PETALING JAYA: About 650,000 jobs are likely to be affected by AI in the next three to five years, says Minister of Digital Gobind Singh Deo.

However, he said this does not mean that 650,000 jobs would be lost but the ministry is working closely with Human Resources Ministry to plan ahead by converting those affected to other sectors for new jobs.

AI or artificial intelligence will replace jobs, but due to new and different technologies, it will also create more job opportunities in some sectors, especially AI data centres, he said.

In an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily, Gobind Singh said some jobs would be lost because of the rise in AI, leading to slightly higher unemployment rate, especially jobs involving globalised business services and industries related to automated production.

Based on the data in December last year, he said 650,000 is just 3.7 per cent of the country’s total workforce of 17.32 million.

The impact is not too significant, he said.

The Ministry of Digital is conducting a joint study with the Human Resources Ministry on job opportunities for next five years to ensure that Malaysians whose jobs are affected by AI are able to undergo training so that they would not lose their jobs.

Citing an example, he said a Grab driver who has lost his job can still drive his car or motorcycle for other jobs.

“Their skills have to be restructured and redesigned for jobs so that they can work elsewhere,” he said.

The ministry is also collaborating with companies on training workers to acquire skills through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to meet new job demands.

Gobind Singh also said AI would have positive impact on different job sectors where DeepSeek will lead to a drastic increase in demand for data centres in Malaysia.

“Data centres, chips and infrastructure will likely bring more job opportunities.

“We need to prepare and plan for the new demands to ensure that there will be sufficient manpower,” he said.