ATxSummit 2026 Opens with Shared Regional Ambition to Harness AI for Public Good

Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore officially kicked off ATxSummit 2026 this evening with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the Guest-of-Honour at the Opening Gala Dinner at Gardens by the Bay. 
With AI adoption across the region, projects demonstrated how ASEAN youth are shaping practical AI solutions for the public good with a common objective of improving lives and strengthening communities in various sectors like education, social inclusion, and agriculture.

According to Towards Healthcare, the edge computing in healthcare market is projected to experience significant growth, with estimates suggesting the market size will increase from USD 3.38 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 29.85 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.4% from 2026 to 2035. Growth is driven by the latency reduction, in which process with time-critical patient data is locally enabled to immediately implement life-saving interventions in intensive care or emergency scenarios, also providing data privacy & security to keep highly sensitive medical records and biometric data close to the point of care, significantly reducing cyberattack risks associated with transmitting data over long distances to the cloud.

ASEAN's Youth Showcase AI-Enabled Solutions for Society

President Tharman presented three winning teams with innovative applications that focus on knowledge, skills, and learning, as well as scientific progress and stronger communities. Brunei has developed an AI-powered dementia care platform that utilizes speech, language, and video analysis to support earlier detection of cognitive decline, provide personalised caregiver guidance, and enhance dementia care coordination across ASEAN communities.

Cambodia’s Voha.ai applied AI to help hearing-impaired children improve their pronunciation through real-time speech recognition and visual mouth-tracking technology. An offline AI education platform powered by edge computing to provide rural students with access to digital learning, adaptive lessons, and AI tutoring in areas with limited internet connectivity was provided by Future Flux from Myanmar with cash prizes of USD 5,000, USD 3,000, and USD 1,000, respectively.

Director of Talent & Ecosystem at AI Singapore, Koo Sengmeng, stated that "This is the kind of impact we hope to see from our AI Ready ASEAN effort – our future generations not just knowing how AI works, but knowing where it matters, where it should be used, and how it can improve lives."

A recent report by Towards Healthcare highlights that the edge computing in healthcare market is witnessing growth driven by the real-time analytics for medical imaging, robotic surgery, and critical care, where even millisecond delays are life-threatening. With the remote patient monitoring & wearables, Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) requires localized processing to manage continuous streams of critical health data without latency.