AI skills that matter now: Malaysian jobs, fresh grads and Friday's Budget

Today’s AI news is about work: which jobs are changing in Malaysia, what the layoff data really shows, and what a 40-year-old admin manager or fresh graduate should learn this month. Raj leads a look at the new communications-sector skills framework, Khazanah Research Institute’s job-loss analysis, and a global report showing basic AI skills losing value while hands-on building gains.

AI-YA Daily is researched, written and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team.

We also cover Anthropic’s US$100 million (about RM408 million) academy to train 10,000 AI deployment engineers, with no Asian cohort. Budget 2027 is tabled on Friday 9 October, and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has hinted at a youth allocation. And we cover New York City Council questioning OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta under oath on ten proposed AI bills, and what that means for Malaysia’s own AI law.

Timestamps 0:04 Cold open 0:34 Meet the hosts 1:19 Anthropic’s RM408m academy for AI deployment engineers 2:59 Correction: Budget 2027 is on Friday 9 October; a youth allocation hinted 4:28 New York City Council puts the AI giants under oath 6:03 A word from AI-YA 6:40 Work & skills: which Malaysian jobs are changing, and what to learn 11:02 The Big Question: fast-track fresh grads, or protect entry-level jobs? 11:49 The Verdict: a two-day HRD Corp-claimable AI course 12:18 One thing to do today: time one tedious task with a free AI tool

Today’s Verdict: A two-day HRD Corp-claimable generative AI course (around RM1,890 a head). Aiman: Bayar. Mei Ling: Bayar. Raj: Free cukup.

Stories and sources

• Anthropic: Claude Frontier Academy
• Free Malaysia Today: Anwar hints at special allocation for youths in 2027 budget
• The Edge: Anwar hints at special allocation for youth in Budget 2027
• The Star: AI for the People participants to complete six modules for free AI tools
• amNY: AI giants at NYC Council hearing
• theSun: Govt to assess AI impact on jobs in communications and multimedia sector
• The Capital Post: New framework charts future skills for communications sector
• Khazanah Research Institute: Why AI is not (yet) behind Malaysia’s job losses
• Workday Global Workforce Report
• REHDA Institute survey via Newswav
• Example HRD Corp-claimable AI course fees
• Bernama: ringgit rate, 1 October

Standing thread: T3 The fresh grad question.

AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. Details at ai-ya.my/podcast.