are seeing stronger productivity gains and are beginning to use agents across more of the development lifecycle. But greater capability brings new responsibilities. The real cost is not simply the model call. It is the work required to make AI trustworthy in production. The organisations that will excel in this next phase will be the ones that manage cost carefully, build the right safeguards, and keep human judgment where it matters most.”
AI and software development
The study commissioned by Agoda and conducted with Macramé Consulting reveals that over half (53%) of developers in Southeast Asia now use AI agents in production.
The report found that Thailand reported the region’s largest productivity rates, with 70% of developers saving at least seven hours a week, followed by Vietnam (63%) and the Philippines (57%).
According to the findings, AI is changing developers’ roles. Emerging future skills include system architecture and design, AI literacy, and agent orchestration. However, almost half (49%) of junior developers report feeling less secure about the career transitions, compared with 16.7% of CTO and VP Engineering respondents.
.
