Sim said HRD Corp uses AI as a key component of its approval processes, from scanning, reading, and analysing documents to ensure compliance, to generating output that aids in faster decision-making.
“Using AI, HRD Corp has managed to reduce the grant approval process from one week to less than one day,” he said when opening the 2024 National Human Capital Conference and Exhibition at Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre here today.
He also said the Social Security Organisation (Socso) is using AI in a pilot project to reduce the time taken to issue guarantee letters to contributors who need hospitalisation so that they can receive free medical treatment.
He said it usually takes three days for Socso to issue such guarantee letters, but with AI, this process could be reduced to an hour.
Sim said that when it comes to making decisions on how AI will affect the economy and job market, it is important to have a map of the future and that “we cannot depend on mere guesses and luck”.
He said that in March, the ministry commissioned its newly mandated think tank Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd to produce an impact report on the effects of AI, digitalisation and the green economy on the Malaysian job market.
“Today, six months later, we have completed the report for 10 strategic economic sectors,” he said, adding that these sectors will cover about 4.5 million jobs constituting about 80% of the country’s gross domestic product.
The sectors are ICT, food manufacturing and services, pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace, electrical and electronics, wholesale trade and retail, chemicals, medical devices, energy and power, as well as global business services.
“The report will not only help the players in these sectors to plan ahead, it also allows workers currently in roles which will be impacted within the next few years to be alerted and, therefore, take action today to pivot to different roles.
“Students today can also anticipate what the job market is like tomorrow and prepare themselves accordingly.
“And equally, if not more important, a mapping of the future of jobs like this will give government and policy makers the visibility of things to come so that we can craft better strategies to deal with the future,” he said.
He said the report will be released in October.