5G and AI are no longer optional; they are critical enablers
In a Phnom Penh ballroom, Cambodia's economic decision-makers gathered not to debate whether technology would reshape their industries, but to understand how. Smart Axiata convened the forum as a moment of collective orientation — a recognition that 5G, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity have crossed the threshold from aspiration to operational necessity. What unfolded was less a product showcase than a mapping exercise, as a nation's institutions began charting the terrain of a digital economy they are already building.
- Cambodia's enterprises are no longer weighing whether to transform digitally — they are racing to do it before competitors do, and the pressure is felt in every boardroom.
- Smart Axiata brought global technology partners into the same room as local CEOs and CFOs, collapsing the distance between what is possible and what is actionable.
- Concrete use cases — AI cameras reading retail foot traffic, 5G streamlining factory logistics, automated financial onboarding cutting days into minutes — replaced abstract promises with visible proof.
- Cybersecurity emerged not as a separate concern but as the foundational layer without which every other digital investment remains fragile.
- Smart is repositioning itself from infrastructure provider to strategic partner, betting that enterprises need guidance through transformation, not just connectivity to enable it.
On June 11th, Smart Axiata gathered the people who run Cambodia's economy — bank executives, factory managers, retail chiefs, school administrators — into the Shangri-La's ballroom in Phnom Penh. The occasion was a high-level forum on 5G, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, but the underlying purpose was more urgent: to give Cambodia's business leaders a clear view of what digital transformation actually looks like in practice.
Smart's CEO Ritesh Kumar Singh set the tone early. The era of treating 5G and AI as optional upgrades, he said plainly, is finished. These technologies are now the mechanisms through which companies innovate faster, reach customers more precisely, and build the kind of operational resilience that competitors without them cannot match. The forum was designed to make that argument visible rather than theoretical.
Across sectors, the applications were specific. Retailers learned how AI-powered video analytics could turn store cameras into operational intelligence — tracking foot traffic, measuring queues, optimizing staffing without surveys or consultants. Manufacturers and logistics companies saw how 5G infrastructure could replace the coordination chaos of calls and spreadsheets with real-time visibility. Financial institutions heard how AI is compressing customer onboarding from days into minutes. And every sector confronted the same underlying truth: cybersecurity is no longer a separate department's problem — it is the foundation on which everything else depends.
What distinguished the forum was the breadth of who was in the room. Banks, factories, schools, shipping companies — these are not peripheral players. They are Cambodia's economic backbone, and they are all facing the same transformation challenge with the same set of tools available to them. That convergence suggests something significant: Cambodia's digital economy is not being constructed by startups at the edges. It is being rebuilt from within its existing institutions.
Smart Axiata's positioning throughout was deliberate. As both a subsidiary of Malaysia's Axiata Group and Cambodia's largest telecom provider, it occupies a rare intersection of regional expertise and local infrastructure control. The company is not presenting itself as a vendor that sells and departs — it is framing itself as a partner invested in whether the transformation actually delivers results. For Cambodia's business leaders, who have moved past asking whether change is necessary and are now asking how to execute it without breaking what already works, that distinction may be exactly what the moment requires.
On June 11th, Smart Axiata filled a ballroom at the Shangri-La in Phnom Penh with the people who actually run Cambodia's economy. CEOs, CFOs, technology officers—the decision-makers from banks, factories, shipping companies, schools, and retail chains—gathered for a single purpose: to figure out how 5G, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity could make their businesses faster, smarter, and harder to break.
The timing was deliberate. Across Cambodia, enterprises are in the middle of digital transformation—not as a buzzword exercise, but as a practical scramble to stay competitive. The question hanging over every boardroom is the same: what do we actually do with these new technologies? How do we turn them into money, efficiency, and resilience? Smart Axiata, the country's major telecommunications provider serving nearly 8 million subscribers, decided to answer that question by bringing together not just local expertise but global partners—Huawei, China Telecom, AIonOS, Radware, and the Axiata Cyber Fusion Center—to show what's actually possible.
Ritesh Kumar Singh, Smart's CEO, opened the conversation with a blunt assessment. Five years ago, companies could treat 5G and AI as nice-to-have upgrades. That era is over. "Technologies such as 5G and AI are no longer optional; they are critical enablers of measurable business outcomes," he said. The combination of the two, he argued, is creating a new category of business opportunity—the ability to innovate faster, get products to market quicker, and respond to what customers actually want in real time. This wasn't a sales pitch dressed up as a forum. It was a recognition that the companies in that room were already committed to transformation; they just needed to see the map.
The forum walked through concrete applications across sectors. In retail and hospitality, AI-powered video analytics can do far more than security. A camera watching a store floor can count how many people are walking through, track where they pause, measure queue lengths at checkout. That data becomes operational intelligence—a retailer can adjust staffing, optimize shelf placement, and smooth the customer experience without hiring consultants or running expensive surveys. In manufacturing and logistics, 5G infrastructure enables the kind of real-time coordination that used to require constant phone calls and spreadsheets. In financial services, AI is reshaping customer onboarding, turning a process that once took days into something that takes minutes. And across every sector, cybersecurity isn't an afterthought anymore—it's the foundation that lets everything else work without fear.
What made the forum different from a typical vendor presentation was the breadth of the room. Financial services, manufacturing, logistics, education, retail—these aren't niche industries in Cambodia. They're the backbone of the economy. The fact that all of them face the same transformation challenge, and that they're all looking at the same set of tools to solve it, suggests something larger is happening. Cambodia's digital economy isn't being built by startups in isolation. It's being built by the existing institutions—the banks, the factories, the schools—learning to operate in a new way.
Smart's role in this moment is strategic. As a subsidiary of Malaysia's Axiata Group, it has access to regional expertise and international standards. As Cambodia's largest telecom provider, it controls the infrastructure that makes 5G possible. The company is positioning itself not as a vendor selling boxes, but as a partner helping enterprises translate technology into tangible outcomes. That distinction matters. A vendor sells you something and moves on. A partner is invested in whether it actually works.
The forum signals that Cambodia's business leaders are past the stage of asking whether digital transformation is necessary. They're asking how to do it well, how to do it fast, and how to do it without breaking what already works. Smart Axiata's bet is that by bringing the right people into the same room—the decision-makers from Cambodia's major enterprises, the engineers from global technology companies, the security experts—the transformation accelerates. Not because anyone is forced into it, but because everyone can see the path forward.
Notable Quotes
Technologies such as 5G and AI are no longer optional; they are critical enablers of measurable business outcomes. The combination of 5G and AI is creating a new wave of business opportunities—empowering companies to innovate faster, shorten time-to-market, and respond more dynamically to customer needs.— Ritesh Kumar Singh, CEO of Smart Axiata
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did Smart Axiata feel the need to host this forum now, in June 2026? What changed?
Cambodian enterprises have been talking about digital transformation for years, but now they're actually doing it. The question shifted from "should we?" to "how do we?" Smart recognized that gap—companies have the will but need the roadmap.
The CEO said 5G and AI are no longer optional. That's a strong claim. What does that actually mean for a factory owner or a bank manager?
It means the companies that move fast will outpace the ones that don't. A factory using 5G-enabled logistics can coordinate supply chains in real time. A bank using AI can onboard customers in minutes instead of days. If you're not doing these things, your competitor is.
You mentioned AI-powered video analytics as a concrete example. That feels almost mundane—just counting people in a store. Why is that important enough to highlight?
Because it's not theoretical. It's something a retailer can implement next month, not in five years. It solves a real problem—how to optimize operations without guessing. That's the difference between a technology forum that matters and one that doesn't.
The forum brought together companies from very different sectors—finance, manufacturing, education, retail. Did that diversity matter?
Absolutely. A bank's cybersecurity challenge is different from a factory's, but they're both using the same underlying infrastructure. When they're in the same room, they realize they're not alone in this transition. That builds momentum.
Smart is positioning itself as a "strategic partner" rather than just a telecom provider. Is that just marketing language?
Not entirely. As the infrastructure provider, Smart controls whether 5G actually works in Cambodia. But a partner relationship means they're invested in whether enterprises succeed, not just whether they buy a service. That's a different incentive structure.
What happens after the forum? Does anything actually change?
That's the real test. The companies in that room now have a clearer picture of what's possible and who to talk to about implementation. Whether they act on it depends on whether their boards fund it and whether the execution partners—Huawei, AIonOS, Radware—can deliver on the promise. The forum is the beginning, not the end.