THE two-day AI Horizon 2026 concluded successfully at the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre today, featuring prominent speakers, particularly from the industry, who shared insights on various aspects of artificial intelligence (AI), including a panel discussion on ‘Beyond the AI Hype: Real Manufacturing Success Stories’.
Conference chair ET Tan said the full house on both days reflected the keen interest among participants, as AI has become an integral part of everyday life.
“Our focus was to look at how people implement AI, not just talk about AI. We brought in people who have implemented AI. They shared their success stories and how it could be done better.
“Yesterday, on our first day, we had people from different sectors talking about agriculture, healthcare, hospitals, external services, banking and more.
“Today was all about what is happening inside factories. We heard about what different companies, such as Intel and ams Osram, are doing. In Penang, we have a lot of companies implementing AI, but they are not sharing because they are busy. This conference was a chance for them to share. If we don’t share, we don’t learn,” Tan said.
Organised by Tech Dome Penang, the conference, themed ‘Bridging The Divide Across Functions and Nations’, drew participants from more than 20 countries and representatives from over 120 technology companies, universities and organisations.
Tech Dome Penang chief executive officer Khoo Boo Wooi, who served as organising secretary, described the event as important and growing in scale, combining an exhibition with a conference.
“We’re able to get a lot of fantastic speakers, and all of them shared about AI applications.
“Initially, our target was to have more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) join because they are the ones that really need more help. But as it turned out, more attendees came from multinational companies. We hope to reach more SMEs next time, and we believe we will be able to do better,” said Khoo, who was confident of continued support from Deputy Chief Minister II and Tech Dome Penang chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo.
Ryt Bank chief technology officer Nic Ngoo, speaking on ‘Ryt AI x ILMU: Sovereign Intelligence for Digital Banking’, said the bank had made a conscious decision to hire 100% Malaysians, proving that Malaysians could build a world-class product.
Another takeaway he shared was that the bank started by thinking big before scaling down, rather than thinking small and then scaling up.
“That made a really big difference. When you start thinking big, you can then list down all the risks. When you have all the risks, then it is easier to scale back down,” he said.
Another speaker, Intel Foundry Advanced Packaging Technology & Manufacturing global senior facilities director Vincent Saw, spoke on ‘Robotics and Automation in Facility Operations’, highlighting the shift in facility operations from reactive to predictive using AI.
He also shared how sensor data could be collected on a unified platform and analysed to predict failures, optimise systems, reduce downtime and improve reliability.
During his talk, a robot dog also made a special appearance. Equipped with three payload capabilities – visual, thermal and acoustic – it can detect water leaks, hot spots and gas leaks, read analogue gauges, and send data to a remote operating centre (ROC), which creates work orders and dispatches technicians.
Tareef Jafferi, founder and chief executive officer of Happily.ai, shared insights on ‘Deploying Behavioural AI at Scale: What 10 Million Workplace Interactions Taught Us’.
He said applying behavioural science and AI could change workplace behaviour, drawing on his company’s decade of work with more than 450 companies in Southeast Asia.
“People have different motivations and abilities. Using AI to scale personalised prompts and nudges is necessary to convert motivation and ability into action,” said Tareef, a Thai who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Other speakers included PK Gupta, Global CTO & APJ Presales Lead Dell Technologies; Kelvin Tang Seng Ban, founder & principal consultant of IgniveX Technology; Peter Kua, co-founder of GrowthPro; Eugene Khoo, founder of Experior; Dr Gary CY Leong, senior director & analytics intelligence solutions at ViTrox Corporation; Sophia Siong, co-founder of Academy of Artificial Intelligece; Chong Hui Tan, Ai & data automation developer at ams Osram and Hong Phuah, information technology specialist at ams Osram; Dr Chua Wen-Shyan, head of Malaysian Smart Factory 4.0 at Selangor Human Resource Development Centre; and Dr Wong Kee Wei, chief executive officer of Keyway Digital Labs.
The panel discussion on ‘Beyond the AI Hype: Real Manufacturing Success Stories’, held after the lunch break, featured Lee Hoong Fei, director of Software Development at AMD Malaysia; Meredy Mun, regional business development manager at Innowave Tech; Yeap Kong Chean, chief executive officer of YGL Convergence; and Nizmar Mohd Nazar, chief operating officer of the Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii).
The discussion was moderated by Teresa Toh, programme director of Market and Industry Development at CREST.
Story by K.H.Ong
Pix by Siew Chia En
