Malaysia tiada rancangan jelas manfaat ekonomi AI, kata Shahril

Former Umno spokesperson Shahril Hamdan has said Malaysia lacks a clear strategy to fully utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to transform its economy and improve government service delivery. During a recent broadcast, Shahril highlighted that the 2027 budget earmarked for AI use lacked specifics on how the funding would translate into meaningful results for businesses and the economy overall.

The budget includes 100,000 free AI subscriptions for young people next year and RM30 million from the Digital Economy Corporation Malaysia (MDEC) to help 4,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (PMKS) utilize AI. However, Shahril questioned whether the funding would be sufficient to drive significant change, pointing out that RM7,500 allocated per company may not be enough, as he was unsure about the specific details of how the MDEC would spend it.

Shahril also expressed concern that the AI initiative might follow a previous approach aimed at helping businesses digitize their operations, where the impact of the funding is not clearly reported. Comparing Malaysia's approach to Singapore's, Shahril cited companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and ElevenLabs as examples of AI firms thriving in Singapore.

He noted that while they have made packaging and testing advancements in Pulau Pinang and Kulim, Kedah, Malaysia has yet to develop a workforce capable of driving various AI applications and the intelligence hosted within the country.

However, Shahril added that these activities have not yet generated the momentum needed to develop AI applications and capabilities at the local level. He emphasized that AI requires a company, a government, and a ministry truly understanding what they want from AI for Malaysia. Shahril questioned whether Malaysia's leaders have such clarity on what they aim to achieve from AI in the country. He doubted that even a government minister or the Prime Minister would know their own AI aspirations for Malaysia.