Telkom Indonesia announced on Wednesday it is working with IBM Indonesia to develop a sovereign AI solution that it says will allow local enterprises to create reliable and responsible AI value-added services.
The solution is being built with IBM watsonx and embedded with watsonx.ai, IBM’s enterprise-grade AI development studio. Telkom said the solution will be targeted at organizations in various industry sectors such as human resources, law and marketing, among others.
Telkom business development group director Honesti Basyir said that by utilizing IBM watsonx, Telkom aims to support a responsible AI approach, to help increase productivity, innovation, and competitiveness by prioritizing transparency, bias mitigation, and data privacy.
“With the strength of the Telkom group, we will be able to offer innovative AI solutions for various industries that are in line with local data residency regulations,” Basyir said in a statement.
“IBM's Watsonx software product portfolio will accelerate the impact of generative AI, offering local or cloud hosting flexibility to users,” added IBM Asia Pacific GM Hans Dekkers. “The result is an effective, efficient AI offering, with security for local businesses, to empower responsible growth in the AI ecosystem as a whole.”
The agreement follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Telkom and IBM Indonesia in December 2024 to provide AI services tailored to Indonesia’s market needs that are also compliant with government data regulations.
Recent research from IDC projects investment in AI and Generative AI throughout Asia Pacific, including Indonesia, to reach US$175 billion in 2028 with a CAGR of 33.6% from 2023 to 2028.
Telkom said that growth is being driven by widespread AI adoption in various industry sectors. That in turn is increasing the need for both skilled AI workforce and an open, scalable AI platform that’s also compliant with government data regulations to enable businesses to create their own models.
