This policy perspectives paper examines how ASEAN+3 economies can secure the gains from generative artificial intelligence when much of the frontier capability they use is supplied as a service by foreign providers. It maps the concentrated global AI value chain and the region’s uneven position within it, assessing what growing reliance on AI-as-a-service means for productivity, labor markets, external accounts, and resilience. The paper argues that the objective should be neither technological self-sufficiency nor passive dependence, but to make that reliance productive, diversified, measurable, and reversible — through stronger domestic absorptive capacity, credible alternatives, and regional cooperation.