AI Job Atlas
AI & jobs · State in Malaysia

Sabah

State MY-12 Largest city: Kota Kinabalu
29%
of jobs here are estimated to be exposed to generative AI, below the national 29% (−0.1 pts).
MODEL9th of 16 regions493K exposed workers

Key numbers

PopulationWIKIDATA
3.4M
as of 2020
Share of national populationWIKIDATA
9.4%
3rd largest of 16
People in workMODEL
1.7M
national total × population share
Highest-exposure jobsMODEL
5.8%
national 5.8%
Area
74.2K km²
46 people per km²
Settlement patternMODEL
Mixed
39% live in major cities
Largest city
Kota Kinabalu
528K (metro)
Mapped towns & cities
4
Natural Earth places

AI use

The Anthropic Economic Index does not publish usage for this region. Regions below a minimum number of sampled conversations are left out.

Sector mix

MODEL

Estimated share of jobs by sector, against the national mix.

Sabah Malaysia
Retail & wholesale 18.8%
Manufacturing 16.6%
Hospitality 10.6%
Agriculture 9.2%
Business services 8.9%
Construction 7.9%
Education 6.2%
Public admin 4.8%
Transport & logistics 4.7%
Health & care 4.0%
Other services 2.7%
Finance 2.5%
ICT & software 1.5%
Utilities 1.1%
Mining 0.5%

Exposed workers by sector

MODEL
Retail & wholesale 107K Business services 63.2K Manufacturing 52.7K Education 48.9K Hospitality 48.7K Public admin 39.5K Health & care 27.7K Finance 25.4K

Ranking in Malaysia

MODEL

By modelled AI exposure, out of 16 regions.

6Sarawak 30% 7Terengganu 30% 8Negeri Sembilan 29% 9Sabah 29% 10Kedah 29% 11Kuala Lumpur 29% 12Selangor 28%
About these estimates. No source publishes AI exposure by region for every country. The model splits Malaysia's real ILO sector employment across regions using population (Wikidata) and density: denser, capital-city regions get more finance, ICT and professional jobs, and rural regions more farming. Totals match national figures. AI usage figures are measured, not modelled. Methodology

Other regions of Malaysia

All of Malaysia →