The share of Malaysian businesses that consistently use at least one AI tool rose to 38 percent from 27 percent a year earlier, according to “Unlocking Malaysia’s AI Potential 2026” study commissioned by Amazon Web Services, though most remain limited to basic applications.

In a statement related to the study on Wednesday, Amazon Web Services said the increase represents nearly one million additional businesses over the past year, bringing the total to more than 3.4 million.

The study, conducted by the research firm Strand Partners, found that 67 percent of adopters were still using AI for basic tasks such as public chatbots or off-the-shelf tools. Only 19 percent of businesses had a formal strategy to scale AI across functions.

It said 57 percent of businesses sourced their main AI capabilities from external providers rather than building in-house, and 69 percent considered locally based software providers important to their adoption.

Financial services and manufacturing led adoption, at 53 percent and 50 percent respectively, against 38 percent across all businesses.

In financial services, 64 percent of businesses had moved beyond experimentation and 39 percent had a formal AI governance framework, compared with 24 percent of businesses overall.

In manufacturing, 57 percent were still exploring or experimenting and only 15 percent had a formal AI strategy, even though 80 percent expected AI to transform the industry. Manufacturers stressed challenges, including technical and data barriers, workforce capability, and limited resources.

Across the wider economy, the study found governance practices were uneven as 30 percent of businesses had clearly defined accountability for AI, 27 percent conducted regular monitoring or audits, and 18 percent had documented escalation processes. Meanwhile, 47 percent wanted practical frameworks or templates.

It also found that 72 percent of businesses said greater AI use by the public sector would make them more likely to expand their own use. As many as 74 percent said government leadership would play an important role to accelerating AI adoption across Malaysia.

Hussein Mohd Ali, country manager for AWS in Malaysia, said sector-focused software providers that embed AI into existing tools were the fastest way to move businesses from experimentation to wider use.

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