AWS launches "Semarak AI Malaysia", a national program to bring AI tools to government officers, students, and local software companies

• AWS is investing to put Amazon Quick, the AI built for work, in the hands of up to 445,000 government officers — supporting Malaysia's nation-building agenda by giving public-sector teams practical, hands-on experience applying agentic AI to everyday work
• GovTech Malaysia launches GovHub, powered by Kiro, for developers to bring engineering rigor to agentic development, starting with a 500-developer pilot in 2026, with a goal to reach 4,000 by 2028
• Over 3,000 polytechnic students and lecturers set a national record by building agentic AI solutions in Malaysia's largest AI competition using Kiro, AWS's engineering agent

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today launched "Semarak AI Malaysia" at AWS Cloud and AI Day Kuala Lumpur, a flagship national program that equips Malaysia's government officers, students, software companies, and communities with the AI tools and skills to build their own solutions.

Semarak AI Malaysia is organized around three pillars: AI Negara for the public sector, AI Ekonomi for businesses, and AI Rakyat for communities. Semarak AI Malaysia focuses on the step after initial AI adoption: equipping more Malaysians with the access and skills to build with AI themselves.

"For Malaysia to lead in the regional AI economy, we need a workforce and a software industry that can build, not just consume, AI technology. Through Semarak AI Malaysia, AWS is building on its MYR29.2 billion commitment to Malaysia to turn that ambition into reality. This program starts with our civil servants and students, and extends to our software companies so they can develop AI solutions that serve Malaysian businesses and compete across the region," said YB Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry.

AI Negara: Equipping government officers to build AI services that drive better citizen outcomes
GovTech Malaysia, Ministry of Digital (Kementerian Digital), is launching GovHub, powered by Kiro, through JDN's AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) platform. The phase one pilot starts with 500 developers in 2026, with a goal to onboard 4,000 developers by 2028. Kiro uses spec-driven development to turn developers' prompts into structured specifications for requirements, design, and implementation — giving AI all the context it needs before writing a line of code, so developers build what they want in fewer tries. To complement the tools knowledge workers use to build, AWS is investing to put Amazon Quick, the AI built for work, in the hands of up to 445,000 government officers; also through JDN's AIaaS platform. Officers can use Quick to tackle higher-order tasks such as analyzing procurement data, synthesizing policy research across agencies, and surfacing patterns in large datasets.

AI Ekonomi: Giving Malaysian businesses the AI tools to compete and grow
Since the AWS Asia Pacific (Kuala Lumpur) Region launched in 2024, software companies in Malaysia building on AWS have grown their cloud and AI workloads by an average of approximately 30% between 2024-2025. These companies build the industry-specific applications that banks, retailers, manufacturers, hotels, logistics firms, and public agencies run every day. Malaysia-based software company MOCHI Technologies, for example, is building on AWS to help more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises manage marketing, customer relationships, HR, and operations through a single AI-native platform. Supporting the growth of companies like MOCHI is central to the Semarak AI Malaysia program.

The Sarawak SaaS Accelerator (SaSAR), a collaboration between AWS and the Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC), is designed to grow this pipeline of software companies in Malaysia. The program works with software companies to build AI products on AWS while SDEC matches them with Sarawak businesses looking to adopt AI solutions. The pilot cohort graduated over 20 software companies representing high-growth sectors in the Sarawakian economy spanning agriculture, automotive, and medical. Graduates received AWS cloud credits and technical mentorship from AWS, business-building guidance from SDEC, and have since established collaborations with government agencies, energy providers, and enterprise partners across Sarawak to drive adoption of their AI products. One early proof of concept involves an AI-enabled software testing solution designed to help organizations test and validate applications, including mobile applications, across various industries. The solution is undergoing validation with pilot users to refine its capabilities ahead of wider deployment.

Recognizing that local partners are crucial to deepen AI adoption at scale, AWS is also working with GD XCHANGE, the solutions arm of last-mile logistics provider GDEX, and AWS distributor VSTECS, to put AI tools directly into the hands of the thousands of SMEs GDEX already serves across e-commerce, retail, and manufacturing. Through the program, eligible SMEs receive six months of complimentary access to Quick and Kiro following an AI readiness assessment, equipping them with AI assistants for everyday business tasks. The collaboration aims to onboard 10,000 SMEs by 2028. One retail SME is already using Quick and Kiro to automate competitor-price tracking and demand forecasting, responding to market shifts in hours instead of weeks.

AI Rakyat: Building AI skills in Malaysian communities
AWS is strengthening Malaysia's AI talent pipeline at the polytechnic and community college level, building on a collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE)'s Jabatan Pendidikan Politeknik dan Kolej Komuniti (JPPKK). Over 3,000 students and lecturers from polytechnics and community colleges nationwide set a new national milestone in the Malaysia Book of Records for the largest participation in an agentic AI competition through the POLYCC Agentic AI League 2026. Kiro was selected as the competition's primary coding tool, enabling students with no programming background to engage with agentic AI concepts in natural language. AWS has also adopted its first school in Malaysia under the government's Sekolah Angkat MADANI program: Sekolah Kebangsaan Datuk Keramat (1) in Kuala Lumpur. AWS will upgrade the school's digital and STEM facilities, train teachers to deliver coding and robotics lessons, and run hands-on activities in drone technology and digital safety for students.

"When the public sector leads in building with AI, it becomes the lighthouse for the rest of the country. That's what Semarak AI Malaysia is designed to do; equip civil servants, software companies, and students with the tools to build their own AI solutions. Every ministry, every developer, and every student who builds with AI raises the bar for what's next." said Hussein Mohd Ali, Country Manager, Malaysia, AWS.

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