Vietnam has approved its first Law on Artificial Intelligence, which is one of the world’s first comprehensive Artificial Intelligence regulatory frameworks and is designed to govern the development, deployment, and management of Artificial Intelligence technologies across the economy. Effective March 1, 2026, Vietnam’s newly approved Law on Artificial Intelligence establishes a centralized governance structure led by the Ministry of Science and Technology and applies to both domestic and foreign organizations whose Artificial Intelligence systems affect users, markets, or national interests in Vietnam. The legislation reflects Vietnam’s ambition to assert digital sovereignty, enhance technological competitiveness, and attract high quality Artificial Intelligence investment, while building a predictable regulatory environment that supports socio-economic development and protects national security, data integrity, and consumer rights.
The Artificial Intelligence Law is built around seven guiding principles that emphasize human centric development, safety, fairness, transparency, accountability, national autonomy with international integration, inclusive and sustainable growth, balanced policymaking, risk-based management, and the promotion of innovation. The law’s scope is extraterritorial, ensuring foreign providers cannot avoid compliance by operating from overseas, and it takes precedence in case of conflict with other legislation, unless another law offers more favorable incentives that eligible entities can choose to apply. For an Artificial Intelligence system operating in Vietnam before the law’s effective date, providers and operators will have 12 months from that date to align their compliance with the new law’s provisions, during which time the system may continue to operate as normal provided competent authorities do not identify substantial risks.
At the core of the framework is a four tier, risk-based classification model that mirrors leading regimes such as the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act while tailoring requirements to Vietnam’s national security and socio-cultural priorities. Unacceptable risk systems are banned outright, including real time biometric surveillance in public spaces without special approval, large scale facial recognition databases built through unauthorized scraping, and Artificial Intelligence designed to deceptively manipulate public opinion or behavior. High risk systems in domains such as finance, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and justice require pre-market approval, mandatory government assessment, registration in the National Artificial Intelligence Database, detailed technical documentation, and mechanisms for human oversight and incident reporting, with foreign providers also required to appoint a local legal representative. Medium risk systems must prioritize transparency, user awareness, and clear labeling of Artificial Intelligence generated content, while low risk systems are subject to self regulation and post market monitoring under general principles.
The law also lays out a national Artificial Intelligence infrastructure and data governance model, centered on the National Artificial Intelligence Database as a centralized registration and monitoring platform, and introduces specific transparency, labeling, and incident reporting obligations. Article 11 requires providers to inform users when they are interacting with an Artificial Intelligence system, unless otherwise prescribed by law, and mandates machine readable identification markers on Artificial Intelligence generated audio, images, and video to distinguish them from authentic material, with special attention to deepfake risks and flexible rules for clearly distinguishable artistic and cinematic works. According to Article 12 of the Artificial Intelligence Law, everyone involved in Artificial Intelligence systems, such as developers, providers, deployers, and users, bears joint responsibility for maintaining the system’s safety, security, and reliability and must quickly detect and respond to incidents, report them through a national one stop electronic portal, and cooperate with remedial measures.
To stimulate innovation and private sector participation, Vietnam pairs these controls with preferential mechanisms for Artificial Intelligence businesses, including recognition of Artificial Intelligence models, algorithms, and data assets as lawful capital contributions to unlock new financing structures. Article 20 of the Artificial Intelligence Law provides that Artificial Intelligence enterprises are entitled to the highest level of incentives available under the laws on science and technology, high technology, digital transformation, and investment, and the framework also improves access to computing infrastructure, data resources, and sandbox or testing environments. The National Artificial Intelligence Development Fund will offer grants, loans, and preferential financing to domestic startups, small and medium enterprises, and foreign investors building Artificial Intelligence capabilities in Vietnam, while regulatory sandboxes allow real world testing of new applications under relaxed rules, lowering entry barriers and supporting responsible experimentation.
The Artificial Intelligence Law has far reaching implications for business strategy and sector development. Companies working with high risk Artificial Intelligence must invest in robust compliance systems that cover data security, impact assessments, technical documentation, and meaningful human oversight, and foreign providers must establish a legal representative in Vietnam, with potential penalties linked to a percentage of global revenue to strengthen cross border enforcement. At the same time, the law opens opportunities in healthcare, where Artificial Intelligence in diagnostics and patient management can gain priority access to infrastructure and funding; in finance and fintech, where Artificial Intelligence supports credit scoring, fraud detection, and digital payments under a trusted regulatory framework; and in manufacturing, logistics, e government, and smart city initiatives, where Artificial Intelligence driven automation and services align with Vietnam’s industrial upgrading and public service agendas. The law signals that regulated innovation will be a central driver of Vietnam’s digital economy, and investors are encouraged to integrate compliance into product development, participate in sandbox programs, and build local partnerships or research and development operations to qualify for incentives and turn early alignment into a first mover advantage.
