At the 5th Artificial Intelligence Innovation Summit (AIIS) in Jakarta, the AI Asia Pacific Institute (AIAPI) was honoured to contribute to a panel on policy alongside leaders from government, academia, and industry. The discussion underscored both the progress Indonesia has made in advancing responsible AI and the important next steps to ensure a future that is inclusive, sustainable, safe, and innovation-friendly.
In order to accelerate the development and utilization of Artificial Intelligence (Kecerdasan Artifisial or KA), the Ministry of Communication and Digital launched the White Paper on the National Artificial Intelligence Roadmap together with the Concept of AI Ethical Guidelines. Since their publication in 2020, Indonesia has made significant progress. Most notably, it became the first country in Southeast Asia to complete UNESCO’s AI Readiness Assessment (RAM), providing a comprehensive baseline across legal, social, economic, and infrastructural dimensions. This demonstrates both leadership and commitment to embedding AI within a responsible governance framework.
During the panel, Executive Director, Kelly Forbes, emphasised that maintaining this momentum will require careful attention to several interlinked areas. The establishment of the Lembaga Pengawas PDP is critical to provide clarity and build trust in how personal data is governed, especially in AI contexts. Its independence and effectiveness will be central to aligning Indonesia’s practices with global standards while ensuring that innovation can flourish. Regulatory sandboxes should also be deployed to balance innovation with risk management. The healthcare sector is an immediate priority, given the sensitivities around personal data and patient safety, but finance and transport will quickly follow. Drawing on AIAPI’s regional work, we highlighted the importance of designing these sandboxes to also address the challenges of generative AI, incorporating criteria such as fairness, explainability, and bias testing, and encouraging knowledge sharing across ASEAN. At the same time, it will be important to address what Indonesia’s White Paper itself identified as a risk: slow regulatory response. The solution lies not in faster lawmaking alone but in embedding adaptive, multi-stakeholder mechanisms so that policies evolve in step with technology.
To these areas we add a fourth: AIAPI’s recommendation for the establishment of a regional Technical Assistance AI facility. In a time of rising global geopolitical tension that will undoubtedly affect the ASEAN region, this facility is more important than ever. It would strengthen regional cooperation, enable shared expertise, and help ASEAN member states collectively manage both the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence. By pooling knowledge and building collective capacity, ASEAN can better safeguard its interests while remaining competitive in the global AI landscape. Through this Facility, ASEAN member countries will also be able to make progress in online safety and in managing the challenges posed by workforce transformation, both areas stressed by AIAPI.
A further area of discussion centred on how to support domestic innovation without closing the door to global collaboration. Policies such as Tingkat Komponen Dalam Negeri (TKDN) can play an important role in strengthening local ecosystems, but they must remain flexible to avoid creating unrealistic barriers for startups. With major economies, including the United States and China, shaping AI standards and supply chains, Indonesia’s approach should ensure it remains connected to global value chains while building capacity at home.
The AIAPI’s central message was clear: Indonesia is working to demonstrate leadership in responsible AI, but sustained progress will depend on building a coherent, adaptive, and innovation-friendly policy environment. The work ahead is not only national but regional. By aligning national efforts with ASEAN’s emerging frameworks on AI governance and ethics, and by investing in shared capacity through initiatives such as a regional technical facility, Indonesia can continue to set the pace for responsible and inclusive AI adoption in Southeast Asia.
