Singapore's National AI Impact Plan: supporting 10,000 firms and 100,000 workers

Minister Josephine Teo announced the National AI Impact Programme, targeting 10,000 local firms integrating AI and 100,000 AI-bilingual workers over three years. "Not all of us can be AI engineers, but we can be bilingual in AI in our own areas of expertise," she said. The training rollout starts with accountancy and legal professions before expanding to fields like human resources.

The featured case is a local production studio's in-house generative-AI Foley tool — billed as the first of its kind worldwide. It analyses each frame, identifies every object that needs a sound, and generates and syncs effects automatically, cutting work that traditionally took at least a month down to a single day.

Founder Mr Chai stresses the AI handles roughly 70% of the job. Sound engineers still refine timing and ambience so every footstep rings true. The studio plans to license the tool to other firms, creating a new revenue stream — exactly the kind of project MDDI wants to back: productivity gains that spill over into the broader economy.

Caption language: en · Fetched: 2026-05-02

Welcome back. Firms looking to integrate artificial intelligence into their businesses and workers wanting to hone their AI skills can soon tap support from a new program. The National AI Impact Program aims to support 10,000 enterprises to adopt the technology and help a 100,000 workers become AI bilingual. Beatric reports. >> What you're hearing isn't from an actual person walking. It's an AI creating the sound of footsteps. In film making, this craft is called Foley. The art of adding everyday sounds like doors closing or clothes rustling. At this production studio, this painstaking manual work usually takes at least a month. But its in-house Gen AI tool, the first of its kind in the world, crunches the job down to just one day.

It analyzes each frame, spots every object that needs a sound, and then generates and syncs the effect automatically. >> We have the ability to tweak and modify that prompt if we think that, oh, it does not describe it well. And on top of that, we can ask it to, hey, I like this, but can you give me a different version? And you have all those advanced uh levers and and and parameters that you can tweak to get to where you want. The AI handles roughly 70% of the job, but Mr. Chai stresses that sound engineers still play a crucial role to refine timing and ambience, ensuring every squeak and shuffle rings true. This solution also creates a potential new income stream as the studio plans to offer it to other firms. Backing projects like this is exactly what the digital development and information ministry wants to accelerate.

We want to encourage those who haven't started to take the first step and help those already using AI move beyond basic applications. Over the next 3 years, the National AI impact program aims to support 10,000 local enterprises to integrate AI into their business processes. This will create a sizable pool of early adopters. Workers will also get help to combine their domain expertise with AI proficiency. Not all of us can be AI engineers, but we can be bilingual in AI in our own areas of expertise and to solve problems in our domains. For a start, the government will support 100,000 workers to become AI bilingual. She adds the ministry will start with accountancy and legal professions before extending to other fields like human resource.