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In the history of technology, certain inventions stand out due to the magnitude of their effects across economies and societies. Take the printing press for example, a general-purpose technology that led to the creation of a whole new economy – with new sectors, businesses, industries, and jobs. Today, we see Generative AI potentially unlocking the same opportunities. 

The unprecedented rate of AI diffusion we’re seeing around the world is paving the way for creating the most inclusive benefits – boosting productivity, creativity, and efficiency for every person, every organization, and every industry. For the public sector in particular, successful AI implementation within citizen services can have truly transformative impact for the entire population and total economy. 

Empowering the public sector to achieve more

Recent years have seen the government doubling down on Malaysia’s digital transformation, with a focus on ensuring the country’s competitiveness in the global technology landscape. “If this is not embraced and accepted now, we will be left behind if we are too late,” emphasized Prime Minister YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, acknowledging the need to stay ahead of the AI innovation curve.  

Over and above the initiatives undertaken to enhance both AI infrastructure and AI literacy, the government is also taking a ‘lead by example’ approach to innovating with AI. Already, we are seeing myriad use cases surfacing in Malaysia – with more public institutions integrating AI tools across their operations to augment their efforts at lower cost but with higher impact.  

The Accountant General’s Department of Malaysia achieved an impressive 99% accuracy in automated document processing for a high volume of diverse documents using Azure AI Document Intelligence. This unlocked significant improvements in operational efficiency and reduction in processing errors, enabling a more strategic reallocation of human resources.  

Meanwhile, MYStartup by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MOSTI), powered by Cradle in collaboration with Agmo Studio, is using AI to serve as the ‘Single Window’ to Malaysia’s startup ecosystem. Their intelligent chatbot empowers startups to discover resources, funding, and assistance available to them in ways that simply weren’t possible before.MyStartup aims to serve as the “Single Window” to Malaysia’s startup ecosystem with AI (Image Source: MyStartup) 

In today’s complex environment, the public sector is perpetually coming under pressure to deliver quality citizen services, offering breadth and depth of services, as well as a rapid speed of response to citizens’ needs. By freeing up time spent on repetitive cognitive tasks, AI liberates public officers to channel their energies into higher value-adding activities that require more complex skills.  

The impact is tangible and meaningful. As shown by a study commissioned by Microsoft in collaboration with the Malaysia Centre4IR and Access Partnership estimates that Malaysia could potentially unlock USD113.4 billion of productive capacity with the widespread adoption of generative AI. 

Perumahan Rakyat 1Malaysia (PR1MA), the main housing agency under Malaysia’s Ministry of Housing and Local Government, for example – experienced a 30% reduction in time spent on administrative tasks after rolling out Copilot for Microsoft 365 across its information technology, human resources, finance, and legal departments.   PR1MA experienced a 30% reduction in time spent on admin tasks with Copilot for M365 (Image Source: PR1MA) 

Advancing responsible AI design and deployment 

While AI’s exciting possibilities are a strong impetus for adoption in the public sector, its transformative power must be used responsibly. Governments need to carefully consider potential AI use cases to understand how they can be deployed ethically and responsibly, in ways that are worthy of people’s trust to encourage widespread adoption.  

Microsoft is guided by our comprehensive AI responsibility principles. policies and tools, anchored on a strong governance framework. As we design, build, and release AI products, our Responsible AI Principles that outline 6 values: transparency, accountability, fairness, inclusiveness, reliability and safety, and privacy and security––remain our foundation and guide our work.  Microsoft adopted our ethical principles for AI in 2018, helping us implement best practices for building safe, secure, and transparent AI systems designed to benefit society 

These align with the principles set out in Malaysia’s National AI Roadmap and National Guidelines on AI Governance and Ethics, reflecting the growing international recognition that AI needs to be used responsibly, to maximize benefits while minimizing risks.  

To further advance responsible AI procurement, development, and deployment – collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential to jointly identify gaps and deploy solutions that work for everyone. In this regard, initiatives such as regulatory sandboxes have emerged as a valuable platform for testing AI proofs of concept in the public sector for specific risks before broader deployment. 

Ultimately, the experiences of early AI adopters in both Malaysia’s public sector and globally show that its value is real and achievable. But our imagination should not be limited by early paces in the AI marathon. Public sector leaders must take a long-term approach, carefully embracing AI’s state-of-the-art capabilities to deliver more impact to the millions of citizens they serve every day.