MBPP smart city unit staff Alia Jasmani and S. Shanmugapiriya giving an explanation to new user Lee Tzyy Chii, 38, on ChatMBPP during the launch in Bayan Lepas. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
Penang Island City Council (MBPP) has launched its Gen.AI chatbot called ChatMBPP.
Developed by MBPP’s Smart City Unit with input from all 19 internal departments, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot supports four languages – Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin and Tamil.
ChatMBPP can respond to queries and initiate actions such as generating complaint tickets and routing them to relevant departments automatically.
The system is also part of MBPP’s agentic AI phase, enabling it to not only respond but trigger internal processes.
Rajendran says ChatMBPP will be a game changer in public service delivery.
The system is currently in beta, with MBPP noting that responses were AI-generated and for reference only, with accuracy to be improved over time.
Penang island mayor Datuk A. Rajendran said ChatMBPP was a game changer in public service delivery, offering round-the-clock access for users to obtain information, lodge complaints and use the city council services.
“It brings MBPP closer to the people and moves us towards a smarter, more responsive digital administration.
“It serves as a simple, fast and user-friendly digital platform that operates 24/7, enabling seamless interaction between the public and local authority.
“ChatMBPP is specifically designed to handle queries related to MBPP’s city management functions, including services, procedures, public complaints, enforcement, taxation and responsibilities.
“The initiative aligns with national efforts to build AI-driven cities and complements frameworks such as Penang2030 and the Malaysia Smart City agenda, while maintaining human oversight to ensure accuracy and quality,” said Rajendran.
Gen.AI was launched by Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow at Queensbay Mall, alongside Penang local government, town and country planning committee chairman Jason H’ng Mooi Lye and Digital Ministry secretary-general Datuk Fabian Bigar.
Chow said the launch represented a shift in how the government engaged with the public.
Chow: ChatMBPP serves as a key entry point into a Penang AI City ecosystem.
“As we move towards Industrial Revolution 4.0 and adopt AI, government service delivery must also evolve to be faster, more accurate and without bureaucratic hurdles.”
Chow said Penang, which contributed 44.2% or RM65bil to Malaysia’s exports as of January 2026, could no longer rely on traditional and slower administrative methods.
He added that the initiative laid the foundation for a “Penang AI City”, where data was used to improve quality of life in an inclusive manner, with ChatMBPP serving as a key entry point into that ecosystem.
The chatbot is built on Amazon Web Services infrastructure and is tailored specifically for PP’s scope of services, including city management, enforcement, taxation and public complaints.MB
Fabian said the move represented a new benchmark for local authorities, describing it as a model for how generative AI could be applied in public service delivery nationwide.
He added that Digital Ministry had approved a 5G grant to support the initiative, enabling faster, real-time responses through robust infrastructure
The IRB would typically conduct audits on taxpayers and some of the common triggers or “low hanging fruit” for desk audits include issues such as sudden jump in relief claims (for example, lifestyle relief suddenly jumping from RM300 to RM2,500).
But from a health and long-term perspective of functional medicine and ageing, these problems that can apparently be separated from one another often seem to have a common denominator: declining blood vessel health.
Central to this process is the naturally-occurring molecule nitric oxide, which is responsible for circulation, metabolism, immune balance and healthy ageing.
Nitric oxide is a gas formed in the body that relaxes and widens the channels of blood vessels within the body – a process called vasodilation.
This basic action helps to ensure that oxygen and nutrients are delivered to all tissues in the body.
Even in very small amounts, nitric oxide has a huge impact on health.
It is typically considered in functional medicine to be a marker of vascular age as healthy blood vessels are crucial for determining how well the body functions over time.
Here is why nitric oxide matters to our health:
> Heart disease and high blood pressure
Heart disease remains a major cause of death in Malaysia.
Many people assume that high blood pressure or heart disease are just a consequence of advancing age or genetic fate.
In fact, one major contributor to these conditions is endothelial dysfunction, in which the lining of a blood vessel loses its ability to produce adequate nitric oxide.
When nitric oxide levels are low, our blood vessels become stiff and inflamed, causing the heart to work harder and blood pressure to eventually rise.
The longer this goes on, the more likely you are to experience complications like heart attack and stroke.
> Diabetes and metabolic syndrome
Nitric oxide also contributes to metabolic health, which has become an increasingly serious issue in Malaysia.
A sufficient level of nitric oxide assists in increasing cellular insulin sensitivity and aiding glucose to enter the muscles more effectively.
With decreased production of nitric oxide, insulin resistance and the occurrence of type 2 diabetes increases.
This vascular-metabolic connection explains why people with diabetes are at much higher risk for heart disease, and why the health of blood vessels is critical in long-term diabetes management.
> Ageing brains
Nitric oxide is crucial for brain health and cognitive longevity.
Reduced availability of nitric oxide is associated with impaired cerebral blood flow and a greater risk of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease.
The brain is exceptionally sensitive to changes in blood flow, and even small decreases in circulation can threaten memory, concentration and mental clarity.
From a lifelong perspective, sustaining healthy blood flow to the brain is the most critical means of preserving cognitive function and independence in old age.
> Energy and stamina
Nitric oxide is closely related to a person’s energy level and physical stamina.
A lot of middle-aged and elder Malaysians say that they are easily fatigued, have low exercise resistance or take longer to recover after playing sports.
Although such symptoms are frequently ascribed to ageing, they often indicate diminished nitric oxide generation instead.
When blood vessels do not dilate properly, muscles get less oxygen for activity, leading to mild tiredness and slower recovery.
Supporting pathways through nitric oxide helps to preserve mobility, strength and vitality – key elements of healthy ageing.
> Sexual health
Another important insight into nitric oxide status comes from sexual health.
Early indicators of the ageing of the vascular system often occur in men via erectile dysfunction and women via impaired sexual responsiveness.
Nitric oxide is critical for genital blood flow and normal sexual function, so trouble in that area often shows up years before more significant cardiovascular symptoms come about.
Thus, sexual health in functional medicine is conceptualised not just as an individual problem, but also as a window into overall cardiovascular and metabolic health.
> Living longer
Nitric oxide production naturally decreases with age due to several key factors.
Sadly, Malaysia’s modern lifestyle aspects – i.e. physical inactivity, consumption of refined carbohydrates and ultra-process-ed foods, chronic stress, poor sleep, smoking, and chronic metabolic disease – only exacerbate this decline.
When the amount of nitric oxide drops, blood vessels become stiffer, inflammation rises and the body’s capacity for coping with stress decreases.
This accelerates biological ageing and raises the risk of various chronic diseases.
From a functional medicine and longevity standpoint, the idea is to not just treat disease once it starts, but also preserve nitric oxide levels over the course of a lifetime by promoting early and consistent production.
It requires that the body’s natural nitric oxide pathways be supported by lifestyle and nutritional approaches, rather than relying only on drugs for the treatment of late stage disease.
Some examples of nitrate-containing vegetables in Malaysia include:
Spinach (bayam)
Water spinach (kangkung)
Mustard greens (sawi)
Lettuce
Beetroot
Ulam-ulam (pegaga, selom, daun ketumbar).
These vegetables help to fuel the nitrate to nitrite to nitric oxide pathway, which depends on healthful oral bacteria.
This pathway may be blocked by excessive use of antiseptic mouthwash.
Regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management and so on are also important to reduce chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which quickly destroy nitric oxide and decrease blood vessel function.
> Ageing healthily
Nitric oxide, in the context of healthy ageing, is much more than a cardiovascular molecule.
It says everything about health as a healthy circulatory system serves all organs in the body.
Sufficient nitric oxide is related to higher energy metabolism, higher cognitive function, better metabolic control, healthier sexual function and resilience with ageing.
By boosting nitric oxide production, people aren’t just adding years to life, but are maximising the quality of those years.
Clinically, nitric oxide provides a valuable model of why many co-existing chronic diseases are often clustered in the same individual.
High blood pressure, diabetes, fatigue, erectile dysfunction and cognitive complaints are often treated independent of one another, but tend to stem from the same underlying problem: vascular dysfunction with a reduced availability of nitric oxide.
In a clinical setting, signs such as low exercise tolerance, chronic fatigue or sexual dysfunction should not be dismissed as standard ageing.
These findings are frequently early indicators of compromised endothelial function and increased risk of cardiometabolic disease.
Early intervention in nitric oxide pathways can help clinicians to prevent irreversible damage before it happens.
Do note however, that functional medicine does not replace medical treatment; it is an answer to root causes, not a substitute for clinical care.
Medications are often needed when necessary and life-saving, but improved long-term health happens when lifestyle problems, nutrition, metabolic state, sleep and stress are treated in parallel with pharmacological treatment.
Providing interventions to support nitric oxide production and utilisation by vascular systems provide an opportunity to enhance vascular resilience and potentially reduce the burden of future disease.
For patients, the real message is empowerment.
The many factors that affect nitric oxide – physical activity, diet, gut and oral health, sleep quality and stress – can be changed.
Even modest and consistent changes can lead to significant improvements in circulation, vitality and overall health.
Preserving nitric oxide is ultimately about protecting the body’s internal highways that connect oxygen, nutrients and signals to every cell.
When these are kept open and flexible, the body ages more slowly, recovers more efficiently and stays in use for longer.
This is what longevity-led, preventive care is about.
Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and a functional medicine practitioner. For further information, email starhealth@thestar.com.my. The information provided is for educational and communication purposes only, and it should not be construed as personal medical advice. Informa-tion published in this article is not intended to replace, supplant or augment a consultation with a health professional regarding the reader’s own medical care. The Star does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, functionality, usefulness or other assurances as to the content appearing in this column. The Star disclaims all responsibility for any losses, damage to property or personal injury suffered directly or indirectly from reliance on such information.
Leading companies are moving beyond experimentation as a third of “AI future-built” firms have deployed agentic solutions and are demonstrating measurable value.
MALAYSIA stands at a critical inflection point in the global artificial intelligence (AI) race.
After the surge of generative AI, a new wave is emerging in the form of agentic AI.
Agentic AI are AI execution models involving autonomous agents that coordinate across workflows, tools and systems with minimal human input.
While it stops short of true autonomous decision-making, agentic AI’s ability to make actionable decisions within predefined parameters is a game changer.
Malaysia has a solid foundation to build on.
According to Boston Consultant Group’s AI Maturity Matrix, which benchmarks 73 economies globally on AI exposure and AI readiness, Malaysia is classified as a “steady contender”.
It places the nation just one tier behind AI pioneers such as the United States, the United Kingdom and China.
This position reflects Malaysia’s significant exposure to AI, particularly in large sectors like retail and wholesale, telecommunication and financial services.
At the same time, it indicates a solid level of AI readiness, supported by forward-looking ambitions, policies and regulatory frameworks on AI.
An evolving AI landscape
AI is rapidly becoming a critical national infrastructure that empowers wider opportunities.
As a result, geopolitical shifts, compute access and sovereign capability increasingly determine economic outcomes and geopolitical influence.
The US and China lead the global AI race.
Tech companies from these two superpowers created 59% and 26%, respectively, of top-performing large language models (LLM).
This presents a conundrum for competing nations.
Relying solely on external technology providers poses challenges for corporate leaders and governments, especially since local regulations, data requirements and model availability are subject to shifting policies.
Against this backdrop, a small group of “GenAI middle powers” is emerging across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Each has distinct strengths that might allow it to compete as a regional or global technology supplier.
This race now expands beyond software to encompass hardware, infrastructure and technology adoption.
Malaysia must actively build its domestic AI capabilities to avoid high technology sovereignty risks as it looks to the future of agentic AI.
Execution speed and scale will dictate whether Malaysia leads in Asean or falls behind.
Encouragingly, the Digital Ministry, through the establishment of the National AI Office (NAIO), is driving a coordinated national AI agenda – spanning governance frameworks, cross-sector adoption and ecosystem development.
These efforts lay the critical foundations for more advanced applications, including the next wave of agentic AI.
Productivity multiplier
Globally, the shift is already underway and early signs indicate that the rise of agentic AI will be rapid.
BCG’s Build for the Future 2025 study shows that agentic AI’s share of AI-driven value is expected to nearly double from 17% in 2025 to 29% by 2028.
Leading companies are moving beyond experimentation – one-third of “AI future-built” firms have deployed agentic solutions and are demonstrating measurable value.
Early adopters are already unlocking tangible benefits. BCG’s study shows that while companies are exploring agentic AI across operations, support functions and innovation, customer experience is emerging as the top priority.
Leading use cases include deploying intelligent agents to autonomously handle Level 1 and Level 2 customer support, as well as optimising digital marketing campaigns – continuously adjusting bids to maximise returns, reallocating spend to high-performing channels and testing creatives in real time.
AI undoubtedly represents a powerful productivity multiplier for Malaysia.
It can strengthen key economic sectors such as manufacturing, financial services and many other industries. For SMEs, agentic AI can lower the cost of sophistication, providing access to capabilities once reserved for large enterprises.
Beyond the private sector, agentic AI can modernise public services and improve policy-making decisions and delivery in healthcare, education and justice.
It can help bridge urban-rural divides by expanding access to digital services and decision support.
In a nation balancing growth ambitions with demographic and fiscal constraints, agentic AI is not merely a technology upgrade – it is a lever for sustainable and inclusive growth.
Four strategic priorities
To compete effectively in this next phase of AI, Malaysia must act with clarity and intent across four priorities.
> Build sovereign AI capabilities. Malaysia could strategically build sovereign AI capabilities in areas where it has natural strengths and where risk mitigation matters most.
This includes expanding reliable access to compute, leveraging its growing data centre ecosystem.
A pragmatic and technology-neutral approach that combines global technology partnerships with targeted domestic capability-building will be more effective than pursuing full-stack independence.
Technology partnerships could focus on leveraging leading AI innovations from both Western and Eastern ecosystems in a neutral manner.
Open-source AI models offer a practical pathway to reduce dependency risks, accelerate adoption and support local customisation.
At the same time, efforts could focus on enabling responsible use of high-quality local datasets.
> Invest aggressively in talent. Malaysia must pair global talent attraction with sustained local capability development to build the AI workforce needed to compete at scale.
It could aggressively attract top global AI talent through competitive incentives, strong research ecosystems and vibrant innovation hubs, while simultaneously building a deep domestic pipeline of AI talent.
This requires strengthening STEM education, expanding university–industry collaboration, embedding AI in technical and vocational training and accelerating workforce upskilling across sectors.
> Scale national platforms. Malaysia must move from fragmented pilots to scaled national platforms, anchored on high-impact use cases – such as a unified government interface linked to MyDigitalID.
This platform provides a common foundation to embed AI agents that deliver personalised public services.
Scaling up such platforms will catalyse greater private-sector participation and ensure sustainable adoption of agentic AI.
In addition, Malaysia could strengthen exchange platforms that bring together the government, industry and academia to accelerate collaboration, capability-building and use case development.
Associations such as AI Malaysia (AIM), Malaysian Autonomous Intelligence & Robotics Association (MyAIRA), along with other industry associations, can play a critical role in sharing best practices, mobilising talent and aligning stakeholders to drive ecosystem-wide adoption of agentic AI.
> Implement pro-innovation regulation. Malaysia needs regulations that protect users but also preserve competition.
Policymakers could favour a flexible model over rigid frameworks, particularly in a fast-evolving technological landscape.
Malaysia could pursue a balanced approach – combining principle-based guidelines, regulatory sandboxes and sector-specific standards that can evolve alongside the technology.
Priming Malaysia for growth is critical, but it is essential that this is done through a forward-looking and ethical approach.
Malaysia has the opportunity to differentiate itself by championing ethical, inclusive AI.
This is a core foundation of effective AI adoption, and should align with national values, ensuring that trust and confidence underpin the next wave of innovation in agentic AI.
Defining the future
The stakes are clear. AI investment compounds rapidly. Early movers attract capital, talent and vibrant ecosystems.
The choice is not whether AI will reshape the Malaysian economy.
The choice is whether Malaysia will shape that transformation with speed, clarity and ambition while remaining anchored to core Malaysian values.
CF Ong is managing director and senior partner in Boston Consulting Group.
