Malaysia wants to be an AI Nation. What’s next to go from vision to impact?

Malaysia is ambitiously working to become an artificial intelligence (AI) nation by 2030.

The goal, according to Malaysia’s Ministry of Digital, Secretary General, Fabian Bigar, is to create a technologically empowered society where human values guide the use of AI to make the country a better place to live, work, and play. 

He was speaking at a fireside chat with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)’s CEO, Anuar Fariz Fadzil, at the Smart City Expo Kuala Lumpur (SCEKL) 2025.  

Most Malaysians already benefit from the technology in their daily routines, such as using AI-powered navigation tools, but they often take it for granted as “technology is everywhere”, said Bigar. 

Scaling the benefits of AI in the public sector requires overcoming the challenge of internal silos and align all collaborative initiatives around one shared objective. 

“When it comes to technology, different government departments focus on different things and priorities. How do we unite all these efforts and come up with a true north?” Bigar said, highlighting AI Nation as the north star. 

Fadzil added that achieving the AI Nation vision requires establishing several “foundational needs”, including infrastructure, talent and trust. 

At the SCEKL, public sector officers shared about efforts, challenges and opportunities of using technology to benefit society, moving toward smarter and future-resilient AI cities in Malaysia and beyond. 

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin, click here. 

The challenges to overcome  

Speakers in another panel discussion shared tangible examples of AI deployment in public sector, highlighting the successes and challenges as regional governments tap on AI to improve citizens’ lives.  

According to MyDIGITAL’s CEO, Adrian Marcellus, the two challenges faced by governments in implementing AI were different expectations and siloed data.  

“I think every one of us here in this room has an expectation of what government should provide for them. But I don’t think any two people in this room have the same expectation of what government should provide for them,” he explained. 

He shared an anecdote where the most positive or widely adopted features of a new digital service were often the ones his team least expected to be popular. 

“That makes it quite challenging for government to actually provide consistent services to everyone,” noted Marcellus. 

On the siloed data challenge, Marcellus said that the government’s traditional structure, which was set up to address specific problems in isolation, made it difficult to obtain comprehensive data sets across different agencies. 

“You need to work across ministries, across federal, state and local councils to get high quality data sets that all of us need to make AI work,” he said. 

This was why Malaysia set up the Data Sharing Act to enable federal agencies to enable this data sharing. 

Marcellus noted that the next step would be to enable this data sharing across all levels of government, as well as with the industry. 

Digital Nasional Berhad’s CEO, Datuk Azman Ismail, noted that another challenge was that the AI talent pool in Malaysia’s major cities was still “largely dependent on vendors”. 

“The problem is that if the vendors are not helping them to create solutions, they’re not able to deliver [on their own]. So, there’s a gap in AI skillsets where we’re not yet in a stage where we can depend on our own,” he said. 

The challenges on the other side  

What were the challenges that different stakeholders faced when working with public sector agencies? 

According to Shanghai’s Smart City Development Institute’s Shen Xuefeng, a key challenge for governments is being able to successfully deploy solutions without first clearly identifying the scenarios for innovation. 

He shared the example of Shanghai City’s attempt to improve garbage classification using an AI detector in cameras to monitor citizen compliance, noting the intervention had minimal effect. 

“Many times like these, it sounds like a very good scenario, but actually it’s not very useful,” he noted. 

Similarly, UnBound Malaysia’s Head of Technology, Natalie Loi, shared that localised and contextual solutions are important to drive real impact.  

Loi stressed that understanding the target users is the most important aspect of building these systems. 

“We need to understand that we are not building systems to create a smart city. We're creating smart city systems for the people.  

“We need to understand that there are existing structures and systems that are in place. That's why I believe in the concept of localisation,” she said. 

For instance, a solution for traffic congestion that works well in a Malaysian city might not fit the traffic patterns found in Indonesia, she added. 

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin, click here. 

The successes of AI in public sector 

Ismail pointed to the Penang City Council's success of using technology to mitigate a public safety and traffic issue: fallen trees. 

He explained that the council implemented the Penang Tree Inventory System, an online system to monitor tree conditions and facilitate proactive intervention before heavy storms, thus minimising dangerous incidents. 

Marcellus added that for technology to make an impact on people, the solutions need not be “flashy” or overly complicated.  

He shared about the work of Malaysia’s Cancer Research Centre, which developed a simple yet effective solution to improve the accessibility and early detection of oral cancer. 

The solution allows people to take a picture of their gums and send it to their doctor, and the medical team uses AI to analyse the images for symptoms of oral cancer.  

“I think healthcare is one of the main areas in which we will be able to solve things that we never could before, and we can do so at a more affordable rate.  

“The very fact that we can actually roll out early cancer detection for people in rural areas through very simple methods like these, to me, proves that technology can create equity for people and bring benefits to society,” said Marcellus. 

Also read: 

•  People-centredness an imperative for smarter cities, Sept 25, 2025  

• Ensuring inclusion, equity, and resilience in the era of AI Cities, Sept 30, 2025