Vietnamese users logged 704 million hours and spent US$14.4 million (VND378 billion) on AI applications in the first six months of 2026, according to a global market report by analytics firm Sensor Tower. The 704 million hours represented more than double the 300 million hours recorded in the first half of 2025. Purchases of AI use jumped from $7.44 million in 2025 to $14.4 million this year. The growth in Vietnam comes against a broader regional slowdown, with the Asia-Pacific region recording a 3.75% decline in monthly active users in the first quarter of 2026, the first dip after 13 consecutive quarters of growth. By the end of Q1, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini were the top two platforms in Vietnam by monthly active users, with AI Hay, a local assistant developed by a Vietnamese startup, in third place, outperforming rivals like Grok and DeepSeek. In South Korea, domestic platform Wrtn slipped from fifth to seventh place over the past year, while Brazil's Luzia fell from fourth to seventh. An AI Hay spokesperson said the startup transformed from a basic Q&A tool into a multi-purpose assistant, with visual query functionality its most heavily used feature. AI Hay claims over 22 million downloads, up from 15 million a year ago. The spokesperson noted that deep optimization for local language nuance, cultural context, and practical everyday needs allows domestic AI platforms to resonate