The ever-evolving digital technology is increasing demand for skilled digital workers. Unfortunately, this demand is yet to be met in Indonesia. The country still lacks digital talents capable of fulfilling this demand.
The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered one of the innovations that can be pursued to help accelerate digital talent in Indonesia.
AI is seen as a tool that can be used to develop various curricula and training programs to enhance human resources in line with industry needs. Of course, this must be supported by policies and regulations that govern the adaptation of this technology.
The Center for Digital Society (CfDS) at the UGM Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, in collaboration with KORIKA, initiated Digital Expert Talks #20.
Discussing the importance of AI for accelerating digital talent in Indonesia, Digital Expert Talks #20 invited speakers Eyla Maranny (Ministry of Communication and Information Technology), Alex Budiyanto (VP Talenta KORIKA), and Professor Ridi Ferdiana (UGM Faculty of Engineering), with Rizka Herdiani (Center for Digital Society) acting as the moderator.
During this session, Eyla Maranny highlighted Indonesia’s industry landscape and digital resources in the current era of AI development. Data shows that the number of jobs and the demand for AI-related workers have recently increased significantly.
According to her, this creates a potential for new job opportunities while slowly eliminating human roles in conventional jobs replaced by advanced AI.
Therefore, as a step towards competitiveness in keeping up with technological advancements and industry demand, investment in human resources becomes crucial through accelerating digital talent in Indonesia.
“To support this, the ministry is committed to addressing the issue of a shortage of digital talent in Indonesia through several programs, training, and collaborative efforts with stakeholders from the industrial sector, academia, government, and the community,” Maranny said on Thursday (November 16).
“Programs and solution-oriented approaches by the ministry, such as the Digital Leadership Academy, National Digital Literacy Movement, and Digital Talent Scholarship, are expected to create 9,000 digital talents by 2030 to support accelerating digital transformation in Indonesia.”
Meanwhile, Alex Budiyanto conveyed that the main issue related to the digital talent resources in Indonesia is that they did not align with the industry’s needs.
Therefore, digital skills, such as data literacy, programming, machine learning, AI ethics, and machine learning, are crucial for Indonesian human resources to remain competitive in the current era of AI development.
He pointed out that the mastery of digital skills nowadays can be obtained through formal education and training programs with international certifications and self-directed learning based on micro-credentials.
“AI learning certainly requires a deep understanding of ethics, privacy policy processes, and its usage as preparation to face challenges arising from the development of artificial intelligence technology,” said Budiyanto.
As the last speaker, Professor Ferdiana added that digital literacy is one of the essential skills to be mastered to adopt AI for improving the quality of digital talent in Indonesia.
In this context, digital literacy encompasses basic skills in using devices or digital technology and understanding concepts such as internet ethics and digital security to create a competitive digital ecosystem.
“Through digital literacy, the implementation of AI technology will have a more significant impact in boosting daily productivity and even supporting the career development interests of digital talents in the future,” explained the professor at the end of the discussion.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Image: Viva