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( KPIs) are three times more likely to realise greater financial benefits, turning insight directly into impact.
ENGINE 2: ACCELERATING ESG LEADERSHIP
The second engine is where the AI advantage becomes truly revolutionary. It leverages the same technology to help companies achieve leadership in ESG, aligning their operations with the urgent demands of sustainability and social responsibility.
ADVANCING ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY( E)
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a staggering 75 per cent.
By enabling accurate, data-driven disclosures, AI fosters a new level of transparency and accountability, building trust with investors, regulators, and the public. This power, however, demands robust ethical AI frameworks to ensure fairness and prevent misuse.
THE SYNERGY
The true genius of the AI advantage lies in the fact that these two engines are not run in isolation; they are deeply interconnected, creating a virtuous cycle of performance and purpose.
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AI provides a sophisticated toolkit for managing and mitigating a company ' s environmental footprint. It can optimise energy consumption in real-time and slash greenhouse gas emissions by making logistics smarter.
According to reports, maritime giant Maersk, for instance, has used AI to cut fuel consumption and emissions by 9.2 per cent per container. In manufacturing, AI-powered defect detection helped Hyundai Mobis reduce its manufacturing waste by a massive 28 per cent.
However, this power comes with an " energy paradox " that responsible leaders must address. Training a single large AI model can consume as much electricity as that used by more than 120 homes for a year, and the data centres that power AI are significant water consumers.
This reality necessitates a determined push towards " Green AI," ensuring the solutions we create don ' t inadvertently worsen the problems we ' re trying to solve.
ENHANCING SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY( S)
On the social front, AI is making workplaces safer. Computer vision systems can monitor factory floors for hazards and ensure compliance with Personal Protective Equipment( PPE) rules.
AI also offers tools to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion( DEI) by analysing HR data to identify and root out systemic biases. This requires careful governance to ensure that AI doesn ' t, unintentionally, amplify the very biases it ' s meant to correct.
As AI automates tasks, a new social responsibility emerges: empowering the workforce for the AI-equipped future. Recognising this, the majority of employers plan to upskill their employees by 2030, preparing them to work effectively alongside their new AI colleagues.
GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY( G)
For governance, AI is a game-changer. The complex and often burdensome task of ESG reporting can now be automated, helping companies comply with evolving global regulations.
AI also fortifies risk management. In a powerful local example, Malaysia ' s National Fraud Portal used AI to reduce the time needed to trace stolen funds by
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A SIMPLE LOOK UNDER THE HOOD You don ' t need to be a data scientist to grasp the core technologies driving this revolution.
Here ' s a simple breakdown: Machine Learning( ML): This is a subset of AI where algorithms learn from data without being explicitly programmed for every task. They identify patterns and correlations to make predictions or classifications.
■ Business Performance: Predicting customer churn, forecasting sales revenue, identifying fraudulent transactions, optimising pricing strategies.
■ ESG Impact: Forecasting energy demand for optimisation, predicting equipment failure for preventative maintenance( reducing waste / accidents), analysing data for emissions reporting, and identifying ESG investment risks
Natural Language Processing( NLP): This branch of AI enables computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language, including both written and spoken forms.
■ Business Performance: Powering customer service chatbots and virtual assistants, analysing customer feedback and reviews( sentiment analysis), generating marketing copy, and translating languages.
■ ESG Impact: Analysing sustainability reports and news articles for ESG risks / opportunities, generating ESG report narratives, processing employee feedback for social insights, and facilitating communication across diverse workforces.
Computer Vision: This field allows AI systems to " see " and interpret information from digital images, videos, and other visual inputs.
■ Business Performance: Automating quality control inspections in manufacturing, analysing customer behaviour in retail stores, and enabling robotic automation in warehouses.
■ ESG Impact: Monitoring workplace safety compliance( e. g., PPE usage), analysing satellite imagery to track deforestation or environmental changes, inspecting infrastructure for potential hazards, and optimising waste sorting.
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The real " AI Advantage " lies in it ' s unique ability to function as a potent " Dual Engine," simultaneously turbo-charging financial performance while accelerating leadership in the critical domains of Environmental, Social, and Governance( ESG). |
Generative AI( GenAI): A rapidly advancing category of AI capable of creating novel content- such as text, images, code, audio, and synthetic data- based on the data it was trained on and user prompts.
■ Business Performance: Generating personalised marketing content, drafting emails and reports, writing software code, creating product designs, and simulating business scenarios.
■ ESG Impact: Drafting sections of ESG reports, generating scenarios for climate risk modelling, creating personalised sustainability training materials, summarising complex regulatory documents, and accelerating research into sustainable materials.
This inherent connection means that investments in AI for operational excellence are very often dual-benefit investments, advancing both the bottom line and the ESG agenda in concert.
THE MALAYSIAN IMPERATIVE
For us here in Malaysia, this is not a distant global trend. It is an immediate and urgent opportunity. Our government has set a clear course with an ambitious pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and the phased implementation of mandatory ESG reporting for public companies starting in 2025.
This regulatory push creates a powerful incentive to act. At the same time, Malaysia is making a strategic national bet on AI, with the establishment of the National AI Office( NAIO) and a projection that AI will add US $ 115 billion to our nation ' s productive capacity by 2030. By embracing AI strategically, i. e., harnessing the dual-engine power of AI, we have a unique opportunity to position Malaysia as a regional leader in both technological advancement and sustainable development. @ ND
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