KUALA LUMPUR: For some farmers, fishermen and small business owners in Muar, preparing for Malaysia's artificial intelligence (AI) future begins with learning how to set up an email account, use Microsoft Word and work with Excel spreadsheets.

The digital skills gap remains evident between rural and urban communities. In 2025, 83.6 per cent of rural households had access to a computer, compared with 95.3 per cent of urban households.

The disparity is also reflected in programming skills among computer users aged 15 to 24, with 34.1 per cent of rural users reporting coding skills compared with 56.3 per cent in urban areas, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia's ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households Survey Report 2025.