Agentic AI: More Singapore workers managing bots as firms ramp up AI uses

Caption language: en · Fetched: 2026-09-14

Ever heard of an AI Asian manager? More workers are managing these bots as companies increasingly tap such digital colleagues. While the productivity gains are clear, there are concerns over what this could mean for junior employees. Jermaine Wong reports. >> Foran multitasking is now easier. With just a few clicks, AI agents are doing a full analysis of working papers for him while he moves on to what's next. that takes about 3 minutes to run the analysis that my staff has uh has given me. Uh as compared to if I'm to re review in detail, this will probably take 2 hours. >> Still, these agents don't get the final say. >> The tolerance for error and AI hallucination arising from AI hallucination uh is is is very thin. In fact, it's almost non-existent.

So human uh bringing in their professional judgment while maintaining their skepticism, you know, and accountability >> [snorts] >> uh and accountability is the word that's emphasized here. Uh it's key in this entire AI adoption process. >> For now, humans remain in charge. But as agents become capable of doing more of the work, analysts say jobs will have to be changed to include directing, questioning, and checking AI. AI is changing job content much faster than it's changing job titles and the workforce response has been to redesign jobs to upskill rather than to wholesale replace jobs. Employees are increasingly looking for people who understand their function, who can apply AI to improve productivity and to redesign uh workflows and processes as well as make much better use of data.

She sees this across sectors like HR, finance to legal, risk and marketing. And a survey by software company SAP suggests that the shift might accelerate. Across 200 companies in Singapore, Agentic AI is currently being explored or already in some 92% of firms, up from 69% last year. The cost though could be weaker critical judgment and less on the job learning, especially for those new to the workforce. The greatest risk is uh not so much about uh junior employees using AI. It's juniors using AI without learning to think for themselves. So companies need to preserve the spirit of apprentichip um inside the jobs. She adds that organizations that will succeed in this era will be ones who combine trusted data with well-designed processes while uplifting their workforce.