100E (Archived)
100E (100 Experiments) is AISG's flagship enterprise AI deployment funding programme, launched in 2017 — **co-funded by government and enterprise, executed by AISG apprentices (AIAP)** to quickly turn enterprise AI ideas into PoCs. It was formally archived in 2024 and replaced by newer mechanisms, but the "apprentice + enterprise partnership" model it established has been inherited by successor programmes.
📖 What it is
How 100E worked:
- Enterprise pitches the need: local enterprises (mostly SMEs) submit AI project ideas
- AISG evaluates: technical feasibility, commercial value, apprentice training value
- Co-funded: government + enterprise share costs proportionally
- Executed by AIAP apprentices: projects are delivered by AIAP apprentices under AISG engineer mentorship
- 9-month delivery: aligned with the AIAP programme schedule
Outcomes:
- 100+ projects delivered over 7 years (the actual number exceeds the name)
- Projects span retail, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, logistics, government and more
- Some converted into long-term products; others remained as PoCs
Why archived: 100E completed its initial mission of "educating the market + training apprentices". In 2024 AISG replaced it with more flexible partnership mechanisms (preserving the "apprentice + enterprise partnership" core but in more varied forms).
🤖 Relation to AI
100E's significance in the history of AI deployment in Singapore: it was the first time SMEs learned "what AI is, what it can do, and how to use it".
AI deployment in Singapore long faced a binary: "big enterprises build it themselves / SMEs don't know how". 100E broke that with "government subsidy + apprentice execution", letting SMEs in the SGD 50K-500K project range try AI for the first time.
Technically, 100E project outputs varied widely — a few became real products, most stayed as PoCs. But its "educational value" far exceeded the technology itself.
🇸🇬 Relation to Singapore
100E is the origin of Singapore's "government + enterprise + apprentice" tripartite model.
In the seven-lever framework:
- Lever 3 (industry adoption): the first programme to expose SMEs to AI
- Lever 2 (talent): gave AIAP apprentices real projects to work on
A take: 100E being archived is not failure, but a sign that the model has matured. The "government funds + apprentices work + enterprise provides the scenario" pattern has been inherited by successor programmes — 100E itself completed its historical mission of "kicking off enterprise AI deployment in Singapore".
🗓️ Key Milestones
- 2017100E launched
- 2024100E formally archived