Malaysian small businesses have heard plenty about using AI as a helper that answers questions or drafts emails. CelcomDigi is now offering something that goes a step further: software that can actually carry out the work.

The company has commercialised Sophia AI, an AI-powered digital workforce built on agentic AI. Unlike a chatbot that waits for prompts, an agentic system can execute tasks, connect different systems, and run a business process from start to finish. CelcomDigi is positioning it for large enterprises and, importantly, for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that make up the bulk of the Malaysian economy.

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Why agentic AI, and why now

The timing lines up with a national push to widen access to AI. The Ministry of Finance's Economic Outlook 2026 notes that AI adoption among SMEs is still uneven, held back by uncertainty over the return on investment and a shortage of platforms built for smaller businesses. Sophia AI is CelcomDigi's answer to both: a way for a smaller company to adopt AI without hiring a large technology team or rebuilding how it already works. For the wider context on where the country sits, see our report on how widely Malaysians already use AI and what the government wants next.

CelcomDigi says it built Sophia AI on its own experience first. "We deployed more than 400 automations across our operations to generate cost efficiencies and deliver better customer experience," said T. Kugan, the company's Chief Enterprise Business Officer. The stated aim now is to pass those same gains to other organisations, taking repetitive admin off employees so they can spend time on work that needs human judgement.

What it does across different industries

The clearest example CelcomDigi gives is the invoice-to-payment cycle in retail and distribution. Instead of staff checking and updating several systems by hand, Sophia AI can read and validate invoices, flag exceptions, route issues to the right person, trigger approvals, and update records automatically. For a business juggling many suppliers and stores, that means fewer errors and better visibility over money and stock. The company says the same approach extends to other sectors:

  • Manufacturing: workflows across procurement, production, warehouse and finance, from supplier documents to inventory and delivery records.
  • Healthcare: appointments, claims, referrals, procurement and billing.
  • Public sector: applications, document checks, case management, citizen enquiries and reporting.

Built to start small

The part that matters most for smaller operators is customisation. CelcomDigi says the system can be tailored to a company's size and complexity, so an SME can begin with the one or two processes that cause the most pain and scale from there at a pace its budget allows. The company also says it will work alongside businesses through the whole journey, from spotting high-value opportunities to integrating with existing systems, deploying the AI agents, and measuring the results.

Sophia AI sits within CelcomDigi's broader enterprise stack, which spans connectivity, 5G, cloud, data, cybersecurity, IoT and automation. This is not the operator's first move toward SMEs either. Earlier this month it ran free digital-skills workshops for SMEs in Penang, reaching the same audience from the training side.

CelcomDigi has not published pricing for Sophia AI, and the offer is pitched as something a business shapes around its own operations rather than a fixed package. For Malaysian SMEs weighing whether agentic AI is worth the leap, the message is simple enough: start with one messy process, let the software handle it end to end, and judge the result before going further.

Cover image: Beatriz Cattel via Unsplash.