AI-savvy Malaysian consumers hold an estimated RM190 billion in spending power, Entermind whitepaper finds

Kuala Lumpur, October 27, 2026 – A large share of Malaysia’s consumer spending now sits with people who have made AI a core part of how they search, decide and buy. That is the headline finding of The Secret Lives of AI-Ready Customers, a new whitepaper from AI-native consultancy Entermind, which puts the figure at roughly RM190 billion a year.

The study draws on a September 2026 survey of 1,300 adult AI users in Malaysia. It traces where AI influences the customer journey, from the first search to the final decision, and what that means for the apps, websites, sales and service channels that brands depend on.

Entermind calls this group’s spending the “AI-Savvy Economy”: the annual household spending of about 10 million adults who score as “Savvy” or “Vanguard” on its proprietary index. Nearly half of the respondents (47.9%) fall into these two categories.

AI is becoming the first stop for big decisions

When researching an important decision, 43% of respondents turn to an AI assistant first, compared with 31% who start with a search engine. Meanwhile, 41% have already made a purchase or financial decision mainly on the strength of information or recommendations from AI.

Habit appears to matter. Daily AI users are twice as likely as weekly or occasional users to have acted on AI’s advice (52% versus 26%), which suggests that each helpful answer makes people more willing to act on the next one.

Customers now expect brands to keep up

Expectations are rising alongside usage. Some 78% of respondents said they wish company apps and websites made information and decisions as easy as AI tools do. Within apps and websites, 42% prefer a search box while only 17% prefer menus, pointing to a preference for quick answers over navigation.

Entermind describes this gap as “AI Experience Debt”: the difference between how much customers want AI to simplify their choices and how well a brand’s own channels deliver on that. In practice, people may use AI to compare loans, schools or holidays, only to find that a brand’s app, website or service line cannot offer the same level of help.

“The most important conversations about a brand are now happening in a room the brand isn’t in. Customers are asking AI which bank to trust or which school to choose, and companies can’t see any of it. However, customers haven’t handed over the decision. The brands that win will make every touchpoint, from the search box to the service desk, as useful as the AI their customers already trust,” said Prashant Kumar, Founder and CEO of Entermind.

“Many company boards still treat AI as a way to cut or optimise costs, but our data shows that it is a revenue question. The customers holding an estimated RM190 billion in spending annually have already changed how they decide, so either your business changes with them, or it watches from the sidelines.”

Other key findings

• Hands-on users welcome digital humans. People who have acted on AI advice are far more comfortable than those who have not with a metahuman assistant (63% versus 37%), AI voice support (57% versus 32%) and sharing data with a trusted company’s AI (58% versus 36%).
• Where AI helps depends on the purchase. Respondents found AI most useful for comparing options in retail (41%), understanding them in healthcare (45%) and discovering them in travel (36%).
• Where the RM190 billion goes. After housing and utilities, the biggest shares go to restaurants and accommodation (RM32.3 billion), food and beverages (RM29.8 billion) and transport (RM20.9 billion), based on the national spending pattern in the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s Household Expenditure Survey 2024.
  

More from Entermind

The whitepaper follows Entermind’s Confessions of an AI Chatbot (April 2026), a study of customer service chatbot quality in Malaysia, and Rukun Ready, its ethical AI model for deploying AI in line with Rukun Negara principles.