Institute offers AI-based solutions to combat smoking in ASEAN

The Lowy Institute, an Australian research center, has highlighted the importance of harmonizing digital infrastructure among member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enable the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) in tobacco control.[1]In an article published on its website on August 12, 2025, the institute points out that tobacco remains one of the main causes of preventable death in the region, which has around 120 million smokers.

Artificial intelligence, a potential lever for tobacco control in Southeast Asia

AI could play a key role in areas such as detecting illicit trafficking using customs data, personalizing cessation programs using anonymized health data, or identifying online marketing strategies using natural language processing. However, these solutions can only be deployed effectively if ASEAN countries have a harmonized system for data capture and exchange.

One of the main obstacles identified concerns the diversity of data systems among countries in the region: some, such as Singapore and Thailand, have fully digital health records, while others that are less advanced, such as Cambodia, Laos, and Timor-Leste, still rely on paper records. These disparities represent both a challenge and an opportunity for regional cooperation.

While all ASEAN countries except Indonesia have signed and ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, national data protection laws and technical capacities vary considerably, making regional information sharing difficult.

Towards a harmonized and interoperable regional framework

To address these challenges, the Lowy Institute recommends that ASEAN implement a common data exchange architecture based on a shared model. A system based on the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard would, in particular, unify the representation of data related to smoking status, treatment outcomes, and tobacco control measures.

Achieving an AI-driven tobacco control strategy also requires harmonizing personal data protection laws, investing in basic digital infrastructure, developing common technical standards, and implementing capacity-building programs, including combining advanced systems with those of less developed countries.

By committing to an interoperable and coherent framework, ASEAN could move beyond fragmented national approaches to a predictive and coordinated regional strategy, thereby accelerating the transition to a tobacco-free future.

In the world, AI is increasingly being considered as a tobacco control tool with numerous applications, such as monitoring the age of buyers, detecting illegal marketing practices, or supporting smoking cessation. At the World Conference on Tobacco Control, held in Dublin from June 23 to 25, 2025, participants highlighted the potential of AI, for example, to fill regulatory gaps, provide actionable data to health authorities, and build capacity in low-resource countries. Experiments in Africa and Asia show that AI can facilitate the identification of violations, produce automated reports, and fuel data-driven awareness-raising or advocacy efforts.

This oversight is all the more important given that the tobacco and vaping industry already makes extensive use of AI itself to promote its products and interests. For example, Philip Morris International (PMI) used AI to predict purchasing behaviors in IQOS campaigns, in order to optimize their communication according to the customer's psychographic profile, JUUL Labs invested in predictive analytics tools to identify the most effective channels for reaching young adults, and British American Tobacco (BAT) is deploying content analysis and optimization tools for its vaping brands in emerging markets where regulation is more relaxed.

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[1]VietnamPlus, Lowy Institute proposes AI-based tobacco control solutions for ASEAN, published August 14, 2025, accessed August 21, 2025

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