The AI Adoption Race – How Singapore is forging ahead but needs to evolve

This article is contributed by Arran Mulvaney, Regional Director – South East Asia & India at OneTrust

When to implement? What tools to use? How do I get the most out of it? You would be hard pushed to find a Singaporean business leader who has not asked these questions in relation to AI over the last 12-18 months, but it’s clear that other nations’ organisations are not quite following the same trajectory.

Singapore continues to surge ahead when it comes to AI adoption, ranking second globally behind the UAE with 61% of the workforce using the technology. AI’s usage has certainly become widespread, and in most cases of innovation, it’s the early adopters who experience the true value and benefits on offer. In a business world which is keen to extract all possible gains and advantages, AI adoption levels in Singapore demonstrate the country is better prepared than most, and yet we need to continue to ask – what more can be done?

Why is Singapore surging ahead of most?

There are several factors as to why Singapore is surging ahead of most of the world when it comes to AI adoption, with one being initiatives being led by the government that are favouring and encouraging innovation. The National AI Strategy 2.0 is often cited as a ‘best in class’ example of positive government intervention and has provided businesses with a clear supportive framework that has helped organisations scale AI at a good pace. The investment in infrastructure, upskilling workforces and the commitment to moving towards agentic AI have also been clear beneficial by-products of the national strategy and have ensured that AI adoption with thousands of Singaporean businesses has moved well beyond the experimentation phase.

What are the benefits?

There’s also been investment into partnerships, such as the AI Trailblazers Initiative with Google Cloud, which has driven adoption largely for ‘off the shelf’ AI tools and has been able to provide a testing ground for organisations and provide backup to the national strategy. The benefits of having a government focused on supporting business innovation is obvious to see as the clear governance framework and trusted regulatory environment gives businesses the confidence to scale AI safely, and make the city-state an increasingly attractive hub for global firms. The policies also enable Singaporean businesses to adopt a long-term approach towards AI adoption and consistently be looking to unlock new opportunities, rather than being preoccupied by showcasing immediate efficiency gains.

Is there a warning for steaming so far ahead?

As with any innovation that moves quickly, there are warnings to heed in order for implementation to be as effective as possible. While the pace and adoption of AI is high in Singapore, this doesn’t necessarily translate into AI maturity. While it’s ultimately a positive that AI tools are easy to roll out across a range of sectors, the pace things are moving is leading to some businesses being exposed through their lack of consideration towards the governance, accountability and risk that comes with AI adoption. What we’re seeing at OneTrust is that when this realisation is happening once AI is already embedded into the workflow, it means that the process becomes infinitely slower. Whereas when governance and risk capabilities are built-in from the beginning of the adoption process, it essentially means that progress can be linear. It’s important for organisations to not get swept up in the race to adopt but actually start the race already ahead with the right guardrails in place.

Summary

The Singaporean government’s policies towards reducing the barriers for businesses and encouraging innovation is certainly playing a huge role in the nation’s high AI adoption levels, but it shouldn’t be seen as the only measurement of success. It’s important that organisations recognise the importance of implementing AI built upon the right foundations and adhere to the appropriate guardrails in order to experience the full benefits of the technology. Singapore is in a great position but it’s still early days in the AI race, business leaders need to press home their advantage to secure the long-term win.