By Stanley Widianto
JAKARTA, July 22 (Reuters)
Indonesia is following in the footsteps of nations that are running with Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, this is not only about keeping up with the technological and innovative trends, but it is also another strategic way of luring foreign investors. It has seen how its neighbouring country, Malaysia, is benefiting from adopting AI and has decided to tap into the benefits as well. This is a good and important move, as the nation will get to stretch itself beyond the usual and understand where the world is going and keep up with the rapid changes too.
August is the AI month for Indonesia
Indonesia will finish work next month on its first national strategy on artificial intelligence in a bid to attract foreign investment, an official said, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy looks to join the global AI and chip-making race. The move follows neighbouring Malaysia’s push to establish itself as a regional hub for AI development.
Malaysia is securing billions of dollars from global tech firms seeking to build critical infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cloud and AI services. Indonesia’s AI roadmap will be the first comprehensive AI document in the country, the fourth largest in the world by population, since a smaller ethics guideline in 2023, Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Nezar Patria told Reuters in an interview at his office on Monday.
If Indonesia adopts this new AI strategy, this is what will happen in the industry
This will be a roadmap to success and help with cultivating:
- AI developers in general.
- The nation on how to navigate within the AI market.
- Infrastructure, and
- AI applications in other sectors, such as health and agriculture, to name a few.
Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Nezar Patria said in an interview,
“The roadmap will help AI developers navigate (Indonesia’s market), including on infrastructure and also on computational clusters. This will give an idea to investors about the potential of AI use in Indonesia. We’re hoping they are interested in investing their capital in Indonesia.”
Artificial Intelligence growth has been slow, but that is not a cue to stop development
An April report by Boston Consulting Group said ASEAN nations were positioned for substantial AI-driven gains, with GDP contributions ranging from 2.3% to 3.1% by 2027, and Indonesia projected to see the highest impact in terms of absolute gross domestic output growth. But despite some investments, development has been slow in Indonesia compared to other parts of the region.
Nvidia (NVDA. O) was involved with Indonesia’s biggest tech company, GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GOTO. JK), for a large language model service last year, and supplied its chips to the telecommunications company Indosat ISAT.JK. Microsoft (MSFT.O) also said last year it would invest $1.7 billion over the next few years into expanding cloud services and AI in Indonesia. Nezar said:
“We’re opening up to all global tech companies to get into the industry of AI development in Indonesia.”
It is a process for countries and their local companies to get to a peak point in whatever they plan on doing, particularly in AI. This is because the whole AI concept is not an easy one and requires time, engineering, research, and understanding. Furthermore, AI is moving so fast that keeping up has been an issue for many countries. This is different from well-developed nations like the United States, which have mastered the AI game and are able to navigate the speed, developments, and whatever else is needed related to AI. Right now, the goal is to win investments and for Indonesia to grow as a profitable and professional nation.
GCN.com/Reuters.