KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s daily use of multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to reach 43% by 2030, above the global projection of 30%, according to Ericsson ConsumerLab research.
The research showed that Malaysia is among the Southeast Asian markets expected to see stronger uptake of multimodal AI, which combines text, voice, images and video.
Ericsson, in a statement, said the increasing use of AI across different devices and locations is also expected to place greater demands on mobile networks.
Its report, An Agentic Life — How Consumer AI Usage is Shaping Future Network Needs, found that daily multimodal AI use globally is expected to rise from 10% currently to 30% by 2030.
Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh head David Hägerbro said Malaysians are increasingly using AI in their daily lives and are likely to expect reliable access regardless of location.
He said Digital Nasional Bhd’s (DNB) 5G network, including its 5G Advanced capabilities, provides the connectivity infrastructure to support growing use of such applications.
“DNB’s 5G network enables mobile operators to offer connectivity tailored to different services, with more consistent performance and predictable response times as AI use grows.
“This creates opportunities for Malaysian developers and businesses to build services that make AI more useful in everyday life and support the country’s digitalisation ambitions,” he said.
Globally, Ericsson identified a group of heavy AI users, which it termed “AI super users”, who currently account for 35% of AI usage.
The group is expected to account for more than 80% of AI usage by 2030, with more frequent interactions across devices and greater reliance on mobile connectivity.
The research found that response time has 2.5 times more influence on network satisfaction among these users compared with average users.
Ericsson said the increased sharing of images, video and voice with AI services is expected to raise upload traffic and create short bursts of network demand, particularly in busy urban areas.
The research also pointed to growing adoption of agentic AI, which can perform tasks such as making bookings or managing schedules on behalf of users.
Across the markets surveyed, 38% of smartphone users expect to use agentic AI by 2030
