Singapore: Where AI vision becomes reality

Singapore has been steadily investing in efforts to make the country’s digital ecosystem among the most AI-ready in the region. The country has pledged to invest S$1 billion over the next five years to support long-term AI research, applied use cases, and talent pipelines, positioning AI as a core pillar of national competitiveness.

Speaking to McKinsey partner Vivek Lath in conjunction with the launch of McKinsey, EDB, and Tech in Asia's AI in Southeast Asia report, Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information, Josephine Teo, outlines how the nation’s AI approach—anchored in government leadership, close public–private collaboration, and adoption at scale—is delivering tangible impact for global businesses.

A pro-business model for moving beyond AI pilots

Singapore’s AI ecosystem is built on deep collaboration between government agencies, multinational firms, startups, and research institutions. Rather than operating in silos, partners are encouraged to find new ways to co-develop solutions, test them in live environments, and scale what works.

Minister Teo explains, “Other enablers we work on include building workforce capabilities, fostering communities of practice, providing infrastructure (such as compute), and ensuring a pro-innovation regulatory environment that fosters trust.”

Such efforts have allowed companies here to move beyond proof-of-concept pilots towards full-scale deployment across sectors, with support from public-private programmes like the Enterprise Compute Initiative.

Minister Teo also notes a small but growing group of companies have set up more than 60 AI Centres of Excellence in Singapore, a heartening reflection of their willingness to experiment.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES Startups and MNCs have access to a credible launchpad and a trusted environment to co-create and deploy solutions by tapping on validated, real-world AI use cases with regional relevance.
 

Access to ‘digitally fluent’ AI talent pool

Beyond producing technical specialists, Singapore places a strong emphasis on digital fluency across all levels. This ensures that AI adoption is driven not just by engineers, but by business leaders and executives who understand the need to integrate AI into strategy and operations.

Minister Teo observed, “Collaboration is crucial. Domain and functional experts need to work hand in hand with AI specialists to figure out how to get the most out of it.”

McKinsey’s AI report also uncovered that workflow redesign is imperative for companies to become a “high performer”. Initiatives such as Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA) Digital Leaders Programme (DLP) offers support for enterprises in building leadership capabilities to drive organisational readiness for AI transformation.

The DLP equips companies with the capabilities to sustain digital innovation growth and business digitalisation through:

• Digital leadership training and tech workshops to arm leadership with the know-how,
• Instilling confidence to design and co-develop impactful digital solutions,
• Supporting, developing and strengthening enterprise digital capabilities,

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES Companies get access to an increasingly ‘bilingual’ workforce and business leaders who can translate and leverage AI capabilities to drive commercial outcomes.
 

AI regarded as an integral infrastructure, not a short-term project

Singapore treats AI as foundational infrastructure—on par with digital connectivity and talent development—rather than a short-term initiative.  This mindset gives businesses confidence that AI policies, investments, and capabilities are designed for long-term continuity.

Minister Teo noted, “We estimate that our digital economy—both the core Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector and its use across other industries—accounts for about 18.6 per cent of GDP.” 

To this end, Singapore is actively expanding its data centre infrastructure to meet demand drivers for cloud computing, AI and digital services:

• Singapore hosts more than 70 data centres with around 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of total capacity.
• About 20 hectares of land (roughly the size of 25 football fields) on Jurong Island has been reserved for Singapore’s largest low-carbon data centre park. The site has the potential to support up to 700 Megawatt (MW) of data centre power capacity.
• EDB and IMDA have also embarked on a second call for applications for data centres in December 2025, availing at least 200MW of new data centre capacity to facilitate the sustainable growth of data centres in Singapore.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES For data-centre providers, these efforts unlock new opportunities to build next-generation, low-carbon facilities. MNCs and AI-intensive companies can be assured that Singapore is a reliable, scalable hub for high-performance computing, cloud services, and regional digital operations.
 

Trustworthy AI, built from the ground up

Singapore has moved early to establish governance frameworks that enable innovation while safeguarding trust. While global AI-specific standards and governance are still in its early stages, Minister Teo noted that Singapore took early steps to lay out ethical principles.

Some of these initiatives include:

• AI Verify for traditional AI – A testing and assurance framework that helps organisations assess the transparency and robustness of AI systems based on internationally recognised responsible AI principles
• Project Moonshot for generative AI – A gen AI testing toolkit launched by IMDA and supported by the AI Verify Foundation to help developers safely build and evaluate large language models (LLMs). It is one of the world’s first open-source frameworks that brings together benchmarking, red-teaming and baseline safety testing so that organisations can assess the quality, security and deployment risks of their generative AI systems before they go live.
• Model AI Governance Framework – Provides practical guidance for companies on ethical AI deployment, risk management, and accountability.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESSES For global firms navigating fragmented regulatory landscape, Singapore offers a stable, predictable environment to operationalise AI with confidence.