It is like building a world-class kitchen but being short of chefs,” he said. “A strong ecosystem also depends on closer collaboration between universities, industries, investors and public agencies so that research can move more quickly into real-world deployment,” Chuah said. “The National AI Governance and Ethics Guidelines are a solid start, but guidelines are not as strong as legislation. Universiti Putra Malaysia AI specialist Dr Azree Nazri agreed that Malaysia is on a promising trajectory but cautioned that structural gaps remain. “But without strengthening talent pipelines, sovereign AI computing capabilities and data governance frameworks, we risk lagging behind regional leaders despite strong infrastructure growth,” he said.

Source: The Star April 11, 2026 09:41 UTC