Rudy Salahuddin, deputy of digital economy, employment and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister, said AI contributed significantly to society today.

“AI streamlines processes, increases efficiency and augments the productivity of human workers,” he said on June 7 at the World AI Show at The Langham hotel in South Jakarta.

Rudy cited a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicting that AI would contribute US$15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, with $1 billion benefiting ASEAN’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Indonesia’s digital economy had been making strides, he said, its value reaching $77 billion in 2022, representing a 22 percent increase from the previous year.

“Supported by a strong foundation, in 2025, Indonesia’s digital economy is predicted to grow twofold up to $130 billion, and will continue to increase to $366 billion in 2030,” he added.

Hammam Riza, president of the Indonesian AI Industry Research and Innovation Collaboration (KORIKA), a government initiative, said Indonesian companies had the highest rate of AI adoption in Southeast Asia, especially in the manufacturing, retail and hospitality, agriculture and healthcare sectors.

Hammam added that the government formulated the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (Stranas AI) in 2020 to provide guidelines for future AI development and implementation in the country.

“The Stranas AI serves as our guiding framework, outlining our vision, objectives and priorities for AI development,” he said. “It is a comprehensive strategy that aims to harness the transformative power of AI across various sectors.”

After AI gained significant momentum with the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last November, merchants and SMEs have been leveraging the technology to promote their products on digital marketplaces.

“AI helps generate descriptions of different products for different target consumers,” N. Sekar, chief technology officer (CTO) of e-commerce platform Blibli, said at the same event.

AI is also being increasingly used in weather forecasting, wildfire prevention, forest monitoring and early warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis.

“Machine learning is in charge of managing sensor nodes and can learn and react to environmental and network conditions more precisely,” said Nani Hendiarti, deputy of environment and forestry management coordination at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister.

Nani said the country had achieved a notable reduction of 82 percent in forest fires in 2020 by implementing AI technology.

“AI can provide good solutions, as they can be transparent, reliable and very accurate in terms of data management,” she added.

As AI’s capabilities and applications continue to advance, however, concerns are growing about job displacement.

According to the Future of Jobs report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in April 2023, AI is projected to eliminate more than 83 million jobs in the next five years, causing apprehension among almost half of the global workforce.

On Lee, CTO of GDP Venture and a KORIKA member, said AI offered advantages that many businesses and entrepreneurs could and had put to use for their own betterment.

“Just like everything else, it has two sides,” On Lee said. “I’m on the more optimistic side. Rather than stopping AI development, I think we should make it better and safer.”

“AI is definitely not a threat,” said Shinta Nurhariyanti, an official at the e-government directorate of the Communications and Information Ministry.

“Digital technology has become an inseparable part of our world, and we all have to learn to live with this technology.”