Singapore’s AI Rise: Why the country is shaping up to be Southeast Asia’s hub for global businesses

If discussions at the Semafor Tech conference in San Francisco held in May 2025 are anything to go by, businesses’ thinking around Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved from early excitement around this emerging technology to a deeper exploration of its real-world deployment.

Despite rapid advancements, AI’s transformative potential remains partly untapped due to limitations in infrastructure, talent, and regulatory clarity. Yet, business leaders are increasingly focusing on sustainable and scalable adoption and looking to ecosystems that support predictability, speed, and close coordination across stakeholders.

This is where Singapore stands out.

As EDB’s Executive Vice President Chan Ih-Ming explains, Singapore’s coordinated ecosystem — involving government agencies, corporates, research institutions and infrastructure providers — enables AI innovation to progress seamlessly from idea to implementation. Here are key takeaways from his remarks:
 

1. Singapore takes a diverse view of AI’s industry applications and its ability to deliver high-value returns

Singapore’s AI strategy is anchored in supporting domain adoption — working closely with industry leaders across industry verticals to build and support competitive AI capabilities, deployments and operations. This means companies can pilot, validate, and scale AI applications here with measurable results, often before replicating them elsewhere.

Ih-Ming pointed to significant traction in “financial services, retail, so certainly in customer-facing functions and roles. A lot of value and productivity is already observable.”

Beyond these, manufacturing is also seeing substantial AI development, with a lot of new robotics companies utilising AI. Ih-Ming points out that Coca-Cola’s Singapore manufacturing plant in Tuas was added to the Global Lighthouse Network by the World Economic Forum for its significant AI-driven productivity gains of above 70 per cent. These are not isolated efforts – they reflect a deliberate strategy to partner with advanced manufacturers to build AI hubs with global relevance.

Healthcare, while moving at a different pace, is also a key arena for AI application due to its ability to solve complex, often pressing, problems. These diverse industrial applications demonstrate Singapore is more than just a testing ground – it’s a credible launchpad for advanced AI operations with global impact.
 

2. No matter the size of your business, opportunities for scalability abound here

Singapore's ecosystem supports businesses at all stages, from agile startups to multinational corporations looking to scale their AI implementations efficiently.

Ih-Ming observes, “For small companies, you can see that over the past few years, model costs have come down, so it's a lot more accessible. I think it's a really exciting time for small businesses.” This increased accessibility means that even smaller AI companies can find a conducive environment to develop and deploy their solutions.

For larger enterprises, the focus has shifted from experimentation to demonstrating clear Return On Investments (ROI) at scale. Incidentally, Singapore’s Enterprise Compute Initiative — first announced in budget 2025 — aims to offer Singapore-based companies access to cloud credits, related tools and consultancy services in furtherance of their AI transformation.

The initiative will help companies achieve a minimum viable product and implement change management processes. Find out more >>

3. Efforts to harmonise a fragmented regulatory landscape is underway

One of Singapore's most distinctive advantages, Ih-Ming explains, is its pragmatic stance on AI regulation. Unlike regions that might adopt a regulatory-first perspective or a laissez-faire approach, Singapore is forging a middle path.

The city-state is taking a principles-based approach, centred on developing practical tools for organisations and professionals to use. Ih-Ming points out that this is exemplified by the AI Verify foundation, which works with governments and companies, including undertaking a joint regulation mapping with the US’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The objective is to drive standards and give companies certainty in the face of a fragmented and diverse regulatory landscape.
 

4. Singapore’s vibrant ecosystem is underpinned by access to talent and resources

When it comes to talent development, Singapore places a strong focus on adopting a broad-based approach or thinking about how AI might touch or enrich their lives. Ih-Ming explains that this includes attracting global best-in-class talent and partnering with companies to showcase the vibrancy of the sector and unlocking new high-skilled job opportunities.

Singapore also offers avenues for up-skilling and capability building. For instance, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore, in collaboration with AI Singapore, launched an AI Apprenticeship Programme with its first intake in June 2025. The programme is designed to train up to 300 AI practitioners over two years, through working on real-world projects.

Singapore is also committed to ensuring access to resources for more organisations, no matter the size. Ih-Ming shares that EDB is and has been working with AI hyper-scalers such as Google or Amazon Web Services, to provide access to compute and infrastructural resources and engineering talent to companies based here. This proactive government involvement seeks to spark use cases and lowers barriers for AI development.

5. Reinvent in the heart of Southeast Asia and capture growth in greater Asia

For companies eyeing a Southeast Asia expansion, Singapore's diverse industrial base and its role as a regional hub provide an ideal environment to tailor their solutions for broader Asian markets. In the process, companies can also gain vital knowledge about what it takes to do business in a market home to one of the world’s fast growing middle-class.

Ih-Ming advises business leaders that customisability is critical when selling to enterprises as AI solutions often "fundamentally change" workflows. Understanding the market and the nature of the target business is therefore paramount.

For AI firms looking to enter or expand in Asia, Singapore provides a unique blend of stability, connectivity, and relevance – not just as a gateway, but as proving ground for solutions that can scale across borders.