A new report dubs Thailand the epicentre of digital trust in Southeast Asia, leading the region in consumer confidence in both human creators and generative artificial intelligence (AI).
The country scored a regional high of 2.24 out of 4 for influencer-driven purchasing power, easily outstripping the Southeast Asian average of 1.98, noted the "E-commerce Influencer & Affiliate Marketing in Southeast Asia 2026" report by e-commerce data provider Cube and Impact.com.
Thais are open to next-generation technology, scoring 2.02 out of 4 for generative AI influence, well ahead of the regional average of 1.82.
Thai consumers are moving away from purely transactional shopping, leaning heavily into relationship-based commerce, according to the survey.
Loyalty and relationships are a stronger driver of purchases for affiliate link shoppers in Thailand (9%) than the regional baseline of 6%. Rather than chasing generic discounts, Thai shoppers prioritise creators who build genuine communities, demonstrate real product use, and provide honest, unbiased reviews.
This trust carries over to their choice of channels, where Thai consumers show a much higher reliance on trusted influencer links (16% compared with 11% regionally) and dedicated review or comparison sites (14% compared with 9% regionally) to finalise their purchases.
Thais prioritise authentic reviews, saying they trust creators who "give authentic information about the product, including both positive and negative reviews".
The top five categories purchased via affiliate links in Thailand are fashion (14%), beauty (12%), groceries (10%), electronics (9%), and health & wellness (8%).
The top five categories purchased via AI recommendations are fashion (14%), beauty (12%), electronics (10%), groceries (9%), and travel (8%).
Shopping Assistants
While the adoption of general generative AI tools for shopping in Thailand sits slightly below the regional average (33% compared with 40%), Thai consumers are leading the charge in adopting brand-specific AI.
Some 17% of Thai shoppers engage with proprietary AI assistants directly on brand-owned websites, beating the Southeast Asian average of 10%. This finding indicates while Thai consumers may be selective about the general AI platforms they use, they are more trusting of AI tools when they are natively integrated into a brand's own trusted platform, noted the study.
The Thai e-commerce market is No.2 in Southeast Asia and worth an estimated US$36 billion in 2026, behind only Indonesia. Indonesia and Thailand combined command 58% of the region's total e-commerce sales.
Southeast Asia's e-commerce market remains on a robust growth trajectory, with net merchandise value projected to rise from $190 billion in 2025 to $219 billion this year, reaching $410 billion by 2031.
Marketplaces continue to dominate, capturing an average of 72% of sales, while creator influencer marketing and affiliate marketing are converging, driving roughly 32% ($70 billion) of regional e-commerce sales this year, noted the survey.
E-commerce in Southeast Asia is entering its fourth era called "AI commerce" where discovery, product comparisons, and checkout will happen entirely within a single generative AI conversation, according to the study.
In addition, brands are shifting their focus from traditional search engine optimisation to generative engine optimisation. This move results in optimising brand content and structuring product data and creator partnerships so that large language models can easily retrieve, cite and recommend their products in AI-generated answers.
Some 20% of Southeast Asian online shoppers are expected to complete a Gen AI-native purchase by the end of 2027, primarily through in-chat transactions inside AI platforms, noted the report.
As AI-assisted content floods the internet, human authenticity will become a creator's ultimate advantage. Because AI platforms lose social relevance without citing real human content, the report predicts content-licensing intermediaries will emerge to license creator assets directly to AI engines.
