I'm still not sure what form of investment Network School is actually bringing when people talk about hundreds of millions.
I hope it isn't another version of the old model we've seen for years—bringing in technology ideas worth hundreds of millions, positioning foreign "experts" as the only solution, and locking large Malaysian companies into paying billions over time for consulting, development, maintenance, and licensing.
Some of those ideas were genuinely good.
The problem was the execution.
Many of these so-called experts proudly lived as digital nomads, working remotely from luxury hotels by the beach while charging premium fees. Meanwhile, local engineers and developers were the ones struggling on the ground to keep the systems running.
In many cases, when those projects failed or became overly complex, it was local talent that had to rebuild, stabilise, and rescue them.
I don't want to discuss politics or any geopolitical issues here.
My point is about investment and technology.
If Network School's investment is centred around building digital platforms, software, or innovation, then I think we should ask a simple question:
Is it still relevant to spend hundreds of millions bringing in so-called world-class digital experts when AI agents can now generate many of the same ideas, prototypes, and implementations in minutes?
I'm speaking from nearly 30 years of experience in engineering and system development.
Years ago, a single development task could take months and require dozens of people.
Today, an AI agent can complete certain development tasks in around 10 minutes while I simply provide instructions through WhatsApp—without even touching a CLI.
Here's another real example.
One of our accounting staff has no formal IT background. She is simply an expert in accounting operations.
Using her domain knowledge and AI agents, she designed and built a system that, under the traditional consulting model, could easily have been valued in the millions.
The entire implementation—including multiple parser improvements—was completed in less than a week, with AI costs of under USD10.
That is the shift happening today.
The competitive advantage is no longer about hiring the most expensive consultants.
It belongs to organisations that deeply understand their own business, combine domain expertise with AI, and execute quickly.
Malaysia does not lack talent.
What we often lack is confidence in our own people.
Good investment should strengthen local capability, transfer knowledge, create local intellectual property, and reduce long-term dependency.
It should not create another generation of expensive dependence on external consultants.
Perhaps the question is no longer whether Malaysia can build world-class technology.
The real question is whether we still believe we need someone else to tell us how.
