- Type
- National AI lead agency
- Established
- 28 July 2026
- Parent
- Ministry of Digital Malaysia
- Predecessor
- National AI Office (NAIO), est. 12 December 2024
- Launched with
- National AI Action Plan 2030
- Website
- ai.gov.my
- Type
- National AI lead agency
- Established
- 28 July 2026
- Parent
- Ministry of Digital Malaysia
- Predecessor
- National AI Office (NAIO), est. 12 December 2024
- Launched with
- National AI Action Plan 2030
- Website
- ai.gov.my
History
The National AI Office was approved by the Cabinet on 28 August 2024 and inaugurated on 12 December 2024 as Malaysia's central coordinating body for national AI policy. For its first eighteen months NAIO operated as a coordination office within the Ministry of Digital, operationalised through MyDIGITAL Corporation, working across ethics, infrastructure, talent and sectoral adoption.
On 28 July 2026 the government launched AI Malaysia Berhad as the apex body for the country's AI agenda — the institutionalisation and enhancement of NAIO into a standing agency with direct responsibility for both policy coordination and national-level implementation. The launch coincided with publication of the National AI Action Plan 2030, covering technology development, talent, governance, infrastructure and investment.[1][2][3]
Mandate and organisation
AIMB's stated role is to serve as the apex body unifying policy coordination with implementation at national level. In practice this consolidates functions previously spread across the coordination office and related agencies: formulating AI policy and guardrails, coordinating across ministries, tracking Malaysia's standing on indices such as the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index, steering sovereign compute and infrastructure planning, and driving sectoral adoption and talent programmes.[1]
AIMB works alongside MDEC (digital economy promotion), NACSA (cybersecurity), Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission on cross-cutting issues, and continues NAIO's stewardship of Malaysia's AI Governance and Ethics Framework with its seven principles — fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability, and pursuit of human benefit. Flagship programmes carried over or launched under the new agency include the AI Sandbox for regulated experimentation and the AI Untuk Rakyat citizen literacy programme.
>Key Takeaways
- AI Malaysia Berhad institutionalised the National AI Office into a permanent apex AI agency on 28 July 2026.
- Launched by the Prime Minister alongside the National AI Action Plan 2030.
- Sits under the Ministry of Digital and unifies AI policy coordination with national implementation.
See Also
🇲🇾 AIMB is a Malaysian institution by definition: a national agency under the Ministry of Digital whose remit covers the entire domestic ecosystem — government agencies, GLCs, startups, universities and industry. It anchors Malaysia's AI governance posture, aligning domestic practice with the EU AI Act, Singapore's AI Verify framework and OECD AI Principles, and coordinates initiatives that shape the local market, from the AI Sandbox to compute-access programmes such as the National AI Compute Exchange. For businesses, AIMB's policy outputs — including updates to the Malaysia AI Governance Framework and its interplay with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 — directly shape compliance requirements. Its performance is publicly benchmarked through international readiness indices, making the agency the single point of accountability for Malaysia's ambition to be a regional leader in responsible AI.
References
- ↑AI Malaysia Berhad. (2026). Official website. https://ai.gov.my/
- ↑Lexology. (2026). National AI Office Institutionalised as AI Malaysia Berhad. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=24713435-db39-4063-b9bd-0849aa1e5182
- ↑Regulations.ai. (2026). Malaysia National AI Action Plan 2030. https://regulations.ai/regulations/RAI-MY-NA-ATAP2XX-2026