With the aim of exploring how universities in Vietnam incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education curricula, this qualitative study is undertaken to examine the extent to which eight leading institutions respond to Vietnam’s strategy for AI integration in education and research by 2030 ( https://en.baochinhphu.vn/national-strategy-on-rd-and-application-of-artificial-intelligence-11140663.htm ). This multiple-case study collects data from multiple sources, including institutions’ documents, government policies, research publications, and media reports for eight universities in Vietnam. The thematic analysis indicates that AI is embedded in interdisciplinary subjects and ethical considerations for AI use are being formulated. It is also found that key universities, such as Vietnam National University-Hanoi and RMIT Vietnam align well with the country’s strategy on AI use by 2030 and other regional institutions integrate AI in their curricula within resource constraints. The findings shed light on policy-to-practice processes of integrating AI into curricula and emphasize the importance of following contextualized, ethically grounded, and interdisciplinary approaches for AI integration in higher education programs.