This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 29, 2024 - August 4, 2024

On the cusp of the artificial intelligence revolution, Malaysia stands poised to redefine our future through AI. The question is: Is Malaysia ready to be at the forefront of AI?

As we navigate this transformative journey, the government plays a pivotal role in orchestrating our AI endeavours, ensuring a concerted effort that drives us towards our national digital ambitions. Despite having foundational policies and frameworks that encompass the usage of AI, they remain fragmented across multiple ministries and agencies, necessitating a more integrated approach to maximise the impact of AI in both the public and private sectors — a fundamental step for us to be a regional and global AI leader.

Furthermore, with increasing foreign investments from hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft in the realm of cloud computing and AI, we must take innovative strides and bold moves in formulating forward-thinking national policies, regulatory frameworks, infrastructure development, data management and talent cultivation to ensure we are ready as a nation to capture the full value of these strategic investments.

In Oxford Insights’ Government AI Readiness Index 2023, Malaysia is seen as competitive in the East Asia region, although it trails behind some regional leaders. According to the index, East Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Japan often rank highly due to their robust government policies on AI, advanced technological sectors and significant investments in AI research and infrastructure. In comparison, Malaysia, while performing well against other middle-income countries globally, still faces challenges, particularly in the areas of data availability and infrastructure readiness, which are crucial for the comprehensive deployment of AI-integrated public services.

For Malaysia to bridge the gap with regional leaders, improvements must be made to enhance our digital infrastructure and data management protocols to support a holistic and equitable AI implementation plan that is accessible to all. In addition, a comprehensive and unified national AI strategy and framework must be established to guide and regulate the adoption of AI to enable Malaysia to flourish on the AI scene.

The 2023 Cisco AI Readiness Index reveals that only 13% of the companies in Malaysia are fully ready for AI. The index investigates AI readiness across six key pillars: strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, talent and culture. It divides them into four categories: pacesetters (fully prepared), chasers (moderately prepared), followers (limited preparedness) and laggards (unprepared).

It is evident that the private sector in Malaysia is facing impediments in the journey of AI adoption and advancement, manifested in technical complexities (for example, infrastructure readiness, data availability and governance), workforce and organisation management (talent, culture) and governance (AI strategy, policy and regulations). With over half of Malaysian companies having limited preparedness or being barely ready for AI, there is a dire need for quick actions to close the AI readiness gap, as the companies race to be AI ready.

In the pursuit of positioning ourselves as an AI-driven nation, it is pivotal to acknowledge the importance of building an ecosystem of large corporates, small and medium enterprises and start-ups that move towards a wider common AI ambition of the country, supported by national policies and government initiatives.

To accelerate Malaysia’s AI readiness, the priority is to establish a unified and phased national policy and regulatory framework that sets the vision, research and development aspiration, guidelines, implementation strategy and usage for AI development. This national policy should align with our country’s broader economic objectives and address various aspects of AI implementation, including ethical considerations, data privacy and cybersecurity concerns. It should also complement or build on current policies and regulations, such as the New Industrial Master Plan 2030, National AI Roadmap 2021-2025, Malaysia Cybersecurity Strategy 2020-2024 and Personal Data Protection Act, just to name a few. This ensures both the public and private sectors have a common reference point to guide their AI efforts and facilitate a smoother cooperation between the government and private sector.

Alongside policy development, there must be a concerted effort to upgrade our infrastructure and manage data effectively:

•    Digital infrastructure — this involves not only physical components such as data centres and network capabilities (where Malaysia is one of the leading countries with the most consistent 5G network) but also the digital architecture that supports AI applications, such as cloud services and advanced computing resources.

•    Data management — this requires establishing data norms that ensure easy access to high quality, standardised and secure data. These efforts should be underpinned by robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive information and maintain public trust in AI systems.

The cultivation of talent is another critical focus area. Apart from nurturing talent who can contribute to the development and advancement of AI, we must also focus on developing a workforce skilled in using and integrating AI in their day-to-day operations. This would require a collaborative effort among the public sector (including incorporation of AI skill-based training at the National Institute of Public Administration for civil servants) and the private sector to encourage the upskilling and reskilling of the current talent pool, leveraging the curriculum and learning platforms of hyperscalers (AWS, Google, Microsoft) that are investing in Malaysia. These programmes should aim to not only serve the purpose of filling immediate skills gaps but also to foster a culture of lifelong learning to stay relevant in the evolving technological landscape.

These strategic and focused efforts will position Malaysia at the forefront of global AI innovation and utilisation, enabling us to harness the full potential and value of AI.

So, is Malaysia ready? With a clear vision of capitalising on existing AI investments, the country should not shy away from the Game of Impossible, to become a leader in AI adoption and development.

Vicky Fan Yin Yan is senior manager and Ridzwan Hamzah is joint managing director (interim) and partner at Pemandu Associates. For more information on how we can assist your organisation in leveraging AI for growth and innovation, contact us at [email protected].

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