The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (KOMDIGI) and Microsoft today launch ElevAIte Indonesia, an AI skilling initiative to equip 1 million Indonesian talents with the AI skills needed in the era of AI transformation. Combining the words “Elevate” with “AI”, this initiative brings a spirit of collaboration between various elements of the society, to elevate Indonesia’s global achievements with AI technology.

In its implementation, ElevAIte Indonesia will be executed in collaboration with governments, industry, educational institutions, nonprofits, and civil society, to connecting Indonesians with new opportunities created by AI. Starting from supercharging productivity, amplifying creativity, increasing quality of works, to accelerating innovation responsibly.

The Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, Meutya Hafid, emphasized the importance of a more responsible approach in utilizing technology, especially AI, which increasingly influences various aspects of life. “Modern technology, such as AI, demands all of us, particularly leaders, to become wiser, more patient, and more accommodating. The development of AI offers great opportunities to improve the quality of life, but it also brings challenges that must be managed thoroughly,” said Meutya.

Furthermore, the Minister of KOMDIGI explained that collaboration, communication, and negotiation are essential keys to ensuring that technology can be utilized with full capacity and responsibility. “The utilization of AI cannot be done unilaterally. We need collaboration with various stakeholders, such as the government, industries, and the community. Through initiatives like ElevAIte Indonesia, we eager to show how AI can be used to strengthen the national ecosystem while maintaining ethical values and common interests,” added Meutya.

The ElevAIte Indonesia program is a concrete example of this collaborative approach. By involving a wide range of ecosystem partners, this initiative is designed to equip the younger generation and workforce with AI skills that meet the needs of industry and society. In addition to enhancing human resource capacity, this program also become a foundation for Indonesia to compete in global-level and achieve the vision of Indonesia Emas 2045.

ElevAIte Indonesia is becoming increasingly important given the increasing need for AI skills in the workforce. According to the Work Trend Index report released by Microsoft and LinkedIn in early 2024, 69% of leaders in Indonesia stated that they would not hire someone without AI skills. As many as 76% are even more likely to recruit candidates with less work experience but are reliable using AI, compared to experienced candidates without AI capabilities.

“With around 70% of Indonesia’s population in productive age, equipping them with the right AI skills becomes increasingly important. It is us, the Indonesian talent who will be able to drive Indonesia moving forward to achieve the vision of Indonesia Emas 2045. Therefore, ElevAIte Indonesia will focus on equipping skills to adopt responsible AI. From using AI tools to complete tasks more quickly and with better quality, to developing AI solutions to create added value and address the most pressing national issues. It is important to remember that AI transformation is not merely a technological transformation, but a national transformation. We are honoured to partner with the Ministry of KOMDIGI and the entire national ecosystem to empower Indonesian talent,” said Dharma Simorangkir, President Director of Microsoft Indonesia.

In order to achieve the target of 1 million AI skills for Indonesia by 2025, the implementation of ElevAIte Indonesia will be divided into five main pillars, with Biji-Biji Initiative and Dicoding as training partners. Each pillar will also collaborate with different institutions, organizations, and communities, in order to connect people across Indonesia with the AI opportunities inclusively. The five pillars are:

1. Enable government agencies to drive AI fluency. This pillar focuses on providing AI skills training for civil servants, in order to provide even better public services.
2. Scale reach through strategic national industries. This pillar focuses on accelerating AI transformation for Indonesian industry players, ranging from MSMEs to enterprises, in order to accelerate innovation and create new AI economic value.
3. Unlock AI for education. The pillar focuses on revolutionizing learning in Indonesia’s education systems and nurturing a new generation of Indonesian developers with AI skills. Indonesia already has a significant number of developers. The GitHub report shows that Indonesia is the third largest home for the GitHub developer community in the Asia Pacific region, after India and China. Indonesia is also projected to become one of the five largest developer communities on GitHub globally by 2026. Not only that, Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing developer groups  in Asia Pacific as well, with an increase in the number of developers on GitHub reaching 31 percent year-on-year in 2023.
4. Enable social, environmental, community, and impact organizations: This pillar focuses on providing AI skills to underserved, underrepresented and digitally marginalized communities. These include women, people with disabilities, and people in remote areas. NUCare Global and Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert are partners of the program, with more partners to be announced separately.
5. Empower individual learners. This pillar focuses on ensuring every person has the opportunity to learn. To kick-off, Microsoft has launched AI Skills Navigator, a platform that brings together all learning content from Microsoft Learn and LinkedIn Learning. Equipped with AI assistants and can be accessed through microsoft.com, this platform can make it easier for individuals to find AI learning materials that suit their learning goal and interest. The platform will be available in Indonesian language soon.

Rashvin Pal Singh, Group CEO, Biji-Biji Initiative said, “Over the past two years, we have worked closely with the ministry of KOMDIGI and Microsoft to organize AI skills programs. From these programs, we have seen firsthand how some participants can get a better job, or have a more prosperous life. Now, with ElevAIte Indonesia, we hope to further expand on our existing achievement, along with an increasingly integrated and scalable approach.”

Narenda Wicaksono, Chief Executive Officer, Dicoding said, “As a technology education platform, we are fully aware how AI new capabilities now become significant milestones over the last few years. We have used AI to serve more than 1 million Dicoding members. We believe that with the right AI skills, individuals and organizations can create innovative solutions to bring positive impact for the community, industry, and the [nation. Considering these objectives, we are pleased to join Kemkomdigi, Microsoft, and the entire Indonesian digital ecosystem in the ElevAIte Indonesia initiative.”

The Minister of KOMDIGI concluded by quoting President Prabowo Subianto ‘s remarks at the APEC Summit 2024 in Peru, emphasizing the need of balance in utilizing technology: “Great advances in technology demand leaders to be wiser, more patient, and more accommodating. Technology has the power to bring extraordinary advances. However, it could cause significant harm to human life in a short time.” Therefore, collaboration, communication, and negotiation are the best ways forward. We must adhere to international laws and regulations, but also have to understand common interests.”

The existence of ElevAIte Indonesia is expected to be a strategic measure in building an inclusive and empowering digital ecosystem.

###