Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming part of how businesses operate, but adopting AI tools is only one part of the equation. The next step is enabling businesses and individuals to build AI solutions that address their own needs. This is the direction behind Semarak AI Malaysia, a national programme launched by Amazon Web Services (AWS) on 4 November 2026 at AWS Cloud and AI Day Kuala Lumpur.
Designed to equip government officers, students, software companies and communities with practical AI capabilities, the programme focuses on moving Malaysians beyond consuming AI technology towards building solutions themselves. Semarak AI Malaysia is organised around three pillars: AI Negara, which focuses on the public sector; AI Ekonomi, which supports businesses; and AI Rakyat, which develops AI capabilities within communities. The initiative builds on AWS’s RM29.2 billion commitment to Malaysia, with an emphasis on strengthening the country’s ability to participate in the regional AI economy.
“For Malaysia to lead in the regional AI economy, we need a workforce and a software industry that can build, not just consume, AI technology,” said YB Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry.
He highlighted that the programme would begin with civil servants and students before extending to software companies, enabling them to develop AI solutions for Malaysian businesses and compete across the region.
AI Ekonomi: Bringing AI Capabilities Closer to Malaysian SMEs
For Malaysian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), one of the programme’s key developments is a collaboration involving AWS, GD XCHANGE, the solutions arm of last-mile logistics provider GDEX, and AWS distributor VSTECS. The collaboration aims to bring AI tools directly to the thousands of SMEs already served by GDEX across e-commerce, retail and manufacturing.
Through the programme, eligible SMEs will receive six months of complimentary access to Amazon Quick and Kiro following an AI readiness assessment. The two tools are intended to help businesses incorporate AI assistants into everyday tasks. The collaboration has set a target of onboarding 10,000 SMEs by 2028.
An early example highlighted by AWS involves a retail SME using Quick and Kiro to automate competitor-price tracking and demand forecasting. With these capabilities, the business can respond to market shifts in hours rather than weeks. This illustrates the practical applications of AI that the programme aims to bring to smaller businesses, particularly in areas where timely information and operational responsiveness are important.
Beyond providing access to AI tools, Semarak AI Malaysia also focuses on strengthening Malaysia’s local software industry. Since the AWS Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur) Region launched in 2024, Malaysian software companies building on AWS have increased their cloud and AI workloads by an average of approximately 30% between 2024 and 2025.
These companies develop industry-specific applications used by banks, retailers, manufacturers, hotels, logistics firms and public agencies. One example is Malaysia-based MOCHI Technologies, which is building on AWS to help more than 1,000 SMEs manage marketing, customer relationships, human resources and operations through a single AI-native platform. Supporting the development of companies such as MOCHI Technologies forms an important part of AWS’s efforts under Semarak AI Malaysia.
Strengthening the Local AI Software Ecosystem
Another initiative under AI Ekonomi is the Sarawak SaaS Accelerator (SaSAR), a collaboration between AWS and the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC). The accelerator is designed to support Malaysian software companies in developing AI products on AWS while connecting them with Sarawak businesses seeking to adopt AI solutions.
Its pilot cohort has graduated more than 20 software companies representing high-growth sectors in Sarawak, including agriculture, automotive and medical industries. Participating companies received AWS cloud credits and technical mentorship, alongside business-building guidance from SDEC. Following the programme, graduates established collaborations with government agencies, energy providers and enterprise partners across Sarawak to encourage adoption of their AI products.
One early proof of concept involves an AI-enabled software testing solution designed to help organisations test and validate applications, including mobile applications, across different industries. The solution is currently undergoing validation with pilot users to refine its capabilities ahead of wider deployment. The accelerator reflects another aspect of Semarak AI Malaysia: supporting local technology companies not only in developing AI products but also in connecting those products with potential users.
AI Negara: Building Capabilities Within the Public Sector
While AI Ekonomi focuses on businesses, AI Negara aims to strengthen the public sector’s ability to develop and use AI solutions. Through GovTech Malaysia under the Ministry of Digital, the government is launching GovHub, powered by Kiro, through Jabatan Digital Negara’s (JDN) AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) platform. The first phase will begin with 500 developers in 2026, with a target of onboarding 4,000 developers by 2028.
Kiro uses specification-driven development, converting developers’ prompts into structured requirements, design and implementation specifications before generating code. This approach provides the AI system with clearer context, helping developers produce solutions that more closely match their intended requirements with fewer attempts.
AWS is also investing to make Amazon Quick available to up to 445,000 government officers, through JDN’s AIaaS platform. The tool is intended to support higher-order tasks, including analysing procurement data, synthesising policy research across agencies and identifying patterns in large datasets. These initiatives aim to provide public-sector teams with hands-on experience in applying agentic AI to everyday work while strengthening their ability to develop services that improve outcomes for citizens.
AI Rakyat: Developing Malaysia’s Next Generation of AI Builders
The third pillar, AI Rakyat, focuses on expanding AI capabilities among students and communities. AWS is strengthening its collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education’s Jabatan Pendidikan Politeknik dan Kolej Komuniti (JPPKK) to develop AI skills among polytechnic and community college students. More than 3,000 students and lecturers from institutions nationwide participated in the POLYCC Agentic AI League 2026, setting a national milestone recognised by the Malaysia Book of Records for the largest participation in an agentic AI competition.
Kiro was selected as the competition’s primary coding tool, allowing students without programming backgrounds to engage with agentic AI concepts using natural language. AWS has also adopted its first Malaysian school under the government’s Sekolah Angkat MADANI programme, Sekolah Kebangsaan Datuk Keramat (1) in Kuala Lumpur.
Under this initiative, AWS will upgrade the school’s digital and STEM facilities, provide teachers with training in coding and robotics, and organise hands-on student activities involving drone technology and digital safety. Together, these initiatives extend the programme’s reach beyond existing technology professionals to students and educators.
Building, Not Just Consuming, AI
Across its three pillars, Semarak AI Malaysia brings together public-sector capability development, business adoption and community education under a common objective: equipping more Malaysians to build with AI. For SMEs, the programme introduces opportunities to access AI tools for everyday business activities, while supporting the development of local software companies that can provide solutions tailored to different industries.
The target of onboarding 10,000 SMEs by 2028, alongside the expansion of AI capabilities among government officers and students, represents the scale of participation AWS is seeking to achieve.
Hussein Mohd Ali, Country Manager, Malaysia, AWS, emphasised the role of the public sector in encouraging broader AI development. “When the public sector leads in building with AI, it becomes the lighthouse for the rest of the country,” he said. “That’s what Semarak AI Malaysia is designed to do; equip civil servants, software companies, and students with the tools to build their own AI solutions. Every ministry, every developer, and every student who builds with AI raises the bar for what’s next.”
Ultimately, Semarak AI Malaysia places the emphasis on a progression from AI adoption to AI development, with government officers, software companies, SMEs and students participating in building Malaysia’s AI capabilities. This version retains the facts, programme targets, examples and attributed statements from the press release, while restructuring the content into a third-person editorial feature with stronger relevance to SMEs. No external information or additional claims have been introduced.
