The Digital Ministry will focus on increasing the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) under Budget 2027, including exploring incentives to encourage wider use of AI equipment.
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said the ministry would also examine funding support for AI Malaysia Bhd to help bring together expertise and develop AI infrastructure that can support the technology across various sectors.
He said strengthening the country’s AI capabilities was important to ensure its benefits could be more widely accessed, particularly as high costs remained a potential barrier to adoption.
“Overall, we also need to look at how new technologies can help small businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs),” he told reporters after delivering a speech at the PJ Startup Festival 2026 here today.
Gobind said many businesses and members of the public were already aware of AI’s potential, but the high cost of adopting the technology could prevent them from fully realising its benefits.
Against this backdrop, he said the ministry would focus on measures to make AI more accessible to smaller businesses. However, he stressed that the details were still being discussed and could not yet be disclosed.
The ministry’s focus will also include strengthening AI Malaysia’s capacity to pool expertise and develop infrastructure to support AI adoption across sectors, with the proposed measures to be considered ahead of the Budget 2027 presentation in October.
