From Esports Arena to Boardroom: AI Edutech Startup LAPA Labs and HELP University Signs MOU to Put Malaysian Companies in the Driver's Seat of AI

Two flagship programmes extend the HELP-LAPA partnership beyond the classroom: an experiential AI Immersion Day for employees, and a CEO level programme built with global faculty.

Kuala Lumpur: LAPA Labs and HELP University are expanding their partnership with two new flagship programmes under their recently signed MOU. The first, LAPA Day, is a one day AI Immersion experience for employees. The second is a CEO level programme co-delivered by LAPA co-founder Dr. Kenny Goh and Professor Philip Charles Zerrillo.

An Engine, Not Just a Course

What sets LAPA apart is the method underneath both programmes. Its learning engine came from competitive esports, not EdTech, built on instant feedback, visible progress, and real stakes. That same engine now runs three connected layers: the LAPA App for adaptive, project based lessons, LAPA Assess for capability diagnostics, and LAPA Arena for live competition, a system rather than a single course.

About HELP University

HELP University is a private university in Kuala Lumpur, established in 1986 and now one of Malaysia's largest providers of Psychology and Business education. It was the first university in Southeast Asia to receive a 5 star rating across 8 categories under the QS Stars system, holds Premier Digital Tech University status from MDEC, and was ranked first in Asia for outbound student exchange by QS in 2021, the academic backbone behind the HELP-LAPA pilot and its corporate track.

"Having AI at our disposal today is like having a state of the art Formula One car sitting in the garage," says Dr. Goh Leong, CEO of HELP University. "The car alone does not win races. What we have to learn now is how to drive it. Done right, AI training does not just make people more productive, it makes them better human beings. That is the focus of this partnership."

LAPA Day: The AI Immersion Programme

LAPA Day formally launches the workshop format LAPA has been refining since its founding: the engagement mechanics of competitive esports, brought into corporate training. The day is built around high stakes problem solving in a dynamic, high-energy environment, learning by doing rather than sitting through slides. The Remit is to allow employees to leave with a working prototype, not a certificate.

A CEO Programme Built Around a Different Ambition

What distinguishes this programme is its ambition: not to teach executives how to use AI tools, but to use AI as the catalyst for a cognitive and skills upgrade across the whole organisation. Participants leave with a mandate, a concrete plan for where AI can reshape how their teams solve problems, decide, and innovate.

The programme pairs Dr. Kenny Goh with Professor Philip Charles Zerrillo, who holds a PhD in Marketing from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and has held senior academic leadership roles at the Indian School of Business and the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs School of Business.

Dr. Goh brings thirty years of entrepreneurial experience to the programme, drawn on in his book, Whole Brain Thinking with AI, published this year. The book is built around personal stories from his career, including the founding of AirAsia and the expansion of Genting, framed around a single question: how people stay fully human, using both instinct and analysis, while working alongside AI.

"The technology is not the hard part anymore," says Dr. Goh. "The hard part is staying whole while you use it, keeping your judgement, your instincts, your sense of people. That is what I wrote the book to work through, and it is the same thing we are now building into the CEO programme with HELP." 

What's Next

LAPA Day and the CEO programme open for enrolment in the coming months. LAPA's HELP University corporate track programmes are HRD Corp (HRDF) claimable. For partnership enquiries, contact firdaus@lapalabs.co or visit lapalabs.co.