Minister of Communication and Digital Application, Meutya V. Hafid, has hinted at Asia’s growing influence in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting that even modest investments in AI can yield significant global impacts.

“In fact, an AI model from a startup in Guangzhou, launched in December 2024, shocked the global AI industry by halting the loss of up to US$590 billion in U.S. tech market value,” Meutya said at the Asia Economic Summit 2025 in South Jakarta on Thursday, June 26, 2025.

The startup she referred to is DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng. With an investment of only US$6 million (Rp97.1 billion), DeepSeek developed an open-source large language model (LLM) that quickly gained global attention as a rival to leading models like ChatGPT by OpenAI.

Meutya emphasized that digital transformation and AI development are not just innovations, but catalysts for national economic growth and strategic assets for the future.

“This technology creates cross-sector opportunities − from public services to industry − but must always prioritize ethics and responsibility,” she said.

Citing the AI Index report, Meutya noted that global AI investment surged from US$3.9 billion in 2022 to US$33.9 billion in 2024, with the economic potential of AI expected to reach US$7 trillion by 2030, alongside the creation of 40 percent new job categories.

Across the Asia-Pacific region, the adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) is accelerating. Sixty percent of companies in the region have already realized business value from GenAI, 49 percent recognize its potential, and 35 percent are currently in the trial phase. Adoption rates are notably high in several countries: China (75 percent), India (70 percent), Australia and New Zealand (75 percent), and East Asia (67 percent). In Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, the adoption rate stands at 65 percent.

“With hundreds of millions of people and a rapidly expanding creator ecosystem, ASEAN holds immense potential to become the world’s digital transformation hub,” Meutya said.