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Tech in APAC: The biggest stories of 2025 and what’s to come in 2026
For the longest time, the Asia-Pacific region has always taken the watch-and-act approach to technology. But in 2025, the region truly stepped onto the global stage.
Here’s a wrap-up of some of the biggest headliners that made the world pay closer attention.
Australia leads with the world’s first social media ban
On 10 December, Australia became the first country to enforce a nationwide social media ban for under-16s. The ban – or as the eSafety Commissioner describes it as a “delay” – is a culmination of years of concern about cyberbullying, child exploitation, and the exposure of violent and self-harm content on social platforms. Not only Facebook, Instagram and X: Threads, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch, and TikTok are all banned/delayed too..
Under the new rules, social media platforms have been forced to remove accounts held by users under 16 in Australia and prevent them from creating new accounts. Platforms that fail to comply risk fines of up to $49.5 million.
The ban marks a significant moment for social media platforms that have never had to navigate the deployment of age-verification technology on such a scale. It also poses the question of how teens, who have grown up using these platforms, will be mentally impacted by the ban.
The rest of the world is watching closely, with several countries, including Malaysia, Denmark, and Norway, indicating they may adopt a similar ban. If it proves workable, Australia will set a precedent for other countries grappling with similar youth online safety concerns.
Digital infrastructure comes under the spotlight
Australia’s telco industry has a notorious reputation when it comes to consumer trust, but this year’s network outages shone a spotlight on that, with some disruptions so severe they affected triple-zero calls and left consumers unable to reach emergency services, leading to multiple deaths.
A Senate inquiry into the country’s triple-zero network is now underway. As part of this, telco bosses have faced intense grilling over the handling of the outages. Questions about the foreign ownership of Optus, as well as the role of government in safeguarding the integrity, resilience and public confidence in the triple zero system, have also been raised.
The committee leading the inquiry will deliver a report to the government on 11 February 2026.
Beyond Australia, Google announced it will build three subsea internet cables in Papua New Guinea, backed by US$120 million commitment from Australia under a new defence treaty. The project aims to advance digital connectivity and enhance resilience across the Pacific.
Australia’s National AI Plan lands
It wouldn’t be a tech news recap without the mention of AI, which invaded nearly every major story this year. In Australia, the federal government ended the year with the long-awaited release of its National AI Plan, except it wasn’t quite what many expected.
Instead of focusing on mandatory safeguards for AI, as initially flagged by former industry minister Ed Husic, the plan prioritises AI adoption, positioning it as a productivity booster rather than a technology needing tight constraints.
The roadmap will use “strong existing, largely technology-neutral legal frameworks” to manage AI, and focus on attracting investment and building data centres.
“The National AI Plan is about making sure technology serves Australians, not the other way around,” said Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres.
Across the Tasman, New Zealand also unveiled its National AI Strategy this year. The 42-page document contained guidance material on issues such as detecting bias, measuring model accuracy and human oversight.
Shane Reti, the country’s Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, echoed a similar message about how the strategy would “encourage investment in AI adoption by reducing uncertainty, removing unintended and unwanted barriers to AI in legislation, and providing clear guidance on responsible AI innovation within New Zealand’s existing legal framework”.
Banks axe jobs
AI’s impact wasn’t limited to policy. It reshaped the workforce this year, too, with Australia’s major banks announcing job cuts, with some linked to automation and the deployment of AI systems.
The Commonwealth Bank was one of the first to announce cuts. In June, the banking giant said 45 call centre jobs would be lost due to the introduction of a new AI chatbot. But this decision was later reversed in August, with the bank calling the job cuts as an “error” after realising the new technology increased workloads. Simultaneously, the bank was caught advertising for roles in India for redundant positions.
The other cuts weren’t attributed to AI at all. According to ANZ’s new boss, Nuno Matos, the 3,500 jobs that he announced would go over the next year were due to restructuring. As reported by The Guardian, Matos denied the job cuts have anything to do with AI, rather citing the restructure would “eliminate duplication and complexity, stop work that doesn’t support our priorities and sharpen [its] focus on improving our non-financial risk management practices across the bank”.
NAB also confirmed during the year that it would shed 410 roles from its technology and enterprise operations division.
Microsoft doubles down on India’s AI future
One of the clearest signals of APAC’s growing importance came from Microsoft, which announced a $17.5 billion investment in India’s cloud and AI infrastructure, making it its largest commitment in the region to date. The multi-year plan includes expanding data centres, boosting AI capabilities, and upskilling the local workforce.
So what does 2026 look like?
Without a doubt, AI will remain the headline act in 2016, especially now that both Australia and New Zealand have introduced AI plans. It will be interesting to see how these strategies translate into practice.
Beyond AI, Australia’s new under-16 social media ban will offer one of the biggest global regulatory test cases.
Meanwhile, digital infrastructure – from telco resilience to subsea cables – is likely to stay under scrutiny as governments across APAC weigh how to balance connectivity, security and sovereignty.
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