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OpenAI and Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation are launching an eight-week accelerator to help startups turn promising ideas into products ready for real-world use.

Today in Bangkok, OpenAI and Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) announced a new accelerator to help Thai startups turn promising prototypes into products ready for real-world use and growth.

The OpenAI x MHESI AI Accelerator brings together ten startups working across health, wellness, and education. It marks OpenAI’s first public-private partnership with the Thai government focused on supporting local startups, and is being delivered with partners including the National Innovation Agency (NIA), Mahidol University, and Techsauce.

A compelling AI demonstration is only the beginning. Building a product that people can rely on is much harder. It takes careful testing, feedback from real users, strong safeguards, and a business model that can support the product as it grows. That work matters even more in healthcare and education, where the stakes are high and reliability is essential.

Over eight weeks, participating founders will work with mentors from OpenAI and across Thailand’s technology, research, and startup communities to bridge the gap between prototype and deployment.

A fast-growing community of AI builders

Thailand combines strong technical talent with deep expertise in fields such as healthcare and education, supported by a fast-growing community of AI builders.

Our internal data shows that Thailand ranks among the top 20 countries globally for ChatGPT weekly active users. Since the start of 2026, weekly active usage of Codex in Thailand has grown more than 350-fold, also placing the country among the top 20 globally for Codex usage. This momentum reflects how people across Thailand are increasingly using AI to write software, develop products, and get meaningful work done. The next step is to help more of those ideas move beyond early prototypes and become products people can use and trust.

Building for needs that matter locally

The accelerator’s first cohort includes five startups focused on medical and wellness AI, and five working in education.

Both areas are central to Thailand’s long-term development and well suited to solutions that combine AI with deep local knowledge. An ageing population is increasing demand for new approaches to healthcare, prevention, and independent living. At the same time, stronger learning outcomes and preparation for an increasingly digital economy will be critical to the country’s future competitiveness.

The ten participating startups are CARIVA, Wello Food, Dietz, Precisionize, FitSloth, Curico, insKru, Floaino, EasyKids Robotics, and Globish. Selected with NIA, the Ministry of Education, and the MHESI innovation network, the cohort includes teams that participated in the AIAT × OpenAI Codex Hackathon Bangkok earlier this year.

Logos of the ten startups participating in the OpenAI x MHESI AI Accelerator: CARIVA, Wello Food, Dietz, Precisionize, FitSloth, Curico, insKru, Floaino, EasyKids Robotics, and Globish.

Each company is focused on a specific problem. The accelerator will help the teams combine their domain knowledge with frontier AI capabilities to build products grounded in the needs of people and organizations across Thailand.

“Thailand’s ability to compete in the AI era will be determined not only by access to advanced technology, but by our capacity to turn that technology into trusted products that solve real problems for real people. This accelerator connects Thai founders with government, universities, investors and domain experts, while combining Thailand’s research and talent strengths with OpenAI’s advanced AI capabilities and global experience, so that promising innovations can move from prototype to implementation. It focuses particularly on healthcare and wellness, which are among Thailand’s priority industries, as well as education, a major area of public investment because children are the future of Thailand. Our goal is simple: build in Thailand, deliver measurable benefits to Thai people and prepare Thai companies to compete anywhere in the world.”

Professor Dr Yodchanan Wongsawat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation

How the accelerator works

Throughout the accelerator, the startups will work alongside OpenAI mentors to strengthen their products and prepare for deployment.

OpenAI will provide each team with US$2,000 in API credits, one-on-one technical guidance, and access to OpenAI’s latest frontier models. Each startup will also have a dedicated mentor throughout the program. Weekly sessions will cover product design, engineering, automated testing, evaluation, responsible AI, privacy and security, cost management, growth, and fundraising.

MHESI will connect the teams with Thailand’s research and talent networks, while NIA will link them to the country’s funding and growth ecosystem. Mahidol University will contribute academic expertise and mentors.

Each startup will set a specific product, pilot, evaluation, or commercial milestone for the eight-week program. By the end of the accelerator, teams are expected to demonstrate a working product or substantial upgrade, evidence from representative users, initial evaluation findings, and a credible path to implementation.

“We believe the biggest breakthroughs don’t usually come from platform companies themselves, but from founders who deeply understand a problem and build something people value. Our role at OpenAI is to keep pushing the frontier of what AI can do, while helping founders turn those capabilities into useful, trusted products. We are proud to work alongside MHESI and our partners to help Thai startups build solutions that solve real problems, improve people’s lives and scale from Thailand to the world.”

Sandy Kunvatanagarn, Head of Policy for ASEAN at OpenAI

From hospital phone lines to classrooms

CARIVA is developing a multilingual voice agent for hospital phone lines. Designed to communicate in a patient’s preferred language, it can assist with routine requests such as appointment scheduling and recognize when a caller may be describing a medical emergency.

During the accelerator, CARIVA will work with OpenAI on evaluation methods and steering strategies for its real-time speech model. By Demo Day, the team aims to deploy the first capability in a pilot hospital’s live call flow.

“We’re building Cariva Voice Agent as the frontline for hospital phone lines, able to communicate in each patient’s preferred language and understand the healthcare context. We value support from the OpenAI team in developing robust evaluation methods and steering strategies for a real-time speech model across such a wide range of scenarios, particularly to ensure that potential emergencies are consistently identified and escalated.”

Narongchai Limpiyapirom, Co-founder of CARIVA Thailand

Curico is developing AI-powered learning tools for children, families, and educators.

“Children learn best when they explore, create, and connect ideas to the physical world, yet many families and educators lack the time and support to provide hands-on learning consistently. Curico uses AI to make this easier, from guiding hands-on activities and creating engaging stories to providing timely, personalized feedback. Our next challenge is proving these tools are useful, effective, and safe in real learning environments. Through the AI accelerator, we hope to improve the quality and safety of our AI-powered products, while expanding pilots through our partnerships with MHESI.”

Phitchaya Mangpo Phothilimthana, Founder of Curico

By Demo Day, Curico aims to pilot its platform in Bangkok Metropolitan Administration childcare centers, with a pathway to reach more than 200 centers. The team also plans to train more than 200 teachers through an AI storybook workshop with the Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology; test AI-assisted grading at Chulalongkorn University; develop new school pilots with MHESI and the Ministry of Education; and grow its family learning platform to more than 1,000 monthly active users.

From accelerator to implementation

The accelerator will conclude with a Demo Day in Bangkok in November. Participating startups will demonstrate what they have built, share evidence from users and product evaluations, and present their plans for deployment and growth.

The event will bring together investors, government agencies, universities, hospitals, schools, potential customers, and other organizations that can help move successful prototypes into sustained implementation.

This first cohort is the beginning of a longer-term effort. By bringing together government, universities, startups, investors, and technology partners, we aim to establish a repeatable model that helps Thai founders build trusted AI products and take solutions developed in Thailand to the world.

https://openai.com/index/supporting-next-generation-ai-startups-thailand/