Malaysia-based telecommunication firm CelcomDigi Berhad has on Tuesday launched its CelcomDigi AI Experience Center (AiX) – a one-stop immersive innovation and collaboration hub to lead, inspire, and advance the creation of world-class digital solutions across a range of sectors and verticals.

Supported by a wide ecosystem of leading global technology players and local partners, AiX will serve as a focal point for cross-industry collaborations, leveraging emerging technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), robotics, analytics and metaverse, CelcomDigi said in a statement.

It is noted that CelcomDigi has invested MYR 55 million ($11.69 million) with notable global tech and local partners to support the ambition.

According to the statement, this collaborative facility is designed to spur rapid technology advancements and growth of new digital start-ups, enterprises, and future skills to build a flourishing innovation ecosystem and fuel Malaysia’s digital transformation.

AiX provides an immersive experience combining sight, sound, and touch, and features real-world solutions ready for immediate deployment.

Built on a model of constant evolution and partnership, the technology and showcases will be refreshed periodically to bring new experiences to visitors and is set to be the epicenter of co-creation to enable rapid experimentation and development of new technology solutions for the market.

“Emerging technologies such as AI are revolutionizing the world, and Malaysia must keep pace with this progress to build a flourishing digital nation,” CelcomDigi Chief Executive Officer Idham Nawawi said.

According to him, over 1.5 years ago, the firm made a strong commitment to play a pivotal role to realize this ambition, leveraging its greater combined capabilities as a merged company to invest and drive digitalization, innovation and sustainable growth for the nation.

He noted the AiX is a realization of the national benefit of the merger, where CelcomDigi’s scale and capabilities are able to attract and partner global and regional digital tech giants to accelerate the development of cutting-edge digital solutions – positioning them a strong ally to the nation’s digital aspirations.

“AiX emphasizes the significance of a thriving innovation ecosystem to develop a robust digital society,

“In the fast-paced era of digital everything, speed and ferocity of innovation is essential,” he said.

He said the firm therefore designed AiX on a model of strong partnerships and constant evolution, enabling them to co-create use cases with great potential at an accelerated speed for Malaysia.

“Building with some of the most notable global tech and local ecosystem players, together we have invested MYR 55 million ($11.69 million) to support this ambition,” he said.

He said they will continue to invest in the infrastructure, partnerships, and competencies needed to support Malaysia through the rapid tech changes around them.

“We are determined to spur digital transformations across industries and ensure the benefits of 5G, AI, and emerging technologies are realized for all Malaysians,” he added.

Located at CelcomDigi Hub in Subang Jaya’s Hi-Tech Park, AiX houses two main inspiring spaces called The Infinity and The Gallery.

The Infinity is a space designed to provide visitors with immersive, interactive experiences of digital society simulations using cutting-edge audio-visual technology.

The gallery space showcases a physical array of real-world industrial use-cases to display the transformative potential of emerging technologies key to enterprise growth.

These respective simulations display a range of 5G and AI-powered technologies and robotics across eight verticals namely manufacturing, logistics, energy, fleet, port, healthcare, education and AgriTech.

Of the 45 solutions featured within the eight verticals, 13 of them are live use cases being piloted with enterprises in Malaysia.

AiX is also home to AI-RA, the first AI digital human and resident co-host of the Centre’s immersive tours.

While AI-RA interacts with visitors and explains the diverse use cases on display, she is accompanied by a family of autonomous robotics who perform a diverse range of tasks including perimeter surveillance, delivery of goods, entertainment, and personal assistance, demonstrating the power of combining AI and robotics to improve convenience for work, life, and play.

AiX also houses a collaborative space that serves as a cutting-edge live lab environment for interested parties – from startups to large-scale enterprises, and from academia to government – to co-create, test, and validate new solutions that pair 5G with other emerging technologies.

Build on a partnership model, AiX is powered by a strong, extensive and growing ecosystem of 40 global technology leaders, local partners and solution providers, from core partners Huawei and ZTE, to other collaborative partners AWS, Digital Nasional Berhad, Ericsson, Microsoft, SK Telecom, Softbank, Sumitomo, and Yinson, among others.

CelcomDigi is Malaysia’s largest mobile network operator with more than 20.6 million users on its network.

The firm was established on 1 December 2022 from the merger of Celcom and Digi.

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