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Season Three Coming 2027 A co-production

ASEAN in FocusHow AI will shape the region

Twenty-five conversations with fellows of the ASEAN Emerging Thought Leaders Fellowship, policy professionals of ASEAN heritage living in Australia. Together we explore how AI, technology and new relationships will shape Southeast Asia, and what Australia can learn and contribute.

[ie] The Intelligent Economy × Per Capita With the fellows of the ASEAN Emerging Thought Leaders Fellowship, supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre
Listen now
Hear the trailer
Spotify
25
Conversations
7
Themes
2027
Premiere
The season in three words

Technology. Relations. Collaboration.

Technology

How the region builds

AI, data and digital infrastructure through the eyes of the people deploying them across Southeast Asia.

Relations

How the region connects

Trade, diplomacy and diaspora. The relationships between ASEAN nations, and with Australia, as technology reshapes them.

Collaboration

How the region shares

Research, policy and institutions working across borders, and the ethical choices that come with shared intelligence.

Season themes

Seven themes, twenty-five conversations

Each theme gathers a handful of episodes around one question the region is working through right now.

= one episode
01

AI and the regional economy

How adoption, productivity and the digital economy are changing growth across Southeast Asia, and who captures the value.

02

Infrastructure, data and compute

Data centres, connectivity, cities and the energy transition. Who owns the stack the region is building on?

03

Responsible AI and governance

Regional approaches to ethics, regulation and public trust, and the search for an ethical path that fits local contexts.

04

Language, culture and inclusion

AI that works in the region’s many languages, and for the communities most often left out of the data.

05

Skills, work and education

How one of the world’s youngest workforces meets automation, and what capability looks like next.

06

Australia and ASEAN

Trade, diaspora and a neighbourly relationship being rewritten by technology.

07

Collaboration across borders

Research partnerships, shared institutions and what the region can build together that no nation could alone.

The voices
25

Fellows, announced through 2027

Mid-career policy professionals of ASEAN heritage from across Australia, working in government, not-for-profits and academia. Each fellow’s episode is their public platform from the Fellowship, bringing diaspora insight to how AI will shape the region.

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Fellow to be announced
Where the voices come from

The ASEAN Emerging Thought Leaders Fellowship

A six-month national program building policy leadership among Australia’s ASEAN diaspora. It is an initiative of Per Capita, supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre.

Australia’s Southeast Asian diaspora is a national asset for regional engagement, yet too rarely heard in policy. Season Three gives the fellows a microphone, and the rest of us a chance to listen.

Fellowship policy fields
AI & digital economy Infrastructure Sustainable cities & housing Climate & green energy transition Education & skills
Visit the Fellowship ↗
Dr. Michael D’Rosario
Hosted by
Dr. Michael D’Rosario

Michael makes room for the fellows to share what they know and what they are building, bringing their ideas on ASEAN and AI to a wider audience.

“Our region won’t just adopt AI. It will shape it. These are the people doing that work.”

In partnership

The Intelligent Economy × Per Capita

Produced with Per Capita, the independent Australian think tank behind the Fellowship, and supported by the ASEAN-Australia Centre. Together we want to widen who gets heard on AI in our region.

Per Capita
ASEAN-Australia Centre

Hear Season Three first

Fellow announcements, the premiere date and early episodes, straight to your inbox. Seasons One and Two come first, starting October 2026.