Kuala lumpur: ASEAN's digital transformation needs to move beyond expanding network coverage towards ensuring that citizens can participate safely, affordably, and meaningfully in an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven economy, amid concerns that the traditional digital divide could evolve into an 'AI divide'.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Chief of Strategic Planning and Membership and Special Advisor to the Secretary-General, Sulyna Abdullah, emphasized that connectivity alone does not guarantee participation, particularly when users remain skeptical about the safety, integrity, and resilience of digital platforms. During the 'Digital Trust Summit Keynote Session: Digital Trust as A National Capability' at M360 ASEAN 2026, she stated that building digital trust requires focusing on safeguarding users, enabling participation, and strengthening infrastructure resilience, especially as fraud and impersonation erode public confidence while AI complicates issues of identity and accountability.
Sulyna noted the transition from informational AI systems to autonomous agents capable of transacting on behalf of individuals raises serious questions regarding authorization, identity verification, and legal liability when transactions fail. She highlighted the importance of maintaining user trust by ensuring that the critical infrastructure underpinning the digital economy remains uninterrupted during crises, requiring robust resilience across terrestrial networks, subsea cables, and satellite systems, backed by closer cross-border coordination.
Meanwhile, ZTE Corporation senior vice-president for the Asia Pacific and CIS region, James Zhang, cautioned that the rapid acceleration of AI could entrench a new layer of inequality if computing infrastructure becomes prohibitively expensive for emerging markets. He pointed out that the global demand for AI tokens is outstripping earlier forecasts, widening the gap between developed and developing nations in computing capacity, investment, and adoption. Zhang emphasized the need for policymakers and industry to ensure equal opportunities for people and economies to benefit from intelligence, rather than focusing solely on connectivity.
Zhang outlined four strategic pillars essential for sustainable AI development: sovereign AI, security, affordability, and sustainability, noting that governments need to preserve national languages, local culture, and personal privacy while safeguarding critical data assets. He advocated for the telecommunications sector's established model of infrastructure sharing as a practical blueprint for AI, allowing nations and enterprises to pool resources, minimize duplicate investments, and make computing capacity widely accessible.
M360 ASEAN 2026, organized by the GSM Association, brings together ministers, regulators, and industry leaders to discuss digital trust, artificial intelligence, resilient infrastructure, and regional digital integration. The event, held for the first time in the ASEAN region and in Malaysia, is endorsed by the Ministry of Communications, with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as host partner.