AWS to empower half a million Malaysian government officers with agentic AI capabilities

AWS has launched Semarak AI, a flagship national program that equips the country’s government officers, students, software companies, and communities with the AI tools and skills to build their own solutions.

As AI adoption continues to see traction in Malaysia, AWS has launched Semarak AI Malaysia, a flagship national program that equips the country’s government officers, students, software companies, and communities with the AI tools and skills to build their own solutions.

Unveiled at the AWS Cloud and AI Day Kuala Lumpur, Semarak AI Malaysia is organized around three pillars. The first pillar is AI Negara for the public sector, the second pillar being AI Ekonomi for businesses, and the third pillar is AI Rakyat for communities.

In his keynote address, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, Minister of Investment said that AWS’s contribution to Malaysian digital ecosystem, access to advanced cloud and AI technologies enables Malaysian businesses to improve productivity, reduce costs and develop new products and services without substantial upfront investment in infrastructure.

“AWS's efforts in talent and supplier development are also helping local companies strengthen their capabilities and compete in regional and global markets. These are the tangible outcomes that Malaysia seeks from quality investment, stronger local businesses, a skilled workforce and greater value creation within the domestic economy,” the minister said.

The minister also shared that the Semarak AI Malaysia initiative by AWS is a holistic approach in helping all Malaysian gain the skill and the tool to turn investment in cloud and AI infrastructure into practical benefit.

“AWS will also provide offices across 27 federal ministries with six months of complimentary access to Amazon Quick, its agentic AI agent. These tools can reduce repetitive administrative work, support better analysis, and enable faster, more responsive end services of all industries. The AI proposition for business must be practical and economical. AI should help small businesses gain value instead of losing. The use of AI must translate into a lower cost, greater productivity and stronger competitiveness,” he added.

The minister also stated that while the government and technology investors such as AWS play an important role in providing the necessary infrastructure and enabling environment, Malaysian businesses must be prepared to embrace new technology, invest in talent, and capitalize on the opportunities available that is provided in the country.

“Ultimately, the ambition is to build more competitive Malaysian government, a highly skilled workforce, and more efficient public services, ensuring that digital investment translates into a meaningful and lasting economy,” he said.

Empowering the public sector

According to Hussein Mohd Ali, Country Manager, Malaysia, AWS, AI Negara will be on enhancing AI usage in the public sector with AWS making Amazon Quick available to 445,000 government officers. He added that AWS is providing AWS Kiro for government developers to bring engineering rigor to agentic development, starting with a 500-developer pilot in 2026, with a goal to reach 4,000 by 2028.

For AI Ekonomi, he said that AWS will be equipping Malaysian software companies and SMEs with tools such as Amazon Quick and Kiro to help them compete, grow and go regional. And for AI Rakyat, the aim is to bring AI skills to polytechnic students, community centers and schools across the country.

In his speech, Hussein shared that over a million businesses have adopted AI in Malaysia in the past year. However, while 19% of these businesses have a roadmap to scale, 67% are still stuck at the basic level.

At the same time, Hussein also pointed out that more than half of Malaysian businesses build AI with a partner and 69% say local providers matter.

“And that is why our partner network matters. They are how we reach out to more customers and help them to move faster. So to every partner in this room here today, thank you. Thank you for investing in your people and for building alongside us with our customers. A secure foundation, the right partners, put these two together and businesses stop experimenting and start scaling,” he said.

One successful use case is with GD XCHANGE, the solutions arm of last-mile logistics provider GDEX. GD EXCHANED worked with AWS and local partner VSTECS to put AI tools directly into the hands of the thousands of SMEs GDEX already serves across e-commerce, retail, and manufacturing.