Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping education across the Asia-Pacific, yet its integration depends on teachers’ readiness and perspectives. This study explores AI adoption among Vietnamese teachers, a critical lens for the region’s digital education reforms, using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), we analyzed responses from 246 teachers nationwide. Results show attitude strongly predicts adoption intention, with privacy and ethical concerns shaping acceptance, though fears of AI dependence hinder uptake. Uniform challenges across urban-rural and STEM-non-STEM contexts suggest systemic barriers in Vietnam’s education system. Teachers foresee AI as a pedagogical assistant but highlight insufficient training and privacy risks as key obstacles. These findings underscore the need for Asia-Pacific-relevant policies—AI literacy programs, ethical governance, and equitable access—to foster sustainable integration. This research informs regional educational policy by offering a Vietnam-centric model for balancing technological innovation with pedagogical integrity, addressing shared challenges in the Asia-Pacific’s digital transformation.

Vocational education plays a pivotal role in nurturing talent and supporting national development. However, challenges such as outdated talent development concepts, insufficient teacher training, and a lack of attention to soft skills cultivation from both schools and students have hindered the comprehensive development of secondary vocational students. This study aims to explore the direct effect of perceived teachers’ transformational leadership on the soft skills of 324 secondary vocational students in China and to examine the mediating role of students’ self-efficacy in this relationship. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the results show that teachers’ transformational leadership has a significant positive effect on students’ soft skills (β = 0.33, p < .01). Moreover, self-efficacy partially mediates this relationship (indirect effect β = 0.07, p < .05), accounting for 22.6% of the total effect. These findings suggest that teachers’ inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation directly foster students’ communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, while also indirectly strengthening them by enhancing students’ confidence. Practically, the study underscores the need for teacher training in transformational leadership and for policy initiatives that integrate soft skills into vocational curricula.