When digitalisation training comes up, a reasonable question follows: if youth are already " digital natives ", do they need to be trained to be digital? The question hides a tension.

Being connected is not the same as being digitally capable, and the gap between the two matters for Malaysia ' s economy and the young people who will inherit both.

A CONNECTED SOCIETY

Malaysia ' s connectivity is striking. In 2025, internet use among individuals reached 98.3 per cent, mobile phone use 99.6 per cent, and household internet access 97.1 per cent( Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2026). But access answers only one question.

It tells us young people can reach the digital world, not what they can do once they are there. Are we preparing youth to use technology, or to live in a future shaped by it? One is about operating a device. The other is about thinking, judging and creating with it.

THE FIRST DIGITAL SKILL

The relationship between tools and knowledge is not new. More than fourteen centuries ago, the first revealed words of the Qur ' an opened with a command that remains relevant:

" Read, ˹O Prophet, ˺ in the Name of your Lord Who created "( Qur ' an 96:1).

The verses that follow speak of teaching through the pen, and teaching humanity what it did not know. The instruction was never really about the pen. The tools of learning change; the pen becomes a keyboard and the classroom a platform.

Today, AI is part of the process. The responsibility to seek knowledge and use it wisely endures. Training should therefore aim not to teach one application, which may soon be replaced, but to cultivate a mindset of continuous learning that keeps pace with technology.

FAMILIARITY WITH TECHNOLOGY

Malaysian youth are highly comfortable with the basics. Among computer users aged 15 to 24 in 2025, 99.2 per cent could copy or

BY ANIS NAJIHA AHMAD

AND

MUHAMMAD MARWAN AHNAF MUNAWIR

International Institute for Halal Research and Training( INHART) International Islamic University Malaysia

move files and folders, and 98.1 per cent could duplicate or move information within a digital environment.

Yet only 50.9 per cent could write programming or coding in a digital environment( Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2026). The issue is not exposure; young people clearly have that. The question is whether it translates into higher-order capability.

This points to a shift: from consumers of technology to creators of value with it. Owning a social media account is not digital transformation; reading customer engagement, managing sales and improving operations through digital platforms is much closer.

The question is no longer " Do you know how to use this tool?" but " Do you know when to use it, why, and what to do with the result?"

THE ECONOMIC REALITY

The economic case is pressing. Malaysia ' s ICT and e-commerce activities contributed 23.4 per cent to national GDP in 2024, generating around RM451.3 billion( DOSM, 2025). At this share of the economy, digital capability is no longer optional; it is part of employability.

Young people are entering workplaces where data, automation and AI are everyday features. The question is not whether they will work with technology, but whether they will be confident enough to work with, alongside and through it.

RAISING THE STAKES

Generative AI sharpens this challenge. It can help students brainstorm, summarise and draft, and help businesses automate routine work, but it also creates a new responsibility.

Youth need to learn not only how to use AI, but how to question it. Is it accurate? Where did it come from? Could it be biased? When should a human make the final call?

These questions are becoming life skills. The danger is not that young people will use AI, but that they will use it without understanding its limits. Faster is not the same as better.

This danger is not hypothetical. A recent MIT Media Lab study found that heavy reliance on AI-driven writing tools was linked to weaker neural engagement and declining critical thinking, a pattern the researchers described as cognitive atrophy( Kosmyna et al., 2025). Whether AI sharpens or dulls our thinking depends on whether we use it as a

crutch or as a tool for growth.

NOT JUST TOOLS

Digitalisation is often treated as a technology problem. But behind every system are people whose work and decisions are being reshaped, so training cannot be purely technical. Communication, creativity, problem-solving and adaptability become more valuable as machines grow more capable, not less.

If a machine can generate a report, the human contribution lies in context, judgement, and knowing when the technology should not be used at all.

The halal economy now extends well beyond food into pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, logistics, tourism, finance and digital services, and digitalisation touches almost every part of it.

Imagine a halal product traced from raw material to final consumer through a single platform, with certification verified by a scan. Digital systems can strengthen traceability, support supplier verification, and help businesses reach international markets while protecting halal integrity.

Who will build and run this? Largely the young people now in training, which is why that training should be tied to real industries. A student of halal industry management should understand certification and standards, but also how digital systems support traceability, data management and halal assurance.

Connecting industry knowledge with digital capability may be one of the next generation ' s most valuable skills. A caution is warranted: technology can support a halal assurance system without guaranteeing integrity. In fact, a traceability record is only as trustworthy as the information entered into it. Digital tools strengthen governance; they do not replace it.

WHAT WE SHOULD DO

All these stay abstract unless it changes what happens in classrooms, training programmes and workplaces. For young people, the habit that matters is to move one step beyond consumption: turn tutorials into a small project, read the analytics behind their posts, check an AI answer against a reliable source before rewriting it in their own words.

For educators and training providers, courses should be built around problems rather than software menus: give learners