Vietnam — AI Law & Policy Updates

Vietnam's National Assembly passed Law No. 134/2025/QH15 on Artificial Intelligence on 10 December 2025, effective 1 March 2026, making Vietnam the first ASEAN country with a dedicated, binding AI statute. The law introduces a risk-tiered system (high, medium, low) with conformity assessments for high-risk systems, transparency requirements for AI-generated content, and transition periods of 18 months for healthcare, education, and finance AI and 12 months for others.

Luật số 134/2025/QH15 — Luật Trí tuệ nhân tạo Law on Artificial Intelligence · Luật số 148/2025/QH15 — Luật Chuyển đổi số Digital Transformation Law · Luật số 133/2025/QH15 — Luật Công nghệ cao High Technology Law — Status: In Effect 1 March 2026 Vietnam is the first ASEAN country with a dedicated, binding AI statute. Law No. 134/2025/QH15 was passed by the 15th National Assembly on 10 December 2025 and took effect on 1 March 2026 Article 34 . It is risk-tiered: Article 9 sorts every AI system into high risk capable of significant harm to life, health, the lawful rights of organisations or individuals, the public interest or national security , medium risk capable of confusing, influencing or manipulating users who cannot tell they are dealing with an AI system or with AI-generated content or low risk. High-risk systems must pass a conformity assessment before deployment and again on any significant change Article 13 , and some classes must be certified by a designated body. Article 11 imposes transparency across the board: systems that interact directly with people must be recognisable as AI, providers must mark AI-generated audio, images and video in a machine-readable format, and deployers must disclose AI-generated or AI-edited material released publicly where it could mislead about the authenticity of an event or person. The Act also creates a national AI portal and register of AI systems Article 8 , a list of prohibited practices Article 7 and a regulatory sandbox Article 21 . Systems already in operation before 1 March 2026 get a transition period under Article 35 — 18 months for AI used in healthcare, education and finance, 12 months for everything else — during which they may keep running unless the AI authority finds a risk of serious harm.