Thailand’s overall digital wellness has progressed into the “Advanced” tier, reaching a score of 0.724 in 2026 compared to 0.51 in 2023, according to the fourth annual Thailand Cyber Wellness Index (TCWI) released by Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS). Despite nationwide advancements in technology adoption, the comprehensive study reveals that digital literacy and information verification remain urgent priorities, with one in six Thai citizens still requiring substantial skills development.
Based on a nationwide survey of 77,492 respondents, the study assessed digital wellness across seven core dimensions: Digital Use, Digital Skills, Digital Communication and Collaboration, Digital Identity and Rights, Digital Safety and Security, Cyberbullying, and Digital Relationships. While the Digital Use dimension achieved a strong average score of 0.720, Digital Literacy lagged as the lowest-performing area at 0.653, exposing a critical gap between technology consumption and critical evaluation.
Digital Literacy Deficit and Rising Exposure to Online Scams
The disparity between usage and literacy has become acute in the era of generative artificial intelligence, which can rapidly generate deceptive texts, synthetic audio, and manipulated imagery. The findings emphasize that operating digital platforms proficiently does not automatically translate into an ability to evaluate sources, question credibility, or recognize fraudulent content before sharing.
Online fraud continues to pose immediate operational and personal risks across the population. According to the 2026 index, 20.7% of respondents—approximately one in five Thais—have encountered online scams, spanning phishing links, deceptive messaging, institutional impersonation, and unauthorized credential or financial extraction. Security requirements have consequently shifted from baseline technical safeguards, such as strong passwords, toward cognitive verification before executing transactions or divulging sensitive data.
Youth Vulnerability and the Widening Generational AI Divide
Children within the Generation Alpha demographic (ages 10–15) recorded an average digital wellness score of 0.61, sitting noticeably below the national benchmark. Nearly three in ten children in this age bracket (29.4%) fall into categories requiring urgent intervention, particularly regarding digital footprint awareness, data protection, and online relationship management. Cyberbullying resilience scores also trended downward across older age cohorts, dropping from 0.82 among children aged 10–12 to 0.76 among teenagers aged 13–15, and reaching 0.75 among youth aged 16–22.
At the same time, nationwide understanding and application of artificial intelligence improved from 3.18 out of 5 in 2025 to 3.30 in 2026, though significant generational disparities persist. Working adults aged 23–29 posted the highest AI competency score at 3.61, whereas seniors aged 60 and older registered 2.53. This division highlights unequal capabilities in prompting tools, validating machine outputs, and identifying technical constraints across demographic groups.
Strategic Interventions and Ecosystem Collaboration
Addressing these findings, AIS is deploying targeted educational frameworks tailored to the specific risk profiles of each age group. Initiatives focus on laying early digital foundations for children, mitigating cyberbullying pressures for adolescents, improving AI proficiency and scam detection for working professionals, and fostering digital confidence among senior citizens.
“Thailand must now move beyond enabling people to access and use technology,” stated Mrs. Saichon Submakudom, Chief Corporate Communication Officer of AIS. “We need to empower people to think critically, verify information, stay safe, and act responsibly toward others. These capabilities are essential for everyday life in an era when AI, digital information, and online threats become part of our daily routines. A single approach to digital resilience cannot meet the needs of every population group.”
AIS is coordinating with public agencies, academic institutions, enterprise partners, and media organizations to deliver targeted interventions, including the Digital Health Check self-assessment diagnostic. Public access to the digital curriculum and the specialized “Aunjai Cyber: AI Literacy” training pathway is available online at https://aunjaicyber.ais.th/pathway/162.
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