- Huawei Cloud AI Ecosystem Summit APAC 2025: Huawei and Malaysian gov call for local AI talent, secure data, and real use.
- Malaysia pushes AI into daily life, but leaders say should be built on strong rules, trust, with skilled people.
The Huawei Cloud AI Ecosystem Summit APAC 2025 brought together government leaders, industry experts, and technology partners to discuss how artificial intelligence is already changing the way people work, learn, and live in Malaysia and ASEAN. The gathering highlighted not only new technologies but also the partnerships and governance needed to make AI effective and trustworthy.
The summit is part of the Huawei Cloud APAC AI Ecosystem Initiative, a programme aimed at building an inclusive AI community by developing local skills, encouraging cooperation between sectors, and ensuring AI benefits are shared widely.
Government support for AI development
At the ASEAN AI Summit’s opening day, Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) CEO Simon Sun announced new AI initiatives. Malaysia’s Prime Minister, YAB Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was present to witness the launch, underscoring the government’s view that AI is central to the country’s economic growth. The commitment is reflected in strategies that link public and private sectors and aim to prepare the country for a future where AI shapes every major industry.
Huawei Cloud’s three core capabilities
Huawei Cloud has built its AI approach around three capabilities. First, a global network of 34 regions and 101 availability zones (AZs) – including five regions and 17 AZs in ASEAN – provides the infrastructure for low-latency access. Second, an AI cloud service that supports more than 160 open-source models, allowing flexibility for development in different industries. Third, the Pangu multimodal models form the backbone of the company’s “AI for Industries” strategy; tailored solutions for manufacturing, healthcare, transport, among others.
On day two, the AI Ecosystem Summit drew about 300 delegates from the region. Li Yin, CTO of Huawei Cloud Enterprise Intelligence, led a session titled Leap to Cloud, Heading to AI, in which she shared examples of how Huawei Cloud has worked with customers in more than 30 industries and applied AI to over 500 scenarios worldwide.
See also: Huawei to unveil tech to cut China’s reliance on foreign AI memory chips
Li explained that with the Pangu foundational large model, ModelArts AI toolchain, and proven engineering methods, organisations can use own data to develop and refine models quickly. She pointed to three areas where Huawei Cloud will continue to invest: strengthening secure AI computing infrastructure, building industry-focused solutions like enterprise AI assistants and AI video applications, and expanding the partner ecosystem to speed adoption.
Malaysia’s focus on ethical and sustainable AI
Minister of Digital, YB Gobind Singh Deo, used his keynote to make clear that Malaysia’s AI journey is about more than just technology. Ethical use, sustainability, and shared benefit are all priorities.
“Our National AI Office (NAIO) has been speeding up the completion of the AI Technology Action Plan 2026 – 2030 and relevant regulatory frameworks to ensure the adoption of AI technology in key sectors in the country are ethical, sustainable and of high value,” he said.
He linked the goals to the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint and the Malaysia Digital (MD) initiative, saying both are strengthened through close cooperation with technology partners. Every step we take is action-driven, grounded in strong public-private collaborations, to shape Malaysia’s digital economy,” he said.
Building Malaysia’s AI talent pipeline
Simon Sun highlighted Huawei’s investment in local expertise through the Huawei Malaysia AI Talent Programme.
“We have set the goal of nurturing 30,000 Malaysian AI talents, comprising students, government officials, industry leaders, think tanks, associations, and others under this initiative in the coming three years,” he said.
He said AI is already making an impact in areas like fraud detection in banking, predictive maintenance in factories, supply chain management, and personalised learning in schools. Huawei’s localised partnerships, he said, ensure global expertise is applied in ways that suit ASEAN’s needs.
Real-world applications from Huawei partners
The summit also gave the stage to Huawei customers, who shared how they use AI in their own sectors.
William Zhou, Vice President of IFLYTEK Open Platform, said that while computing power and platforms form the base of AI systems, the real value comes from the application layer – where solutions are integrated into daily work. He said that Knowledge Q&A systems are among the most requested features from customers in government, telecom, and finance, but said successful deployment depends on close collaboration.
“The key is not the technology alone, but working closely with the customer to fine-tune the model and increase efficiency,” Zhou said, pointing to a Middle Eastern project that improved performance significantly in just two months.
He also described how subtitling and translation tools are vital in multilingual regions, with IFLYTEK solutions optimised for English, Malay, and Cantonese, which enable fast turnaround for media companies in Southeast Asia. In sectors where data must stay on-site, he said the ‘Spark’ all-in-one on-premise AI solution allows organisations to train and run models securely.
Dato Fadzli Shah, Co-Founder of Zetrix, discussed the link between AI, blockchain, and self-sovereign identity. He said these technologies could allow data from separate systems to be referenced securely without forcing organisations to adopt a single standard. Blockchain-backed digital identities, he added, could be used in education, finance, and trade to help ensure credentials remain verifiable.
He said Malaysia should develop specialist AI models trained on local data to ensure accurate interpretation of laws, policies, and cultural contexts. “We believe no single AI will dominate globally; instead, there will be natural product-market fit for specific stacks serving specific solutions.”
Henry Li Nan, Managing Director of TrustDecision Malaysia, shared how AI-powered decision intelligence is helping the finance industry tackle fraud. His company processes more than 130 million interception events a year, protects over seven billion devices, and prevents an estimated USD$10 billion in potential losses annually.
Working with Huawei, TrustDecision uses cloud-native infrastructure to deliver real-time detection, compliance, and risk management services.
“The result is faster detection, smarter prevention, and greater confidence for financial institutions to stay ahead of threats,” Li said.
National AI Office: Matching the speed of change
Shamsul Izhan Abdul Majid, Head of the NAIO, warned that the speed of AI development is unlike anything seen before, with new versions emerging every few weeks. This, he said, means that plans and standards must be developed quickly and in cooperation with industry.
He called data “the most important asset” and said that in sensitive fields like healthcare or defence, Malaysia’s approach is to bring AI to the data rather than move the data to the AI.
See also: Huawei tries to push AI chips abroad as US pressure grows
Since its formation in December last year, the NAIO has worked with six sectors and identified 55 AI potential use cases, with more expected as engagement expands to state and local levels. The office is also promoting the creation of locally-trained models with strong cybersecurity safeguards and a focus on making AI understandable for everyone, not just technical experts.
“Doing AI for everyone requires collaboration,” he said. “The AI Office brings together experts and companies to plan Malaysia’s AI journey for the next five years… We must stay ready, responsible, and innovative.”
Closing call to action
In closing, Simon Sun encouraged all participants to take the ideas shared at the summit and turn them into practical projects. He described the event as “the starting point for more actions and ideas to shape a smarter and stronger ASEAN, powered by AI and driving digital economies.”
The summit’s discussions made one thing clear: AI’s future in Malaysia and ASEAN will depend not only on powerful technology, but on how well it is adapted to real-world needs, governed responsibly, and supported by a skilled and informed community.
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Source: https://techwireasia.com/
