Jakarta, 4 June 2025 – PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) and PT IBM Indonesia (IBM) team up to deliver sovereign AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions that will empower businesses in the country to fuel their growth and digital transformation journey. Built with IBM watsonx and embedded with watsonx.ai, IBM’s enterprise-grade AI development studio, the solutions will allow organizations to create reliable and responsible AI value-added services for varied industry practitioners such as HR, Legal, Marketers and many more.

The latest data from IDC titled "Asia/Pacific AI Spending to Reach $175 Billion by 2028, Driven by GenAI Boom" shows that investment in AI and Generative AI across Asia Pacific, including Indonesia, is projected to reach US$175 billion by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33.6% from 2023 to 2028.

This rapid growth is driven by the widespread adoption of AI in various industry sectors that has enhanced the need for skilled AI workforce to serve as a key driver of national digital economic growth and increased global competitiveness. In addition, there is a need for an open, scalable and compliant AI platform that allows businesses to create their own model that meets the requirements of their end users.

By leveraging IBM watsonx, Telkom aims to support a responsible AI approach, which will help boost productivity, innovation, and competitiveness by prioritizing transparency, bias mitigation, and data privacy. This will be achieved by enhancing the development and commercialization of Telkom’s AI offerings for its subsidiaries, customers and the Indonesian market as a whole.

Signed by Telkom Deputy EVP Digital Technology & Platform, Ari Kurniawan, and President Director of IBM Indonesia, Roy Kosasih, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at the Telkom Landmark Tower building, Jakarta, the collaboration is a follow-up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed by both parties in December 2024.

In the photo, from left to right, are: IBM Indonesia Executive Chairman Omar Sjawaldy Anwar, IBM Asia Pacific General Manager Hans Dekkers, Telkom Deputy EVP Digital Technology & Platform Ari Kurniawan, President Director of IBM Indonesia Roy Kosasih, Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director (2022-2025) FM Venusiana R. and Telkom Group Business Development Director (2022-2025) Honesti Basyir.

The signing was attended by Telkom management, including Group Business Development Director, Honesti Basyir, and Enterprise & Business Service Director, FM Venusiana R. IBM executives were also present, including IBM Asia Pacific General Manager, Hans Dekkers, IBM Indonesia President Director, Roy Kosasih, and IBM Indonesia Executive Chairman, Omar Sjawaldy Anwar.

Telkom Group Business Development Director, Honesti Basyir, stated, "This collaboration combines the strength of Telkom's digital infrastructure and IBM's AI excellence and readiness to serve customers in Indonesia. With the strength of the Telkom group, we will be able to offer innovative AI solutions for a variety of industries that are aligned to local data residency regulations."

“Our collaboration with Telkom will help create a sovereign AI solution where data will be processed and stored within Indonesia,” notes Hans Dekkers, General Manager of IBM Asia Pacific. “Watsonx is a unique portfolio of software products that help accelerate the impact of generative AI because the products can be hosted on premise or in the cloud, making AI that is effective, efficient and equipped with ethical guardrails accessible to local businesses to help grow the overall AI ecosystem.”

Telkom is committed to providing the best digital solutions for customers. IBM, as a global technology player, supports Telkom in developing AI solutions to help create local use cases across Telkom’s subsidiaries and beyond. IBM watsonx will help enable Telkom to become an sovereign AI platform service provider tailor-made for local industries, such as telecommunications, healthcare, education, financial services and more.

About IBM

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