ILO Report: Generative AI Will Reshape Tasks for 11.5 Million Vietnamese Workers

A new International Labour Organization (ILO) brief has put a number on generative AI's impact on the workforce — and the findings are a preview of what is coming globally. In Viet Nam, approximately 11.5 million workers, or about one in five employees, are exposed to task-level changes driven by generative AI.

The key nuance: this is not about mass job loss. Full automation risk remains limited to under 2% of the workforce. The real disruption is at the task level — workers will do the same jobs differently, with AI handling specific functions within those roles. Clerical positions carry the highest exposure, followed by financial services, retail, and ICT sectors.

Key Takeaways

• Generative AI is expected to affect ~11.5 million Vietnamese workers (1 in 5) through task-level changes, not wholesale job elimination
• Full automation risk is less than 2% — the bigger impact is role restructuring and skill requirements shifting
• Urban centres (Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang) account for more than a third of potentially affected positions
• Women face disproportionate exposure to GenAI-related task displacement, highlighting a clear gender gap in AI risk

The ILO brief reflects a broader global pattern: AI is not replacing workers at scale, but it is changing what work looks like inside nearly every sector. Organisations that invest in reskilling now will be better positioned than those waiting for disruption to arrive.

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