The Ministry of Digital of Malaysia and Google Cloud have on Wednesday announced the launch of “AI at Work 2.0,” a joint initiative to equip public officers with Google Workspace’s latest generative AI (gen AI) capabilities, empowering them to transform public service delivery.

“AI at Work,” the first iteration of this initiative, was unveiled as a pilot program at the launch of Malaysia’s National AI Office (NAIO) in December 2024, the duo said in a statement.

Following the successful pilot, the enhanced and scaled iteration of this program (i.e., 2.0) is providing the government of Malaysia with an expanded Google Workspace with Gemini suite of tools and making them accessible to up to 445,000 public officers.

“The ability of public and private sector organizations – which touch the lives of virtually all Malaysians – to improve service delivery using next-generation technologies, will play an essential role in establishing Malaysia as a digitally-driven, high-income economy,

“Through AI at Work 2.0 by NAIO and Google Cloud, the government is taking the lead in harnessing gen AI, with the right guardrails built in, to better serve the rakyat (people) under our five-year AI technology action plan,” said Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Digital of Malaysia.

“We are swiftly progressing beyond the pilot, which reinforced our belief that AI can uplift the productivity and efficacy of a workforce,

“In the coming months, we look forward to highlighting the tangible value generated by our public-private AI partnerships, as we drive further AI adoption momentum across government agencies and our broader business ecosystem,” he added.

Fabian Bigar, Secretary General, Ministry of Digital, said the ministry is accelerating its efforts to ensure all government employees have access to gen AI assistants.

“Many government employees are already on Google Workspace through integration between MyGovUC and Google Workspace,

“We appreciate Google Cloud going a step further to provide its expanded set of gen AI tools and conducting bespoke training to help our government employees take full advantage of these tools,” he said.

He said this partnership will help the ministry streamlines routine tasks across agencies, departments, and functions, freeing employees up to focus on more complex and strategic work that translates to improved public services delivery and citizen engagement.

According to the statement, AI at Work 2.0 will provide dedicated training and consultation to help public officers effectively use Google Workspace with Gemini.

This includes hands-on workshops to help users write effective prompts and identify where these tools can deliver the most value.

It is noted that Google Workspace with Gemini is one of the first gen AI productivity solutions to attain a comprehensive set of safety, privacy, and security certifications.

It automatically applies Google Workspace’s enterprise-grade data security and privacy controls, ensuring that Gemini only retrieves relevant data that the user has permission to access.

“The Ministry of Digital and NAIO are applying a comprehensive approach to enhance workforce proficiency and productivity, from deploying employee agents through Google Workspace with Gemini, to appointing and training gen AI champions to help accelerate adoption across agencies, to implementing before-and-after measurement to quantify value.,

“Our partnership is establishing the government of Malaysia as a leader in reimagining how work gets done and serving as the blueprint for governments and enterprises in the region looking to derive measurable value from AI adoption at scale. We look forward to continuing to advance Malaysia’s national AI agenda through AI at Work 2.0, as well as other joint initiatives,” said Rahul Sharma, Managing Director, Public Sector, Asia Pacific, Google Cloud.

It is noted that he AI at Work pilot was conducted with 270 public officers from various government agencies, including Jabatan Digital Negara (JDN).

These officers leveraged Google Workspace’s gen AI capabilities to accomplish day-to-day tasks quicker, such as drafting policy papers and written communications.

AI at Work 2.0 also builds upon Google’s ongoing commitment to Malaysia, which includes a $2 billion investment in a new Google data center and Google Cloud region, and AI skilling initiatives like Gemini Academy and the Google AI Essentials course, offered via the Gemilang training program.

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