Publicly listed poultry company PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia corporate IT head Lukas Djuanda said his company was using AI to optimize the performance of some of its business lines. In the poultry division, for instance, the company uses the advanced technology to help sort chicken eggs for hatching.

“We use AI to learn whether an egg has been fertilized or not so we can supply eggs with the same quality for our hatchery,” Lukas told a seminar attended by farming stakeholders in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The use of AI in business is not a new story in the country. Several major banks have employed their own chatbots powered by AI to help with standard and repetitive questions addressed to their call centers. State-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) has a chatbot named Sabrina while Bank Mandiri and Indonesia’s largest private lender Bank Central Asia (BCA) deploy Mita and Vira, respectively.

As AI-enabled automation increases, as many as 120 million workers from the world’s 12 largest economies, including Indonesia, may need to participate in reskilling programs in the next three years, according to a recent study released by IBM’s Institute for Business Value.

Other than using AI for its egg hatchery, Japfa is also developing an earthquake early-warning system in birds’ cages that would notify the cage managers when problems occur, Lukas said. The company has to carefully monitor the condition of cages as poultry, such as chickens, are sensitive to disasters and can easily become stressed when they sense signs of an approaching earthquake, which include temperature changes, Lukas said.

“When disaster signs occur, the cages’ lighting system will respond to them and the system will send a message to the cage manager, and it can go to a higher level [of management],” Lukas said.

Japfa has been using AI for three years to help the operation of its businesses, which comprise poultry breeding and processing, aquaculture, cattle farming and packaged food.

“We are now collaborating with an AI provider from Canada and China to help with our aquaculture [lobster breeding] and cattle farming business,” Lukas said.

Despite the advantageous use of AI in industry, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reports that only 7 percent of manufacturing companies in Indonesia has adopted AI technology this year.

The study revealed that many companies are discouraged by the fact that AI adoption requires a lot of money. Moreover, a lack of skills commensurate with such an advanced technology also hinders companies moving forward with AI.

Online education start-up Quipper Indonesia is also looking to implement AI for its online learning platform. However, Quipper country manager for Indonesia Yuta Funase said his company had yet to optimize the use of the technology as the online tutoring and coaching platform still needed human interaction.

“Students need not only to understand a subject but also to be motivated. But it is possible to use AI in our services in the future,” Yuta said as quoted by kompas.com.

A study by the McKinsey Global Institute revealed that many of the advanced technologies could significantly boost global economic growth. AI alone has the potential to create up to US$5.8 trillion in value across all sectors each year, said Wojtek Krok, a partner at McKinsey, during a panel discussion at the CSIS Global Dialogue in Jakarta
recently.

The event featured an AI-powered humanoid robot named Sophia. The robot, which is designed by Hanson Robotics to look like famed British actress Audrey Hepburn and named after the Greek word for wisdom, uses AI, visual data processing and facial recognition to interact with other people.

The robot, dressed in a traditional Indonesian kebaya (blouse), greatly amused the audience, including Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara who attended the event.

“Will humans fall in love with robots in the future?” the minister asked Sophia.

“Definitely,” Sophia replied. “Humans have already started to love robots. Some people have even tried to marry their smartphone.” (asp)

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