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How Singapore can become a trusted AI hub in a multipolar world

Photographic portrait of Manik Bhandari
Manik Bhandari

EY Asean Data and Artificial Intelligence Leader

4 minute read 05 Sept 2025

Singapore must address key challenges as it seizes the strategic AI opportunity to strengthen its position as a leading knowledge economy.

In brief:

  • Singapore could realize significant economic benefits by becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) leader. 
  • But it must address ecosystem and adoption issues, such as a limited domestic talent pool and potential restrictions on required hardware or AI services.   
  • Creating a highly AI-literate population and embedding AI into the core of economic and social systems are integral actions.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) presents a significant opportunity for Singapore, with fully harnessed AI-powered solutions expected to provide up to S$198.3 billion — or almost 30% of the nation’s 2023 GDP — in economic benefits in 2030.1 While the National AI Strategy 2.0 sets out a bold vision for the country, businesses continue to contend with challenges, such as muted investor confidence and limited AI talent pipelines, compounded by broader geopolitical uncertainty and trade and tariff risks.

A recent EY-SGTech report, Singapore as a trusted AI hub in a multipolar world, sets out policy and program recommendations that can drive both ecosystem development and industry adoption. 

Muted investor confidence in Singapore’s AI startups highlights the need to focus on a few big bets and increase ticket sizes in investments. For Singapore to establish itself as a credible AI hub that can attract investors, startup founders need pitching and business development skills to turn tech ideas into investable ventures.

How EY can Help

Building a strong global AI brand is also crucial for helping the nation attract top talent, global giants and big investments.

 

While AI infrastructure has not yet become a bottleneck, Singapore must be prepared for a scenario where access to required hardware or AI services could be restricted. Building a sovereign national large language model (LLM) that runs entirely on local infrastructure independent of foreign control can help safeguard mission-critical applications and signal tech leadership.

 

A tiered approval framework for data center capacity allocation is also important, given current limitations in power distribution and land allocation.

Singapore as a trusted AI hub in a multipolar world

This EY-SGTech report highlights key insights and recommendations from industry exchanges to help address challenges and opportunities in Singapore’s ambition to become an AI leader.

Request a copy

How EY can Help

Policy and program recommendations to strengthen the ecosystem and spur innovation form the groundwork for wider AI adoption. However, that alone is not enough; fostering AI talent and building public trust and confidence in the technology are critical enablers.

 

1. Strengthening Singapore’s AI workforce

At a national level, the focus should shift from job creation to value creation. Employers must redesign workflows and manage the pace of change. AI should be integrated into core workflows and day-to-day business processes to change how work is done and upgrade job roles. 

 

In the short term, AI literacy and re-skilling could be embedded across the education and workforce training ecosystem, such as through SkillsFuture and other programs with added credits or incentives for AI. 

 

As Singapore’s limited domestic talent pool could hinder competitiveness, the nation needs to define where it wants to compete along the AI value chain. It also needs to develop a national AI workforce strategy that maps out pathways for local talent development while identifying approaches for international talent augmentation.

Fostering AI talent and building public trust and confidence in the technology are critical enablers for wider AI adoption.

2. Building public trust and confidence in AI

Special AI programs for seniors could also be piloted. These could focus on helping them use simple AI tools like chatbots to improve their daily lives — be it to access public services, stay connected or manage their health. Such programs demonstrate that AI is practical and can help build confidence across Singapore’s aging workforce. Government mobile applications could be expanded into a single, unified AI-powered chat interface for all government services to foster national comfort and competence with AI technologies.

A bold, long-term measure worth considering is to overhaul existing curricula, train educators and rethink pedagogy to build AI literacy from as early as primary school. Early AI exposure could help create a future-ready, AI-savvy workforce for Singapore.

Entrenching AI as a foundational national principle with sustained investment in sovereign services and digital trust systems should be a long-term goal. This means making AI a strategic pillar of Singapore’s future development and a core part of how the nation operates, competes and serves its citizens.

Looking ahead, a coordinated national effort to embed AI into the core of economic and social systems is critical for Singapore to keep pace with AI disruption and become a trusted, competitive AI hub for Southeast Asia and beyond.


Summary

While AI presents a significant economic opportunity for Singapore, the nation must address ecosystem and adoption challenges, such as its limited domestic talent pool, muted investor confidence in local AI startups and the need to build a strong global AI brand.

To become an AI leader, Singapore would need to foster the creation of a highly AI-literate population and build public trust and confidence in the technology. It would also need to embed AI into the core of economic and social systems.

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