SHAH ALAM, Sept 10 – The use of artificial intelligence (AI) among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should focus on improving productivity and business outcomes rather than replacing human workers.
AI Singapore Innovation Director Lawrence Liew said the technology was better suited to automating time-consuming tasks and processes, allowing workers to focus on work that requires human judgement and expertise.
“When SMEs bring in AI, we need to encourage them to think about how the technology can automate tasks and processes to improve outcomes and grow their businesses, rather than using it to reduce their workforce,” he told Media Selangor when met at the Selangor AI Forum at the Selangor Human Resource Development Centre (SHRDC) here, yesterday.
Liew said AI was not about reducing staff or costs, but about using technology to help companies improve productivity, grow their businesses and increase revenue.
He said although AI could complete certain tasks in seconds or minutes compared with hours of manual work, the technology was still unable to take over the full range of human functions in most jobs.
Liew also added that human roles remained important, particularly for tasks requiring judgement and ‘human touch’, while certain tasks that AI could perform more quickly could be automated.
He said the true value of the technology also lay in its ability to transform an organisation’s overall workflow, rather than simply improving individual productivity.
"For example, if a process that previously took 100 hours can be reduced to 20 hours with AI, that gives you a huge amount of time savings.
"This is no longer about one individual, but about how the entire workflow of a team can be transformed," he said.
Meanwhile, Dell Technologies Malaysia Managing Director TS Koay said AI should be viewed as a technology that complements human capabilities and helps people work more efficiently, while also creating more job opportunities and generating income.
He said the focus should not be solely on concerns about AI’s impact on the workforce, but also on how the technology could be harnessed to create new opportunities for people and businesses.
"AI is about complementing people and making them more efficient in their daily affairs, as well as creating more job opportunities and income for businesses and people.
"We need to look at AI from a positive perspective, in terms of how the technology helps people create more opportunities, make life easier and improve business outcomes," he said.
Koay also said Selangor had good digital infrastructure and various smart city initiatives, but the next step was to ensure that the benefits of technology, including AI, could be extended to the people and communities.
He said smart city development should not focus solely on providing digital infrastructure, but should also move towards building a society that could make use of technology in everyday life and economic activities.
The inaugural Selangor AI Forum at the state level served as a platform for the private sector, academics and state government subsidiaries to share the latest developments in AI technology in Malaysia and globally.
