KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has urged local businesses to move beyond innovation ambitions and focus on execution, as artificial intelligence (AI) and other fast-evolving technologies shorten the time needed to turn ideas into practical, market-ready outcomes.
In a statement today, MDEC chief executive officer Anuar Fariz Fadzil, who spoke at the recent Digital Economy Innovation Forum, said that while many organisations already see themselves as innovation-ready, the bigger challenge now is implementing, scaling, and commercialising solutions quickly enough to remain competitive.
He said that the issue is not a lack of ideas, but an execution gap, especially as AI accelerates the pace of change.
Many businesses, he said, already have innovation frameworks in place but still struggle to turn intent into results with enough speed and impact.
MDEC said that a study by the Securities Commission Malaysia shows that 70 per cent of corporates are innovation-ready, while 44 per cent already have structured innovation processes in place.
However, it said, 65 per cent still face talent, capability or capital constraints, while average revenue allocated to innovation remains at just 0.85 per cent, underlining the difficulty of translating readiness into results.
Anuar also said that businesses can no longer depend on traditional innovation cycles, as AI is significantly shortening the gap between emergence and adoption.
"What once took years is now increasingly happening within weeks, requiring businesses and institutions alike to respond faster and with greater clarity.
"Against this backdrop, MDEC is helping to bridge the gap between ideas and outcomes by bringing together policy, industry, innovation, capital and talent,” he said.
Its role, he said, is to help organisations identify challenge statements, source solutions, validate them, execute them and support their amplification and commercialisation across sectors such as financial services, property, infrastructure, healthcare, utilities and technology. - Bernam
