SINGAPORE: A report on artificial intelligence (AI) adoption among firms in Singapore by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released on Thursday (April 30) found that there is no indication of significant job displacement due to AI “at this point,” adding that it is “augmenting but not replacing” jobs.
MOM said only 6.2% of firms in the city-state reported reduced headcount after adopting AI, while more are redesigning roles (18.9%) and creating new AI-related jobs (13.9%), suggesting the technology is “primarily transforming tasks rather than replacing roles”.
In fact, AI adoption remains limited in the little red dot. About seven in 10 firms have yet to adopt AI, while among those that have (28.5%), only a small share (3.8%) have started integrating it into their core processes, while the rest are still at the planning (7.4%) or piloting (6.0%) stages.
In smaller firms, where there are fewer than 25 employees, adoption is still at 23.9%, compared with 76.4% among larger firms. Those with more than 500 employees also show deeper integration, pointing to stronger digital capabilities and resources.
Still, 70.7% of firms using the technology have already reported productivity gains, alongside improved decision-making (13.3%) and innovation (11.9%).
AI adoption remains challenging due to high implementation costs (44.9%) and lack of in-house expertise (42.4%) according to firms. Smaller firms also cited lack of strategy (32.4%) and low trust in AI (30.8%), while larger firms pointed to integration complexity (56.1%) and data security concerns (55.4%).
Currently, smaller firms are focused on training their teams (46.6%) and providing AI tools such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek and IBM Cognos Analytics (41.1%), while larger firms are moving towards governance frameworks (37.5%) and workflow redesign (22.5%). /TISG
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