Singapore Positions Itself As A Global AI Leader Through Workforce Training

Singapore wants accountants, nurses, receptionists and lawyers to use AI in their daily work. At a parliamentary budget debate on Monday, Josephine Teo said, “Not all of us can be AI engineers. But we can be ‘bilingual’ in AI and our own areas of expertise, to solve problems in our domains.”

The Government will support 100,000 workers to become AI bilingual by 2029 under the new National AI Impact Programme. These workers are expected to act as pathfinders for meaningful AI upskilling. The programme will also support 10,000 local enterprises over the next three years to integrate AI into business processes.

Teo told Parliament that AI know how, domain expertise and human touch form a powerful combination. She pointed to Geraldine Lau, an audit professional with KPMG for 27 years. Lau created an AI agent that consolidates information from company announcements for audit reviews. “With hours of manual work saved, she can now focus on deeper risk assessments and applying her human abilities – wisdom, calibration and professional judgement – to more complex work,” Teo said.

Under the scheme, accountants will learn to apply AI to financial reporting and compliance monitoring. Lawyers will use AI for research, document review and contract management. Training will also cover responsible AI use and data governance. The Ministry of Digital Development and Information and IMDA said in a joint statement, “By building these competencies, these professionals can devote more time to higher value work which requires professional judgment and expertise, such as risk analysis, decision making and client advisory.”

How Will Businesses Use AI Practically?

The National AI Impact Programme seeks to turn what officials describe as AI’s possibilities into reality for many businesses. In her speech, Teo said, “Today, 15% of SMEs and about 7 in 10 workers use AI in some way. We want to encourage those who haven’t started to take that first step. And help those already using AI move beyond basic applications.”

According to the Singapore Digital Economy Report released by IMDA, 14.5% of small and medium sized enterprises adopted AI in 2024, up from 4.2% in 2023. Among larger firms, adoption rose to 62.5% in 2024 from 44% a year earlier. The Productivity Solutions Grant will increase the proportion of AI enabled solutions it supports to 50%, up from 30%.

Teo gave examples of small businesses using AI tools already available on IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital platform. These tools account for 30% of the digital solutions listed there. Durian Memories, a single store seller in Ang Mo Kio, installed an AI enabled customer relationship management system with a chatbot to answer queries. Peak sales went up by 30%.

More advanced use cases are also emerging. Mocha Chai Laboratories, a multimedia company, built a generative AI tool that analyses video footage and generates matching sound effects. Work that once took four to eight weeks now takes a day. Teo said the innovation allowed the company “to not only save costs, but create a potential new income stream”.

How Is Singapore Positioning Itself As A Global AI Leader?

Officials describe AI as foundational infrastructure for the country’s next phase of growth. The enterprise and workforce tracks sit alongside infrastructure and research measures.

Teo addressed concerns about energy demand from AI systems. She said the Government is judicious in expanding digital infrastructure and assesses how well new data centres use low carbon energy sources. New sustainability requirements will improve the energy efficiency of older facilities. Through the National AI R&D plan, public research will examine resource efficient AI.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority will expand its TechSkills Accelerator, known as TeSA, which was launched in 2016. TeSA has helped more than 24,300 mid career workers move into technology roles such as cybersecurity and cloud computing. It will now target non tech professions such as accountancy, law and human resources for the first time.

A new Digital Leaders Accelerator Bootcamp will equip business leaders with hands on experience in developing AI projects. Teo also cautioned about the risks of inaction. “When they fall behind, more than gross domestic product is at risk. At stake are our entrepreneurs’ hopes and dreams, workers’ livelihoods, and their communities’ progress,” she said.

The training of 100,000 AI bilingual workers, support for 10,000 enterprises and continued investment in infrastructure and research place Singapore at the front of global efforts to have AI across an entire economy.