The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2025
CelcomDigi's Maya AI chatbot revived Borneo's fading languages — and won a Kancil
Instead of another festive ad, CelcomDigi launched Maya, an AI chatbot that learns Iban and Dusun from speakers — and won a Kancil Bronze.
CelcomDigi
The solution
Across Borneo, native languages like Iban and Dusun are slowly fading under urbanisation and globalisation, and festive advertising usually does nothing about it. CelcomDigi, a telco connecting more than 20 million Malaysians, chose to use the Gawai and Kaamatan harvest season to help preserve East Malaysia's native tongues instead of running another sentimental spot.
The idea was Maya: an AI-powered language-learning chatbot with the personality of a curious, talkative 12-year-old girl, developed with Replyr.ai. She speaks in Iban and Dusun, learns from every conversation, and shares that knowledge back with the community by asking about their rituals, customs and stories. As Replyr.ai's founder put it, 'We're not just preserving vocabulary, we're carrying forward identity, memory, and the living rhythm of multiple cultures.'
A companion five-minute film, directed by Sarawakian filmmaker Dexter Anthony, follows a young Iban girl who travels across a whimsical Borneo catching dialects, poems and songs in glass jars before releasing them — with real community poems and songs woven into the story. Offline, the 'Misi Kereta Api' train missions connected with travellers heading home for the festivals in Sabah and Sarawak.
The campaign earned a Bronze for Best Use of Social & Messaging Platforms at the Kancil Awards 2025, part of a night on which NAGA DDB Tribal was named Agency of the Year. The chatbot remained available as a digital companion for learning ancestral languages after the festival ended.
Why it worked
- It gave endangered languages a working digital tool instead of a one-off film — the chatbot kept teaching after the campaign ended.
- A 12-year-old persona made learning feel like conversation, inviting speakers to contribute their own words rather than take a lesson.
- Memory was the product: Maya remembered each user's expressions and reused them, so identity, not just vocabulary, carried forward.
- Rooting the film in real Iban and Dusun poems and songs made the community the author, not the subject.
What can be applied
A festive campaign can do more than sell: give a fading culture a tool that grows with its users, and the brand becomes part of the story rather than a sponsor of it.
Aftermath
Maya won a Bronze Kancil in 2025 for Best Use of Social & Messaging Platforms, with NAGA DDB Tribal taking Agency of the Year that night. CelcomDigi framed the chatbot as part of its wider ambition to connect Malaysians through shared identity and cultural continuity; no formal adoption or learning metrics were published.
Sources
- CelcomDigi introduces AI language chatbot, Maya
- CelcomDigi unveils AI chatbot to help preserve native Bornean languages
- CelcomDigi celebrates preservation of Bornean languages with new chatbot, campaign
- Maya: Pewaris Suara Masa Depan — Kancil Awards 2025 entry
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