KUALA LUMPUR: Approximately 16% of the 97 job roles in the financial sector are expected to undergo significant transformation due to the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), says Human Resources Minister Steven Sim.
"We are looking at roles such as customer service officers, investment advisory and execution analysts, direct sales agents, product sales officers, relationship managers, business development managers, credit and lending officers, and investment operations and securities services officers," Sim stated.
He noted that 75% of roles will experience medium to low impact, while about 9% will emerge as new roles that are not commonly seen in the sector currently but will gain prominence in the near future.
These emerging roles include Machine Learning Specialists, integration architects, cloud engineers, digital transformation and adoption analysts, community partnership advisors, and sustainability and employee wellbeing officers.
Sim made these remarks during the launch of the National Human Capital Conference and Exhibition (NHCCE) 2024, organised by the Human Resource Development Corporation (HRD Corp) on Monday (Sept 30).
In the ICT sector, Sim highlighted that 8% of current roles will be highly impacted. This includes security operation analysts, data analysts, application support engineers, data centre infrastructure engineers, network engineers, IT auditors and cyber risk analysts. Emerging skills in this sector encompass emerging technology synthesis, automation management, test planning, IT strategy and solution architecture.
He also discussed the implementation of AI technology in streamlining processes, such as providing recommendations for grant applications and claims submitted by employers or training providers based on pre-set logic and criteria.
“AI will analyse the provided information and documents and will suggest whether the application should be approved, rejected, or if additional information is required,” Sim said.
He said that the use of AI has significantly reduced the grant application processing time at HRD Corp from 154 hours in 2022 (with 239,776 applications processed) to just 19 hours in 2023 (with 359,170 applications processed).
Another example is within the Social Security Organisation (Socso), where guarantee letters (GLs) are issued to contributors needing implants for rehabilitation. “Normally, it takes three days to issue a GL. Today, we are using AI to verify contributors' eligibility within one hour, significantly reducing processing time,” he added.
The financial sector report, launched by the Human Resources Ministry in collaboration with the Governor of Bank Negara in July 2024, indicated that roles highly impacted in the ICT sector may only see medium or low impact in the electrical and electronics (E&E) or food and beverage (F&B) sectors, or could even emerge as new roles in those sectors.
"The examples I cited have undergone not only theoretical research but also focus group deliberations with current industry leaders," Sim noted. "We aim to release the impact report within this month. From there, Kesuma will craft our skills policy to ensure training strategies address actual gaps in the real world, not merely conjectures from politicians."
He emphasised the importance of collaborating with partner ministries, particularly through the National Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council, which is presided over by the Deputy Prime Minister, to ensure skills education and training are tailored to meet real-world needs.
Also present at the event were Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad, its secretary-general Datuk Azman Mohd Yusof, and HRD Corp chairman Datuk Abu Huraira Abu Yazid.
