The Complete Guide to Using AI as a Finance Professional in Cambodia in 2025

Cambodia's finance professionals in 2025 face a clear mandate: adopt AI strategically or risk falling behind - banks are already using machine learning to automate credit assessments, detect fraud, monitor cyber threats and power customer chatbots (see the AmCham report), while industry analysis shows AI can expand inclusion by using alternative data such as mobile‑phone usage to score thin‑file borrowers (BytePlus).

That promise comes with regulatory ambiguity - National Bank of Cambodia guidance is being updated - so a hybrid approach that pairs models with human oversight is essential.

Practical upskilling matters: Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work bootcamp is a 15‑week, hands‑on program that teaches tools, prompts and workplace applications to help finance teams implement safe, effective AI (early bird pricing listed below).

Business prospects for Cambodia in 2025 are a mixed picture: growth forecasts vary widely - from AMRO's May estimate of about 4.9% and World Bank's more cautious ~4.0% to government and regional bodies projecting higher numbers - reflecting an economy buffeted by new U.S. tariffs, shifting FDI patterns and a still‑recovering tourism sector; the result is a pragmatic scramble to diversify beyond garment assembly into higher‑value manufacturing, electronics and services while shoring up the banking system and credit risk controls.

Exports and FDI remain the main engines, but tariffs (initially announced up to 49% before negotiation to 19%) and recent border tensions with Thailand raise short‑term downside risks, especially for apparel and front‑loaded shipments, even as infrastructure and investment approvals surged in H1.

For finance teams, the takeaway is simple and urgent: plan for slower external demand, prioritize cash‑flow resilience and stress‑testing, and watch reforms that aim to deepen capital markets and broaden funding channels - because per‑capita income nearing $3,000 in 2025 means opportunities for digital financial services if structural reforms and diversification succeed (GFMAG AMRO Cambodia economic analysis, Krungsri 2025 regional economic outlook on tariff impacts).

“Diversification is a core focus of the government's Pentagonal Strategy Phase I, spanning FDI, exports, and overall economic resilience.”

AI is reshaping finance workflows in Cambodia by turning manual choke points into rapid, insight-driven processes: intelligent document processing and smart OCR extract invoice data at scale, anomaly detection flags suspicious transactions in real time, and machine‑learning credit models use alternative signals - like mobile usage - to score thin‑file borrowers and expand access to credit (see BytePlus AI applications in Cambodia).

Practical examples are already clear: automating accounts payable can cut backlogs dramatically - one regional rollout processed 8,000 monthly invoices and achieved a 70% faster cycle time - while AI‑powered forecasting and treasury tools turn scattered data into continuous cash‑flow scenarios that finance teams can act on before surprises materialize.

To capture value, teams should prioritize high‑ROI pilots (AP/IDP, anomaly detection, predictive FP&A), integrate models with ERPs and data warehouses, and pair automation with human review and strong governance so decisions remain explainable and auditable; Grant Thornton's finance operations playbook on supercharging finance operations outlines this phased approach and technology‑maturity path for CFOs to follow.

Treat AI as a workflow partner - speeding routine work, surfacing risks, and freeing analysts to focus on strategy.

“By embedding governance into the data lifecycle, organizations can mitigate risks and build trust in AI-driven insights.” - Steven Truant, Senior Manager, Business Consulting, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC

Start small, but plan like a regulator is watching: begin with a practical AI self‑assessment to map current capabilities and risks (use tools such as the Wolters Kluwer financial AI self‑assessment tool for finance leaders to score maturity and prioritise use cases), then launch short, measurable pilots that target high ROI - intelligent document processing for accounts payable, anomaly detection for payments, and ML credit models that use alternative data for thin‑file borrowers - and instrument each pilot with logging, human review and rollback plans so models remain explainable.

Parallel to pilots, lock down basics of data governance and consent (AmCham's summary of banking sector discussions highlights the need to protect customer data and to pair models with human oversight) and watch the evolving national policy environment as the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications and UNESCO work on AI strategy, data protection and cybersecurity standards that will affect procurement and cross‑border data flows.

For vendor selection, prefer platforms that support secure deployment and monitoring (consider providers with enterprise controls), invest in upskilling finance teams on model interpretation and prompt design, and treat early wins as playbooks - document metrics, control steps, and compliance checks - so successful pilots can scale across treasury, credit and customer operations without creating tech debt or compliance surprises; combine practical pilots with policy readiness to turn AI from a risky experiment into a repeatable capability for Cambodian finance teams (AmCham Cambodia financial sector AI implementation report, UNESCO AI readiness report and Cambodia AI strategy recommendations, Wolters Kluwer financial AI self-assessment tool for finance leaders).

“Cambodia is showing strong commitment to responsible innovation. With the insights from this report, the country now has a clear roadmap to harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.” - Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director‑General for Social and Human Sciences

For Cambodian finance teams in 2025, the highest-impact AI features are clear: intelligent document processing (IDP) to free AP and KYC teams from manual entry, real‑time anomaly detection to catch payment or reconciliation exceptions, and predictive cash‑flow insights that turn piles of invoices into forward‑looking decisions.

Start with IDP for invoices and onboarding - platforms like ABBYY Vantage intelligent document processing or DocuWare's DocuWare automated invoice processing can extract and validate fields, integrate with ERPs, and learn from human review so exceptions shrink over time; one ABBYY customer reported 140+ hours saved per month and 92% touchless order processing.

Pair IDP with an anomaly‑detection layer that alerts on unusual supplier patterns or multi‑entity cash swings, and add predictive baselines so treasury sees looming shortfalls before they arrive.

Prioritise solutions that offer easy ERP connectors, audit trails and human‑in‑the‑loop review to satisfy regulators and finance leaders - because the point isn't replacing judgment but giving teams time to act on insights rather than hunt for them.

“IDP is not just about automation - it's about empowering roles across your organization to move faster, think smarter, and stay compliant.”

For Cambodian finance teams evaluating vendors, Esker Synergy AI offers a practical starting point because it combines high‑accuracy smart document processing, predictive invoice coding and anomaly detection with real-world outcomes - Pet Lovers Centre cut processing time by 70% on an 8,000‑invoice monthly load - so a pilot focused on AP will reveal ROI fast; look for providers that advertise first‑time recognition, auto‑learning and multi‑ERP connectors so you can integrate with legacy systems or shared‑service setups, and insist on supplier portals, mobile approvals and audit trails to strengthen supplier relationships and regulator‑ready compliance (see Esker's AP automation overview and the technical deep dive on Esker Synergy AI).

In procurement, prioritise: (1) IDP accuracy and human‑in‑the‑loop workflows, (2) ERP and multi‑entity integration, (3) predictive analytics for cash‑flow and late‑payment risk, and (4) built‑in fraud controls and secure GenAI hosting; vendors with Gartner recognition and customer case studies make easier reference checks.

Start with a scoped AP pilot, document touchless rate, exception volumes and approval SLAs, then scale successful templates across treasury and credit to avoid tech debt while unlocking time for strategic finance work.

“Esker's AI-based recognition has significantly reduced manual work. We can now focus on improving other factors within our department rather than handling manual work. The interface is very user friendly and easy for new employees to use right off the bat, which has helped us save time in new hire trainings.” - Wynona Ho | Accounts Payable Manager

Pet Lovers Centre's regional automation playbook offers clear, practical lessons for Cambodian finance teams: a cloud AP and purchase‑to‑pay revamp delivered a headline 70% faster P2P cycle time, while warehouse automation squeezed more than 100% extra pallet capacity out of an odd‑shaped facility and lifted throughput about 40% - a vivid reminder that tight space or high invoice volumes can be transformed into a competitive asset (see the Pet Lovers Centre purchase-to-pay case study and Körber Supply Chain Pet Lovers Centre ASRS project).

Their move to AI‑driven customer service also cut live chat volume by roughly 60% and helped CSAT climb into the 90s, proving automation can free human staff for higher‑value work rather than replace them (Zendesk Pet Lovers Centre customer story).

For Phnom Penh finance teams, the playbook is simple and actionable: start with a scoped AP pilot to prove touchless‑rate and exception‑reduction metrics, insist on WMS/ERP integration so inventory and payables feed the same cash‑flow models, and measure throughput, touchless rate and exception volume before scaling - because when a warehouse suddenly holds twice as many pallets or an AP inbox clears by 70%, that's the tangible “so what?” that convinces leadership to invest.

“The AI agent is also available on our website and mobile app, which our customers use extensively. After we launched it, we saw a huge drop in live chat requests by at least 60 percent. It has allowed our agents more time to focus on less straightforward cases.” - Elaine Tan, Head of Customer Service, Pet Lovers Centre

Textiles and garments remain Cambodia's standout success story - historically the largest foreign‑investment destination and still the backbone of exports - so positioning AI to raise productivity here is the clearest, fastest route to national impact.

Between 1993 and 2017 the garment sector drew roughly 30% of total FDI, textile exports jumped nearly 25% in the first three quarters of 2024, and the country hosts more than a thousand garment factories employing hundreds of thousands of workers, making any incremental efficiency win worth millions of dollars (see Cambodia Market Entry sector analysis).

AI fits into that picture as an enabler for smart manufacturing - quality inspection via computer vision, predictive maintenance for sewing and assembly lines, demand‑driven inventory and sourcing optimisations, and factory‑floor analytics that lift yield without erasing the human touch - while also demanding a serious reskilling push because automation risks are real for routine roles.

For finance teams, the “so what?” is simple: pilots that quantify cost per garment, touchless invoice rates for suppliers, and predictive cash‑flow from smarter production schedules prove ROI and make AI investments board‑level decisions instead of tech experiments (sources: Cambodia Market Entry sector analysis, B2B Cambodia garment industry overview, Khmer Times).

“For an economy mainly driven by garments, tourism, agriculture and construction, the Fourth Industrial Revolution allows us to retool these ...” - Khmer Times

China has openly declared its ambition to lead the world in AI by 2030 - a push backed by state funds, national compute networks and a stack‑wide industrial policy that targets chips, data centres, foundation models and sector pilots - and that matters for Cambodia in practical ways: cheaper, China‑tuned AI apps and the Digital Silk Road may lower the cost of deploying smart manufacturing, predictive maintenance and retail chatbots in Phnom Penh, while Beijing's drive to export standards and bundled solutions could tilt regional procurement toward Chinese vendors (see RAND Full Stack analysis of China's AI policy and reporting on export pathways).

At the same time, U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors and China's push for self‑reliance mean supply‑chain volatility for high‑end compute; Cambodian finance teams should therefore stress test vendor roadmaps, favour multi‑cloud or hosted options, and pilot lower‑cost models that prioritize explainability.

China's focus on industry‑specific pilots - energy, manufacturing and logistics - offers a playbook: expect scalable, sectoral AI packages (the kind that promise dozens of replicable projects by 2027) and plan procurement and skills programs so Cambodia captures productivity gains without surrendering regulatory control or data sovereignty (see Morgan Stanley briefing on China's AI ambitions).

Conclusion - Cambodia's finance teams should treat 2025 as the make-or-break year to turn policy momentum into practical safeguards and measurable value: the UNESCO-backed readiness report signals clear progress on a national AI roadmap but also flags big gaps in cybersecurity (Cambodia ranks 132nd globally) and data governance, so pairing any pilot with strong controls is non‑negotiable (UNESCO AI readiness report for Cambodia).

Operationally, prioritise three immediate moves - (1) run focused, high‑ROI pilots (IDP for AP, anomaly detection, predictive cash‑flow) that prove touchless rates and exception reduction, (2) harden data protection and vendor due diligence as the National Bank updates tech guidance, and (3) invest in people: practical upskilling in model use, prompts and governance will turn pilots into repeatable capabilities; Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp registration is designed for finance professionals to learn those exact skills (early bird pricing and registration below).

Think small, measure rigorously, and document controls so AI becomes an auditable productivity partner rather than a compliance headache - because when a pilot shrinks exceptions by half or flags a default before it lands, that's the tangible win that earns board support and protects customers.

“Cambodia is showing strong commitment to responsible innovation. With the insights from this report, the country now has a clear roadmap to harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.” - Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director‑General for Social and Human Sciences