Govt ramps up AI readiness: what HR leaders in Malaysia should do next
Malaysia is scaling AI upskilling nationwide through "Jelajah AI MyMahir," led by Talent Corporation Malaysia (TalentCorp) under the Human Resources Ministry (MOHR). The message is clear: AI needs to be people-centered and tied to real work. As the minister put it, the goal is to ensure Malaysians stay productive, employable, and competitive as work changes.
The rollout covers 60 constituencies with hands-on learning for students, workers, women, entrepreneurs, and small business owners. The emphasis is on practical use cases that lift productivity, employability, and income-exactly where HR can have the most impact.
To strengthen public-private collaboration, TalentCorp signed an MoU with Ernst & Young Consulting under the EY Ripples programme. The collaboration, valued at RM110 million, targets around 22,000 Malaysians-12,000 through Jelajah AI MyMahir and 10,000 via other TalentCorp programmes focused on students, women, and veterans.
The urgency is real. TalentCorp's Impact Study on AI, Digital, and the Green Economy estimates that 685,000 workers could be significantly affected in the next three to five years if reskilling doesn't pick up. HR teams will be the difference between disruption and progress.
What this means for HR
- Run a role-skill exposure audit. Identify roles with repetitive knowledge work, data-heavy tasks, and customer interaction-these will feel AI first.
- Prioritize training cohorts: supervisors, frontline ops, shared services, HR, finance, sales support, and SME owners within your supply chain.
- Blend learning with delivery. Pair short workshops with on-the-job AI projects, team challenges, and manager coaching. Certs are helpful; application is what sticks.
- Set clear guardrails. Approve tools, define acceptable use, protect data, and train for bias, safety, and confidentiality from day one.
- Redesign jobs and workflows. Update JDs, SOPs, and KPIs to include AI-assisted tasks, review cycles, and quality checks.
- Track ROI with a simple scorecard: hours saved per employee per month, cycle-time reduction, error rates, adoption rates, redeployment into higher-value work, and wage uplift after upskilling.
- Engage unions and line managers early. Align incentives so teams see AI as assistive, not a threat.
- Use available funding and partnerships. Coordinate with TalentCorp and industry partners to co-fund and scale delivery.
- Make access equitable. Plan schedules so women, return-to-work talent, and veterans can join sessions. Offer flexible timing and near-site learning.
How to plug into Jelajah AI MyMahir
- Nominate an HR focal point to liaise with programme leads and coordinate your internal cohorts.
- Select priority sites in or near the 60 constituencies and schedule cohorts by function.
- Prepare safe, de-identified datasets and real tasks for hands-on practice (documents, spreadsheets, emails, FAQs, standard reports).
- Appoint AI champions inside each department to support adoption after the training.
Practical curriculum ideas HR can deploy fast
- Office productivity: drafting, summarising, meeting notes, spreadsheet formulas, basic analysis, and slide generation.
- HR workflows: job descriptions, interview guides, shortlisting assistance, policy drafts, learning content outlines, and engagement surveys.
- SME use cases: marketing copy, inventory checks, simple forecasting, and customer replies with human review.
- Compliance and ethics: data handling, approvals, audit trails, and AI-use declarations.
"Jelajah AI MyMahir turns national talent priorities into practical AI learning that reaches Malaysians where they live and work." For HR leaders, this is the cue to align workforce planning, skills, and policy with how work is actually getting done.
Resources
- TalentCorp - national programmes, partnerships, and workforce initiatives.
- EY Ripples - corporate responsibility platform supporting skilling initiatives.
- Complete AI Training: Courses by Job - curated AI courses mapped to roles for faster team upskilling.
Bottom line for HR: set the standards, pick the use cases, measure outcomes, and help your people learn by doing. The policy is in motion-now turn it into capability on the ground.
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