Dnex pivots towards sovereign AI growth

PETALING JAYA: Dagang NeXchange Bhd’s (Dnex) information technology (IT) division is targeting 20% to 30% revenue growth this year as it expands beyond its traditional government technology services business into sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure solutions.

Dnex IT chief executive officer Marlishiraz Ramli (pic) said the strategy will allow the division to broaden its addressable market beyond government agencies to include enterprises and large businesses.

“Previously, we were more of a government technology service provider, but today we are positioning ourselves strongly as a sovereign AI and digital infrastructure partner to Malaysia,” she told StarBiz.

“We’re moving up the value chain.

“More importantly, we are building our AI-driven solutions.”

Marlishiraz, who assumed the role on June 1, 2025, after joining from Microsoft, said Dnex is taking a two-pronged approach by embedding AI capabilities into its existing platforms while developing new AI-powered solutions.

“In fact, we see AI as a horizontal capability that cuts across the entire Dnex group,” she added.

As part of that strategy, Dnex last week launched XWHIZ, its homegrown sovereign AI productivity suite.

The platform converts voice recordings into transcripts, which can then be transformed into customisable meeting minutes and linked to actionable outcomes.

Marlishiraz said Dnex spent about 12 months developing and training the platform’s language model to better understand Malaysian language nuances.

“It’s unique because the architecture behind XWHIZ was developed entirely in-house, making it a sovereign-built AI solution,” she added.

Marlishiraz said sovereign AI has become increasingly important as governments seek greater control over sensitive national data.

“In layman’s terms, sovereign AI is about having your data, your platform and your solution within the country, within the national border,” she said.

While acknowledging that global hyperscalers already offer transcription capabilities through their productivity suites and online meeting platforms, Marlishiraz said XWHIZ goes a step further by providing an end-to-end workflow that transforms recordings into transcripts, generates meeting minutes and produces actionable tasks.

However, she stressed that AI should be viewed as an enabler rather than a replacement for people.

“AI is just a tool and an enabler.

“At the end of the day, our key message to all our customers is that human oversight is very important,” she said.

“It’s not to replace people, but it is supposed to optimise the process.”

Beyond developing new AI products, Dnex is also embedding AI capabilities into its existing government technology platforms, including the National Single Window, its core trade facilitation platform for import and export declarations that connects more than 45,000 businesses and processes over 100 million electronic transactions annually.

Marlishiraz said AI enhancements to the platform include risk profiling, risk management and process automation as Dnex works on 38 strategic initiatives requested by government agencies.

Meanwhile, Marlishiraz said Dnex is expanding into other digital solutions, including smart applications for local authorities and subscription-based offerings that can be adopted by both governments and businesses.

She said the subscription model would enable the company to diversify beyond traditional project-based government contracts and create more scalable recurring revenue streams.

“Given all the efforts that we are putting in, we are looking at about 20% to 30% growth for this year,” she said.

Dnex’s IT segment contributed about 16% of its revenue of RM1.04bil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2025 (FY25).

The segment returned to the black with a profit before tax (PBT) of RM58.24mil in FY25, compared with a loss before tax (LBT) of RM11.3mil a year earlier, even as the group remained loss-making with a LBT of RM558.91mil.

The segment’s turnaround was driven by the divestment of the loss-making Subsea Telco business, alongside ongoing cost optimisation initiatives.

The momentum carried into the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, when the IT segment contributed RM36.93mil, or about 14% of the group’s RM267.56mil revenue, but accounted for RM16.68mil, or nearly 72%, of Dnex’s RM23.28mil group PBT.