Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) is calling on local businesses to move past innovation planning and focus on execution, warning that artificial intelligence (AI) is sharply compressing the time between ideas and real-world deployment.
Speaking at the Digital Economy Innovation Forum, MDEC chief executive officer Anuar Fariz Fadzil said many organisations already consider themselves innovation-ready but struggle to translate that readiness into scalable and commercial outcomes. He said the real challenge now lies in execution speed and capability rather than idea generation.
He noted that AI is accelerating industry cycles, shrinking what once took years into processes that can now take weeks, forcing businesses to adapt more quickly or risk falling behind.
Citing a Securities Commission Malaysia study, Anuar highlighted that 70% of corporates describe themselves as innovation-ready while 44% already have structured innovation processes. However, 65% still face constraints in talent, capability or capital, with only 0.85% of revenue on average allocated to innovation efforts.
He said this reflects a persistent execution gap where ambition is not matched by delivery.
MDEC is working to address this through programmes that connect policy, industry, capital and talent to move ideas from concept to deployment. These include identifying challenge statements, sourcing solutions, validating technologies and supporting commercial rollouts across sectors such as financial services, healthcare, logistics and infrastructure.
Several initiatives have already shown measurable outcomes. These include an AI-enabled suicide attempt alert system with an 86% early intervention success rate and 74% prevention outcome, an aquaculture monitoring system deployed across more than 50 sites delivering 20% productivity gains and 30% cost savings, and a drone technology project in Brazil that generated RM15 million in export sales.
Other deployments include AI-driven port optimisation in Penang, cyber threat intelligence systems for Bank Negara Malaysia and smart city management tools for Perbadanan Putrajaya.
Anuar said MDEC will continue expanding its AI and 5G-driven ecosystem approach, focusing on manufacturing, logistics, agriculture and smart city applications while also extending innovation frameworks into the public sector to improve services such as healthcare records and traffic management.
