by Tan Aik Keong (AK)
Generative AI (GenAI) has swept the world in recent years — from America's ChatGPT to China's DeepSeek, to the AI drawing and writing tools young Malaysians already reach for daily. AI is quietly rewriting daily life and the workplace. For a lot of people it feels like a double-edged sword: on one side, real gains in productivity and creative possibility; on the other, a nagging worry — will this take my job?
Technology has never been a purely destructive force
Looking back, every technological revolution has come with a "jobs disappearing" panic: the steam engine replaced oxen and horses, the smartphone made phone booths obsolete. But technology tends to retire old roles on one hand while creating new opportunities on the other. The Grab driver, the TikTok content creator, the livestream e-commerce host — all roles that barely anyone could have imagined a decade ago. AI's trajectory looks similar: it will rewrite jobs, but it'll reshape the division of labour even more.
Who feels the pressure first?
Over a five-year horizon, a few roles feel the pressure earliest. Copywriting and basic writing: media and advertising already use AI to draft first passes, headlines and translations, freeing journalists from routine copy to focus on investigation, commentary and data journalism. Customer service and telesales: banks, telcos and e-commerce are accelerating AI customer-service adoption, softening demand for traditional call-centre headcount. Accounting and basic legal work: AI can organise accounts and draft contracts, pushing junior staff to move up into review, communication and risk judgment.
This isn't a list of jobs disappearing — it's a list of jobs being redefined.
Turning AI into a super-assistant
Rather than resist it, better to learn to work alongside it. Writers can let AI handle research, outlining and first drafts, while focusing themselves on perspective, structure and style. Educators can use AI to teach to each student's level, explaining the same concept in Chinese, English and Malay to suit different backgrounds and abilities. SMEs, working with limited capital and headcount, can use AI for market research, social media operations and customer-service automation, effectively multiplying what a small team can get done.
The real question isn't whether you can use AI — it's whether you can use it to amplify what's genuinely yours: insight, taste, judgment and trust.
Three things Malaysia needs to get right
The digital divide: gaps in connectivity and devices between urban and rural areas, and across income levels, risk widening inequality in opportunity. Education transformation: if teaching stays rooted in rote memorisation, students will lack the critical thinking and creativity needed to actually use AI well. Policy and ethics: Malaysia needs clearer rules on data governance, copyright and deepfakes, balancing innovation against protection.
At the same time, we have a real multilingual, multicultural advantage. If we can develop talent that understands both AI and local context, we can serve the huge Southeast Asian market directly — building learning and customer-service models that support Chinese, English, Malay and Tamil, offering genuinely localised AI solutions for government services, SMEs and cross-border e-commerce.
The last mile only humans can cover
However capable a model gets, it still struggles to replicate genuine human warmth, contextual understanding and ethical judgment. The sincerity in an apology letter, the unspoken rapport at a negotiating table, the trust built through community interaction — all of that comes from lived human experience and relationships. AI can give a reasonable answer, but not necessarily the answer that's right for this specific person, in this specific moment. Over the next five years, the most competitive people won't be the ones best at writing prompts — they'll be the ones who can combine real industry knowledge, communication skill and AI tools together.
Closing
AI isn't a monster, and it isn't a silver bullet either. For Malaysian society, the real question was never whether AI is coming — it's whether we're ready. Once we hand repetition to the machine and keep creativity for ourselves, AI stops being competition for your job, and becomes a partner that makes the table fuller.
Part of the AK AI Corner column. Originally published in Oriental Daily (东方日报) on Oct 4, 2025.