This page preserves a reference summary of Strategy 4: Fostering AI Talents from the National AI Roadmap 2021–2025, published by MOSTI (ISBN 978-967-19025-5-4) and reproduced for research and citation with attribution. The full text is in the Playbook PDF; the official copy is at mastic.mosti.gov.my. Independent four-year analysis of how this strategy fared is in Roadmap vs Reality.
Every AI strategy eventually runs into the same wall: people. The roadmap was candid that Malaysia faced an AI talent shortage at every level — from school pupils who would never encounter AI in the classroom, to a workforce whose roles were being reshaped, to a brain-drain of advanced talent abroad. Strategy 4 was the most human of the six, and arguably the most ambitious.
Its logic was a pipeline: cultivate interest early, train graduates and professionals, reskill the existing workforce so no one is left behind, and attract or repatriate scarce advanced talent. The survey had projected steep demand growth across specialist roles — from data analysts to AI architects — and Strategy 4 set numbers against each stage.
What Strategy 4 set out to do
- Build the AI talent pipeline — from school programmes through graduates, postgraduates, certified professionals and AI-competent educators.
- Reskill & upskill the workforce through an AI Reskilling & Upskilling System (AI-RUS), with HRDF-subsidised programmes across roles and seniority.
- Attract & retain talent — bring latent and overseas talent back to work, widen participation, and create a fast lane for AI experts.
Targets at a glance
| Target | Horizon |
|---|---|
| 200,000 “future AI talents” via AI for Kids & Teens | H1–H3 |
| 1,000 AI graduates with industry exposure (2,000 in pipeline) | H2–H3 |
| 20 AI professionals with doctorates; 100 with master’s | H2–H3 |
| 87,500 educators with AI competency (AI-EE) | H2–H3 |
| 2,000 AI professional trainers certified | H2–H3 |
| AI-RUS platform — 500,000 registered employees | H1–H3 |
| 133,000 technicians & skilled workers reskilled | H2–H3 |
| 10,000 latent AI talents returned to work | H1–H3 |
| 1,000 participants in Women-in-AI; 100 “AI Champions” (AI-ChEmp) | H1–H3 |
The demand the numbers were chasing
The 2021 survey projected dramatic growth in specialist AI roles to 2025 — on the order of +328% for AI architects, +193% for product engineers, +180% for data engineers, and roughly +115% to +128% for data scientists, data analysts and software engineers. Strategy 4’s headline figures were sized to begin closing gaps of that scale.
Large-scale AI skilling did materialise in Malaysia — but chiefly through later government-industry programmes such as AIForMYFuture, which reported skilling 400,000+ Malaysians by mid-2025, rather than the roadmap’s named AI-RUS platform. Progress against the specific pipeline KPIs above was not publicly reported. See how Strategy 4’s targets were tracked →