Leapfrogging the Legacy Systems: AI’s Opportunity in Cambodia

At a small market stall in Kampong Cham, a woman lays out rows of banana-leaf wrapped នំអន្សម (num ansom), their fragrant steam rising into the morning air. Next to her scale sits a laminated sheet of paper, printed not with prices but with a black-and-white KHQR code. A customer scans it with her phone and, within seconds, the payment lands in the vendor’s account. There is no cash exchange, no credit card, no need for a formal point-of-sale device. In a single move, this small-scale seller has bypassed decades of financial infrastructure to participate directly in Cambodia’s growing digital economy.

This is technological leapfrogging in action, the ability of countries like Cambodia to skip over legacy systems and adopt new technologies at speed and scale. Just as Cambodia moved quickly from cash to QR-based mobile payments, a system that now works across banks and providers through the KHQR initiative, AI presents a similarly open frontier. In fields where there are few entrenched systems or slow-moving bureaucracies to update, adoption can be nimble, creative, and locally adapted. The question is no longer whether Cambodia will join the AI age, but how its students and innovators will shape it.

Unlike older technologies that required massive capital investments or physical infrastructure, AI tools are largely digital, modular, and scalable. Cambodia's relative lack of legacy systems is an asset. Students and startups can build from scratch, tailoring tools to local needs: Khmer-language translation, agricultural forecasting, logistics management, or public health outreach. And because these tools often build on open-source foundations, entry barriers are lower than ever. The playing field isn’t level, but it’s more open than it’s ever been.

Government institutions have begun to recognize this moment. The Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology & Innovation has outlined plans to promote AI R&D, education, and innovation ecosystems (MISTI AI Landscape). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has convened national forums to shape AI policy and regulation, emphasizing transparency, inclusion, and long-term vision (Cambodia AI Forum).

What sets this moment apart is the opportunity for Cambodian youth to participate not only as users but as builders. AI is not a fixed product to be imported. It is a set of tools that can be adapted, reprogrammed, and repurposed. Students who learn to work with AI critically and creatively can build Khmer-language chatbots, automate small business tasks, or analyze local climate data. They can move from learning about technology to shaping what it becomes.

The economic promise of AI in Cambodia lies not in imitation, but in originality. By developing workflows and applications grounded in Cambodian realities, its languages, its markets, its public needs, students are not just catching up. They are moving ahead on their own terms.

The Trellis AI Research Skills Enrichment Course is designed for this moment. Through hands-on training and local case studies, students explore how to use AI tools ethically and effectively, building projects that respond to the challenges and opportunities around them. The next wave of Cambodian innovation won’t be about catching up. It will be about showing what’s possible when new tools meet new imaginations.