JAKARTA: Indonesia is poised for an era of growth in the global artificial intelligence (AI). After the surge of generative AI, a new wave is emerging in the form of agentic AI.
Agentic AI are execution models involving autonomous agents that coordinate across workflows, tools and systems with minimal human input.
While it stops short of true autonomous decision-making, agentic AI’s ability to make decisions within predefined parameters is a game changer.
According to BCG’s AI Maturity Matrix, which benchmarks 73 economies globally on AI exposure and readiness, Indonesia is classified as a “rising contender”.
This reflects the nation’s position as an economy with relatively low exposure to AI currently, but high readiness for adoption.
Historically, Indonesia has demonstrated an ability to leapfrog digitally, for example, advancing from wireline to wireless and fostering an ecosystem that produced numerous homegrown unicorns.
That proven capacity for innovation speaks to the nation’s potential in leaping forward again with AI.
As AI becomes critical national infrastructure, geopolitical shifts, compute access and sovereign capability increasingly determine economic outcomes and geopolitical influence. The United States and China lead the global AI race.
Tech companies from these two superpowers created 59% and 26%, respectively, of top-performing large language models (LLMs). This presents a conundrum for competing nations.
Relying solely on external technology providers poses challenges for corporate leaders and governments, especially since local regulations, data requirements and model availability are subject to shifting policies.
Against this backdrop, a small group of “GenAI middle powers” is emerging across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Each has distinct strengths to compete as a regional or global technology supplier.
This race now expands beyond software to encompass hardware, infrastructure and technology adoption.
Indonesia will need to build its domestic AI capabilities to mitigate technology sovereignty risks as agentic AI evolves.
Execution speed and scale will dictate whether Indonesia rises to a leading position in Asean, or falls behind.
To provide a strategic outline for Indonesia’s AI future, the Communications and Digital Ministry developed its White Paper on the National Artificial Intelligence Roadmap and the Concept for Artificial Intelligence Ethics Guidelines, which were released for public consultation in August 2025, and are pending final sign off.
The roadmap draft has identified seven key elements to address, which are ethics, policy and governance, infrastructure and data, research and industrial innovation, talent development, investment and funding, as well as use cases.
With regards to use cases, 10 priority sectors will be targeted, spanning food security, healthcare, education, economy and finance, bureaucratic reform, politics, law and security, energy, natural resources and environment, housing, transportation, logistics and infrastructure, as well as arts, culture and creative economy.
These align with the nation’s development goals and digital transformation priorities, as set out in Indonesia’s RPJPN 2025-2045, RPJMN 2025-2029 and the Asta Cita.
With the delivery of momentum being critical, eight “Quick Win” use cases have been determined to drive innovation across several priority sectors over the next few years.
Achieving these AI aspirations, however, may require a few key challenges to be addressed first, such as the nation’s uneven digital infrastructure.
Also essential would be a robust data ecosystem, and a sharper focus on talent development through education, training and upskilling. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
