Yogyakarta. PT Telkom Indonesia has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gadjah Mada University (UGM) to develop the Telkom Artificial Intelligence (AI) Center of Excellence on the UGM campus.
The agreement—finalized at UGM’s Gelanggang Inovasi dan Kreativitas (GIK) on 15 November 2025—aims to bring Telkom’s industry capabilities closer to university research and talent to speed up AI innovation and commercialization.
What the partnership will do
Telkom’s digital IT director, Faizal Rochmad Djoemadi, said the move will relocate the company’s AI Center of Excellence to UGM to be nearer to academic research and to tap into campus talent. Telkom intends the center to act as a pipeline: universities drive long-term basic research while industry accelerates downstream development and brings solutions to market.
Over the past decade Telkom has invested roughly Rp8 trillion to develop Indonesia’s national digital ecosystem—an investment the company says will support further AI and digital initiatives under this collaboration.
Why this matters for Indonesia
UGM Rector Prof. Ova Emilia described the partnership as a practical “link-and-match” between education and industry that will create an ecosystem to shorten the path from discovery to real-world use. She emphasized that the collaboration should help research find routes for industrial adoption and deliver benefits for the nation.
Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, Nezar Patria, welcomed the initiative as a potential national learning and research hub that can generate solution-driven AI innovations. He noted the broader economic promise for the region—citing projections for Southeast Asia’s digital economy—and highlighted government plans to prepare an AI roadmap and ethical regulation to be formalized via presidential regulation (Perpres).
Potential impacts and priorities
- Talent & research synergies: Placing the AI Center within a major university is intended to increase collaboration between technical and non-technical researchers, widening AI research uptake across disciplines.
- Commercialization focus: Telkom stresses that innovations must be market-ready and revenue-generating—industry partners will focus on rapid prototyping, piloting, and downstream deployment.
- Policy alignment: Government involvement signals movement toward national coordination on AI strategy and ethical safeguards, which should ease wider adoption while addressing risks.
What to watch next
Readers should look for details on the center’s research themes, funding model, partner programs (internships, joint labs, and start-up incubation), and the formal AI roadmap and ethical guidelines from the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. Those elements will determine how fast the center can scale and how broadly its outputs will be used across Indonesian public and private sectors.
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