A new report analyzing digital behavior across six Southeast Asian countries puts Indonesia in first place for AI search adoption, ahead of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore. But the same report also shows Indonesian brands are the furthest behind when it comes to optimizing their AI presence.
AI search adoption numbers in Indonesia
As of June 2026, an estimated more than 45 million Indonesian internet users actively use at least one AI search engine every week. That is up from 12 million in early 2025. The main drivers: high smartphone penetration, a tech-savvy younger generation, and rising trust in AI after countless everyday use cases proved useful.
The GEO gap: an urgent opportunity
The paradox: even though Indonesian consumers are the most active AI questioners, Indonesian brands are the least optimized for AI presence. This creates a massive supply-demand gap: millions of questions about Indonesian local products get asked to AI every day, but AI does not have enough quality information to answer them by recommending the right local brand.
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Brands in Singapore and Malaysia started adopting GEO strategy earlier, driven by a more mature startup ecosystem and higher marketing awareness. The average Singaporean brand has a GEO Score 2.3x higher than an Indonesian brand in the same category. This is a gap that must, and can, be closed, but the window of opportunity is limited.
Looking ahead
Based on the current growth trajectory, Indonesia is projected to become one of the five biggest GEO markets in the world by 2028. Brands that start investing in GEO today are laying the foundation for a market dominance that will become very hard for competitors to dislodge later, similar to brands that owned page one of Google in the early 2000s SEO era.