2024 marked a pivotal year for technological advancements, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) driving innovation, streamlining operations, and enabling data-driven decisions across industries.
In Malaysia, Budget 2025 allocated RM10 million to the National AI Office (NAIO) and RM50 million to AI education in research universities. Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo highlighted that these measures build on the nation’s growing digital economy, projected to contribute over 25.5 percent to GDP by 2025.
These investments underscore Malaysia’s commitment to AI leadership and talent development, key to its ASEAN chairpersonship ambitions.
In this episode, we discussed how advancements such as Generative AI (Gen AI) will shape the country’s future, revolutionise decision-making, and redefine success in 2025 and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for AI adoption across various industries.
Keynote by YBrs MA Sivanesan, Deputy Secretary-General (Digital Development), Digital Ministry
Following opening remarks by Dickson Woo, Managing Director and Technology Leader, IBM Malaysia, Sivanesan shared how Budget 2025 emphasises AI’s strategic importance by allocating RM10 million to establish the NAIO and RM50 million for AI-focused research in universities.
The NAIO will act as a central authority, advancing Malaysia’s AI agenda by promoting ethical AI governance, coordinating sector-wide efforts, and developing the AI action plan for 2026–2030. The Digital Ministry is also driving talent development through incentives for high-tech training in AI and robotics, while fostering cross-sector collaboration between government, private sectors, and academia to boost innovation and ensure Malaysia’s regional competitiveness.
The next frontier of AI race: Scaling AI for impact
The session began with IBM Malaysia’s Dickson Woo sharing the primary focus of AI investments in Asia-Pacific organisations, outlining the five strategic trends shaping the region’s AI future.
AI-led revenue generation takes centre stage: Organisations will adopt a “Strategic AI” approach in 2025, prioritising projects based on feasibility and business impact.
Smaller specialised open-source models emerge as a powerful alternative for many AI applications: Purpose-built models will be in demand, including those designed for local languages, nuanced regional contexts and simpler computational tasks.
Enterprises embrace new tools for visibility, governance and seamless AI integration: Asia-Pacific organisations will increasingly leverage open-source AI models to drive innovation and efficiency.
AI agents redefine the future of work: Enterprises will increasingly devise agentic workflows, powered by AI agents, to autonomously execute tasks, collaborate with human workers and drive value across the business.
Human-centred innovation drives the next phase of AI: While productivity tools have been a major focus of AI adoption, the future lies in leveraging AI to enhance human experiences and capabilities.
Unlocking the power of Generative AI: Why businesses should embrace the AI journey today
The session continued with Eddy Liew, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Malaysia, discussing how to choose the right Gen AI for an organization. He compared the key differences between the generic Gen AI model and IBM’s Watsonx. He further shared that business leaders face challenges in scaling AI across their enterprise with trust - at least 80 percent of surveyed business leaders see at least one of four ethical issues (explainability, ethics, bias, trust) as a major concern.
Fireside chat: AI Unleashed: Transforming Industries and Shaping the Future
Next, a panel of four distinguished industry experts take over the stage to discuss how AI is Malaysia's digital sphere by storm.
Panellists:
Ellina Roslan
Senior Director, MyDIGITAL
Low Chia Seng
TIME Cloud Chief Technology Officer, TIMEdotCom
Dr. Sadesh Manikam
Senior Vice-President, Enterprise Data Office, Bursa Malaysia
Rushdi Abdul Rahim
President and CEO, Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT)
Moderator:
Karamjit Singh
CEO, Digital News Asia
Woo concluded the event by recapping how AI is fundamentally changing Malaysia’s businesses to a degree never seen before. By 2025, businesses are expected to embrace AI with a strong emphasis on strategies that focus on human-centric innovation and productivity enhancement. This will include utilising flexible, open-source architecture and effectively managing the seamless integration of AI to achieve measurable outcomes.
“Strong public-private collaboration within the digital ecosystem will be crucial for this transition, ushering in a new era of technological advancement, positioning AI as a true enabler of sustainable growth and a competitive advantage,” he said in closing.
Catch the full discussions in Top In Tech Ep41: IBM’S CXO Dialogue | Future Forward: AI & Tech Trends to Watch in 2025 – HERE
