刘佩芬政务次长在新加坡中小企业商会(ASME)亚洲 AI 节 2026 上的开幕致辞

Mr Ang Yuit, President, Association of Small and Medium Enterprises

Mr Peter Lam, CEO, ITE

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning. I am glad to join all of you at the AI Festival Asia today.

This week, I have three events and two interviews discussing AI. This is good because AI is a hot topic, but what has been more encouraging is that – all the events and interviews focus on SMEs and students, just like this today. I think that represents the focus for government and also reflects the concerns in Singapore.

SMEs hire most of our Singaporean workers, and, of course, our students are the future of Singapore. How do we ensure that our SMEs join us in this AI push, and ensure that students have a good future ahead in this AI world? I am happy to be here today, and I thank both ASME and ITE for the chance to share my thoughts with all of you.

AI Festival Asia is important because it deals with a question that I am often asked in my role as Minister of State of Digital Development and Information. The question I am often asked is – how can we better equip our enterprises and workforce to thrive in the age of AI? Does it sound like an easy question, maybe four multiple-choice answers I can pick It is not so easy because the technology itself isn't mature, and all of us are still trying to find our way through this question.

What we are quite clear about is that whatever we do, we must support our SMEs and our youths so that no one gets left behind. Our SMEs have made very good progress in digital development and digital transformation. Most SMEs today use at least one digital technology – most businesses have their website, social media accounts, and almost all of our hawker stalls also offer e-payment options.

When we look at the state of AI adoption among our SMEs, we see about 15% in 2024 who have adopted some form of AI solution. Of course, there is more that we can do, but we are not starting at zero. There have been SMEs that have started on this journey and seen good outcomes and good impact. One way we are trying to do more for our SMEs is to make AI-enabled business tools more accessible to our SMEs.

I've had several dialogues with SME leaders, and I share some of their sentiments. Some of them will tell me quite candidly, that as an SME leader, they always hear what government wants them to do – to be the first mover, early adopter and be a role model. However, as an SME leader, they don't have that resources or mental bandwidth, and they are also afraid that once they adopt a tool, it may not work for them.

I can understand where that's coming from. Our approach for SMEs is really to make sure that there are AI-enabled business tools, for example, HR management tools that you can buy off the shelf, and implement without thinking about AI as though it's some specialist topic, so it is a little less frightening to start on this journey.

I met Mr Azhad Shariff from Fortitude Security Consultancy a few months ago, and he shared with me how AI can address manpower challenges in a labour-intensive sector like security. He has adopted an AI-enabled HR management system, which automatesstaff scheduling and employs facial recognition attendance tracking, reducing time spent on HR tasks by 70%.

Such AI-enabled tools are available on IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service platform, which offers over 300 pre-approved digital solutions supported by the Productivity Solutions Grant. Mr Ang Yuit mentioned how he hoped that our leaders would attend AI Festival Asia and walk away with ideas. I hope that you can express your interests in the tools, grants, and let us help you along in this journey.

I co-chair the Economic Strategy Review’s Technology and Innovation Committee, and we have been in discussion over the past few months, and thinking hard about how we can drive AI adoption across the economy. Our approach is to focus on where to deploy AI where it matters most, addressing companies’ most critical operational challenges and business needs.

We are less worried about the digitally advanced companies. They have deeper pockets, and they can afford to try and experiment. Many of them are already on this train, looking for the next product and service they can offer to AI. We are a lot more concerned about small and medium enterprises, including our micro-SMEs, who are just starting out. We want to make sure that the smallest company start as AI-native, rather than beginning manually and transforming later. If you're starting out in a new business, it is best to start it off fully digitalised and AI-enabled.

The government cannot do this alone, and this is why we work with our trade associations and chambers, because they play an important role in this journey. Partners like ASME play a key role in engaging our enterprises and amplifying our efforts.

In October last year, ASME and Nanyang Polytechnic jointly organised a focus group discussion that gathered insights from SMEs on their views on AI. Such engagements are useful in shaping our plans to better support SMEs on their AI adoption journey. These partner associations received raw and candid feedback, including worries and concerns that our SMEs have, which was then shared with the government so that we can do our work better for Singapore and Singaporeans.

ASME is unveiling the AI Foundry programme today, with Lenovo providing up to $1 million in hardware, engineering support and training services. The programme will support the development of ten real-world AI prototypes with SMEs in Singapore, and I hope that these will serve as references for other SMEs to implement in their own organisations. This initiative is an excellent example of what we can achieve when different players in the ecosystem come together, and I would like to thank ASME and Lenovo for your commitment to this agenda.

Over the next few months, Enterprise Singapore will also be working closely with companies to scope out problem statements and collaborate with industry to develop solutions that better meet the needs of SMEs. Do look out in the following weeks or months for announcements from the government. We will convince you that we are making a serious push for AI adoption in all our companies, not just the advanced ones. I hope that as you follow the news, it gives you a little bit more confidence to start on this journey with all of us.

Now, when we talk about using AI to transform business processes, infrastructure and resources are only one part of the equation. The other key ingredient is having an AI-empowered workforce. Most students in our ITE, polytechnics and universities take an AI class or module. They learn about AI ethics and the possibilities that AI can bring.

Many of us who are adults, who might not have gone through these courses in school, are also familiar with AI tools now. The real differentiator for Singapore and our workforce will depend on how individuals and businesses apply AI to solve real problems in ourorganisations. It's not just about being able to use the tools, but it's also about being able to draw the links between the AI tools and a real domain to make real impact.

As part of my work at the Ministry of Education, I often meet with our youth and ask them about how they are preparing to join the workforce. Many are excited about the possibilities that AI will bring but they have not thought about where they would want to apply the knowledge of AI.

This is why, when we are able to bring our SMEs and our students together, it also gives our students a chance to try out what they have learnt and apply it to a real-world problem. We will have a lot more use cases coming out of our SMEs, and this is good because it will also help our youth and our students be able to try out, experiment, and apply their skills in the real world.

The SME@AITE centre is thus an important initiative in this regard, as it offers ITE students the opportunity to work on AI projects with SMEs. This is win-win – our ITE students can develop practical AI skills and business acumen, while SMEs can tap on skilled talent to support their transformation.

To end off, I would like to encourage all the SME leaders and students here today to make full use of the resources and networks available at AI Festival Asia. It is an opportunity to exchange insights and explore the possibilities that AI can bring, and a reminder that you do not have to walk this journey to AI adoption alone.

The easier part is to walk through the exhibition to learn and soak in the excitement. The harder part for our SME leaders to say – “I want to start on this journey.” The harder part is for students to say – “I think this is the industry I'm interested in, and I want to work on the project directly.” After the two days, if you do feel the interest and energy, the next step is to have some courage to say, “Yes, it will be me,” or “Yes, it will be my company, and I want to start on this journey.”

Thank you very much, and I wish all of you a good two days ahead.