This aerial view shows the Jakarta city skyline. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)
AS the country moves toward realising the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision of being an advanced and prosperous nation, the development of Indonesia has been tremendously assisted by the advancement of technology.
Every day we see greater use of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) in our daily lives.
The Prabowo Subianto administration has outlined five strategic priorities to combat key societal and economic challenges through the use of AI.
They are focused on healthcare, smart cities, bureaucratic reform, talent development and food security.
However, to ensure the technology is being used to benefit the operations of a business, initiating a partnership with a trusted technology partner may be essential.
By further implementation of AI, corporations can rise as Indonesia grows.
After all, I believe that innovation is a key step to nurturing a sustainable business model, and AI has been used in the public sector and to implement Industry 4.0 in Indonesia for some time now.
Through early adoption and leveraging the use of AI in Indonesia, we have already seen early returns on its potential to enhance productivity and efficiency for a number of corporations and how it can eventually increase profitability during times of unprecedented economic turnover, such as the adoption of technology during the pandemic.
In the finance sector, PT Bank Danamon Indonesia has integrated SAP Business AI solutions into its human resources processes.
The conversational, self-service user interface has improved paperless operations, reduced human resources support tickets, increased the empowerment of managers and simplified other processes.
Before the adoption of the AI solutions, data-related problems in human resource management often arose because data was spread across various sources, making it difficult to use and easy to overlook.
The system was eventually improved with the help of the SuccessFactors solution provided by SAP Indonesia.
Welcoming Industry 4.0, SAP has been instrumental in helping Indonesia adopt technologies like the Internet of Things, big data analytics and automation to help businesses collect and analyse data from across the supply chain.
It made way for better resource allocation in smart cities, including those built in BSD City by Sinar Mas Land, for example.
Moreover, the conglomerate has also moved five of its businesses to the cloud. This move to SAP offers the ability to streamline its operations, increase agility, innovate faster and drive scalability for each business.
AI brings enormous opportunity, one that will only grow when supported by new innovations, such as SAP Business Data Cloud which allows organisations to get more value out of their data and greater returns on their AI investments.
However, it is not without risk. That’s why I believe AI will only be useful if it can be trusted to deliver high levels of security, privacy, compliance and ethics.
The Indonesian government has set forth the importance of balancing innovation with regulation.
The Communications and Information Ministry released Circular No. 9/2023 on AI ethics, providing guidelines on ethical values that AI developers and users should adhere to, prioritising values such as inclusivity, accessibility, safety and humanity, with a strong emphasis on credibility and accountability in the use of AI.
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SAP supports the circular’s aims to frame a human-centred approach as an important part of AI governance.
SAP is committed to a strict global AI ethics policy and our AI handbook ensures the responsible development, deployment, use and sale of AI systems.
We hope that future regulations introduced in the AI space also recognise the unique nature of business AI vs consumer AI and ensure a balanced approach that promotes both trust and innovation.
One aspect that must also be highlighted is education. The skills of our nation’s workforce must grow alongside AI to make the most of its potential and ensure human oversight.
A demographic dividend is defined as the economic growth brought on by a change in the age structure of a country’s population.
Based on the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision, Indonesia will be able to prosper as long as the demographic dividend, where the total population is dominated by people in the productive age between 15 to 64 years old, is able to keep up with the demands of each occupation.
This will mostly include jobs that will require extensive use of information technology and AI.
The national statistics agency has recently announced that Indonesia’s demographic bonus is likely to expire by 2041, making the immediate skilling needs even more critical.
Therefore, education and upskilling programmes are areas that the government and technology companies should foster together, starting as soon as possible.
Partnerships between technology providers such as SAP and local stakeholders enable both the public and private sectors to harness AI effectively.
Indonesia has a huge talent pool and untapped potential to become a hub for the future information technology sector, if people can upskill and learn the skills required to work in data-driven businesses and cloud services.
In turn, the use of technology will also ensure that Indonesian companies are able to stay competitive in the international market, leading to a sustainable business model that is able to prosper.
More importantly, by having government backing, corporations and businesses can utilise ethical AI in the name of digitalisation and transformation, getting us closer to realising our shared Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
Andreas Diantoro is the managing director of SAP Indonesia. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
