MALAYSIA which is advancing rapidly in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is well-placed to spearhead regional collaboration across ASEAN.
Speaking at the recent IBM Think 2025 event in Singapore, IBM Malaysia country general manager and technology leader Dickson Woo said Malaysia’s role as the ASEAN 2025 chairman and host of the 47th ASEAN Summit this year provides a timely platform to drive cooperation on AI and digital transformation.
In fact, a regional framework covering skills development and cross-border collaboration would help ASEAN nations learn from each other and accelerate AI adoption broadly.
Woo highlighted finance, telecommunications, healthcare and manufacturing as sectors where AI could deliver major gains in productivity, efficiency and cost savings.
On the domestic front, Woo welcomed the National Cloud Computing Policy (NCCP) which was recently unveiled by Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, describing it as a strategic move that will speed up AI and cloud adoption.
Gobind has set out a broader vision for Malaysia to become an “AI Nation” by 2030, supported by the National AI Roadmap and the forthcoming AI Technology Action Plan.
“For Malaysia, the convergence of supportive policies, private-sector readiness and a growing pool of digital talent provides an opportunity to help shape the region’s AI future,” envisages Woo.
On this note, IBM Malaysia will continue working with government and private-sector partners to implement national policies effectively given that strong governance and data sovereignty are vital to building trust.
Kudos to Malaysia’s AI Roadmap
At a separate session during the IBM Think event, IBM ASEAN general manager Catherine Lian (left in pic below) acknowledged that AI adoption is accelerating across the region, thus paving the way for ASEAN to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.
She further contended that Malaysia’s AI Roadmap provides a strong foundation for deploying and scaling AI to strengthen national competitiveness.
In Malaysia, Comm-iT Group is working with Hibiscus Petroleum Bhd to deploy the IBM Maximo Application Suite, an AI-driven enterprise asset management platform.
The solution combines predictive maintenance with accurate forecasting to optimise supply chains, minimise downtime and improve resource planning.
In this regard, COMM-iT CEO Selvaraja Vallyan (right in above pic) shared that the true cost for businesses lies not in investing in AI but in the missed opportunities of not adopting it.
Elsewhere, PSA Singapore, one of the world’s largest port operators, is also applying AI to streamline global trade. Towards this end, it is relying on the IBM ILOG CPLEX Optimisation Studio to improve cargo flow across physical, financial and regulatory processes.
The port operator’s assistant vice president (operations research & algorithms) Peng Jun Fen said the project enhances efficiency, creates greater value for shippers and supports its ambition of becoming the world’s largest fully automated port.
Also present at the IBM Think 2025 event was IBM senior vice president (software) and chief commercial officer Rob Thomas who delivered a compelling presentation on unlocking the full value of enterprise AI in a hybrid world. – Sept 11, 2025
