Opening Address by Minister Josephine Teo at SCS Tech3 Forum

Good morning and thank you for inviting me once again to join you.

Last year, I spoke about helping our businesses and workforce gain AI-fluency and building bilingual AI talent.

Much has changed since then.

1. _p]:inline">

   AI has improved significantly.

2. _p]:inline">

   The models are much more capable.

3. _p]:inline">

   The tools are also much more accessible, and AI is moving from experimentation into our everyday workflows.

In some places, the concerns have also sharpened.

1. _p]:inline">

   On college campuses in the US, prominent tech leaders touting the benefits of AI during commencement speeches got more boos than applause.

2. _p]:inline">

   Actors have asked for consent and compensation if their voices or images are used by AI.

In Singapore too, our fresh graduates worry if they can get entry-level jobs and mid-career professionals wonder about their job security.

The question is not whether their concerns are valid. They are, and we hear them loud and clear. The real question is what we should do in response to these concerns.

I'd like to suggest three levels of actions we can take:

1. _p]:inline">

   First, keeping Singapore relevant

2. _p]:inline">

   Second, keeping our businesses relevant

3. _p]:inline">

   Third, keeping our people relevant

For Singapore to remain relevant, we need to sharpen our competitive edge in areas that matter.

As a resource-constrained country, we should seize every opportunity to improve with the help of AI. But we are also realistic: we cannot do everything.

Some countries will compete on market size. Others have decided to compete on compute power or access to capital.

Singapore does not win by trying to outspend the biggest spenders. Instead, our strategy is to build on existing strengths and secure a more decisive lead.

This is why the National AI Missions will focus initially on four key sectors that together contribute over 40% to our GDP and provide jobs to hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans. For example,

1. _p]:inline">

   We already produce 20% of the world's semiconductor equipment. Can the use of AI, especially embodied AI, keep Singapore at the forefront of Advanced Manufacturing?

2. _p]:inline">

   Singapore is already one of the most competitive international financial centres. Can agentic finance be its new engine for growth?

3. _p]:inline">

   Likewise, what AI ambitions in healthcare and connectivity will help Singapore stay ahead?

Through the National AI Missions, we aim to sustain an edge in these sectors and grow a vibrant AI hub in Singapore.

1. _p]:inline">

   We welcome more top-tier AI companies like OpenAI and Google DeepMind to grow their talent pool here and strengthen our AI ecosystem.

2. _p]:inline">

   We are energised by their plans to innovate and deploy AI solutions that can also be taken to the world.

In doing so, we can uphold our economic relevance, anchor high-value activities and good jobs in Singapore.

But progress will be unsatisfactory if AI uplifts only a small group.

Across every sector, businesses will, in time to come, need to operate differently to stay relevant.

AI-native firms may enter the market with much leaner cost structures, work processes, and ways to delight customers. We already see this happening.

1. _p]:inline">

   Recently, when I visited a start-up accelerator, I met a company that is helping a new breed of solopreneurs launch their own products with greater ease.

2. _p]:inline">

   Using agentic workflows, the solopreneur can get links and look for suppliers and distributors, develop sales and marketing campaigns, and very soon, start collecting revenues.

Existing companies will certainly benefit fromadopting AI tools and our National AI Impact Programme is designed to help them. However, it may only be a matter of time before your entire business model is challenged by these new solopreneurs.

What if you become the challenger instead? What if you turn the business on its head and find new ways to create value for your customers or partners?

This is one of the aims of IMDA's Digital Leaders Acceleration Bootcamp (DLAB), which is designed and delivered with three partners currently - BCG, EY-Parthenon and IBM.

1. _p]:inline">

   DLAB has enabled many business leaders to improve their businesses with the help of digital technologies, including AI.

2. _p]:inline">

   A very good example is Aeris Dynamics. It is a cold-chainlogistics provider which developed an AI-enabled control platform that helped automate the fulfilment process in Singapore. Naturally, their next step is to scale the solution across other markets in which they operate.

3. _p]:inline">

   They are even exploring commercialising their AI solution for other logistics providers. In other words, Aeris is re-imagining what its business can be, from providing services to existing customers to creating value for a whole new category of customers.

4. _p]:inline">

   Today,I welcome PwC as the fourth DLAB partner and look forward to them helping more businesses like Aeris transform.

These efforts to stay relevant are not easy. They require leaders who understand what AI makes possible, where it can help create value, and when it should be deployed.

At the same time, business leaders have a responsibility to think about their people.

1. _p]:inline">

   When a company transforms and the work changes, employees need support to navigate the transition.

2. _p]:inline">

   Businesses need to invest in upskilling, make tools available, and redesign roles and workflows thoughtfully.

3. _p]:inline">

   Workers also need opportunities to apply what they learn or help to move into new roles.

This brings me to how we keep our people relevant.

Keeping people relevant does not mean turning everyone into an AI engineer. But we also cannot avoid learning to use AI effectively.

By now, many Singaporeans have learnt to use AI for basic tasks, like research or getting an idea for a new project.

More sophisticated tools are also becoming accessible to non-technical users. For example, it is not that difficult to vibe-code an app even for someone with no background in coding.

For our tech leaders and professionals, this raises an important question: in this new environment, how do we add value?

I believe the answer is not to compete with AI at what it does best, but to double down on what humans do best.

1. _p]:inline">

   As AI becomes better at producing code, analysis and content, the premium on human judgement will rise - the judgement to know what needs solving, why some solutions are more likely to succeed or fail, how to take things forward, how to broach the subject and rally people to support an idea, and how to move through all the barriers in order to get to a workable solution.

2. _p]:inline">

   Now, all of these include a need for us to develop a deep understanding of context, relationships and personal dynamics, as well as the ability to discern whether there may be costly consequences for any community or group, and how we can mitigate them.

Such understanding often comes with experience. There is just no shortcut.

1. _p]:inline">

   Now we know that some fresh graduates are finding it harder to get their first break.

2. _p]:inline">

   Mid-career professionals who want to move into new roles may also face difficulties.

3. _p]:inline">

   These frictions do not help our people stay relevant.

To help them build new skills and experience, IMDA therefore worked with more than 20 partners including Accenture, Microsoft, NCS, and NTUC LearningHub to curate almost 2,000 job and training opportunities. These opportunities are intended to help fresh graduates and mid-career professionals move into roles in AI and Data, Cybersecurity, and Software Engineering, where our manpower needs are still growing.

For those already in the workforce, AI bilingualism offers a way forward.

1. _p]:inline">

   It recognises that professional knowledge and AI skills are complementary.

2. _p]:inline">

   A person who taps into both is potentially more effective and versatile, just as a bilingual or dialect-speaking doctor is likely to reassure a wider pool of patients.

Since I spoke about AI bilinguals here last year, we have made progress.

1. _p]:inline">

   AI fluency programmes for tech and accountancy have reached over 10,000 professionals, helping them apply AI in their respective fields.

2. _p]:inline">

   A good example is Sheena Tan who works at LinkedIn and found the programme so useful, she completed all the optional modules across multiple specialisations like audit and tax, not all of which she uses on a daily basis, but she wanted to know how AI could be applied to those specialisations.

I am also very glad that professional bodies have leaned in. In fact, their enthusiasm took me by surprise.

1. _p]:inline">

   The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants has set an ambition to train 60,000 accountancy and corporate finance professionals over the next three years.

2. _p]:inline">

   Their Council knows this is just the beginning. This is the baseline.

3. _p]:inline">

   Its next challenge is to help its members rethink how the profession adds value, for example, by moving from periodic reporting to continuous reporting. This is something unthinkable without the help of AI but it is now within reach.

4. _p]:inline">

   So the question becomes: can the profession in Singapore create new value through innovation and become one of the first in the world to provide these services to their clients?

Today, we are also launching two AI fluency programmes with Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) and Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA).

1. _p]:inline">

   SAL's programme will support practising lawyers to use AI for legal research, information review and drafting.

2. _p]:inline">

   SCCA's programme is designed for in-house legal and allied legal professionals with their workflow, helping them to reduce their workload, and enabling them to provide their employers with a greater sense of the priorities.

3. _p]:inline">

   Both programmes provide professionals with structured training and hands-on learning, with community-driven platforms for peer support.

The programmes I have outlined reinforce our belief that across the entire workforce, domain knowledge, judgement, and creativity will continue to matter. But our people will be even more relevant if they can use AI effectively to add value to their employers and their clients.

Colleagues and friends, I have described three levels of action to respond to the challenge of AI on jobs. They are to keep Singapore relevant, keep our businesses relevant, and keep our people relevant.

The three levels are, in fact, mutually-reinforcing.

1. _p]:inline">

   Singapore is more relevant if our businesses are more competitive and our people more capable.

2. _p]:inline">

   Businesses are more likely to succeed if the overall economy and our human capital expand.

3. _p]:inline">

   People have better prospects when Singapore enables our businesses to thrive.

Ultimately, our plans and programmes in AI are to benefit our people.

1. _p]:inline">

   We cannot prevent AI from impacting businesses and jobs.

2. _p]:inline">

   But we can help everyone who's willing to adapt and find new relevance.

3. _p]:inline">

   This is how we can move forward together as a nation and thrive in the age of AI.

We are fortunate that professional bodies like SCS are actively supporting your members to stay relevant through initiatives such as the Skills Pathway for AI. You can also count on the government's efforts to never stop building up our people, so that each generation does better than the one before.

I wish you a fruitful conference, and thank you again for inviting me.