Singapore's AI Rhythm: Where Are We, Where's the Demand, and What Do the Latest Numbers Say?

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Speakers are Kenny Tay, CEO of the Singapore A.I. Association and Founder of AI49 International Group, alongside Kenny Loh, Licensed Wealth Advisory Director & S-REITs Investment Expert, to unpack how AI is reshaping business strategy and where the next SGX investment opportunities sit.

📅 Date: 29 July 2026

⏰ Time: 20:00–21:00 SGT

Then I did some research: Singaporeans are personally all-in on AI, enterprises are still climbing the adoption curve, the government is pouring money into infrastructure, and compute demand is exploding.

📊 The Latest Numbers (2026)

🏃 Adoption Pace: Three Distinct Layers

Layer 1: Individuals / Employees — Already Running

• 73.8% of employees use AI in their daily work. ChatGPT, Perplexity — they're basically standard issue now.

• Among Singapore B2B buyers, 73% use AI tools for procurement research (they ask AI before they Google suppliers).

• AI search traffic converts at 4x the rate of traditional Google organic.

Layer 2: Large Enterprises — Active but Shallow

• 76.4% of firms with 500+ employees have adopted AI, but most are still in "pilot" or "planning" mode.

• Only 3.8% have truly embedded AI into core business workflows.

• Highest adoption by sector: Information & Communications (74.1%), Professional Services (57.5%), Finance & Insurance (56.4%).

Layer 3: SMEs — Just Starting but Accelerating Fast

• Tripled from 4.2% to 14.5% in one year, largely driven by government PSG grants.

• SMEs that adopted AI through PSG reported average cost savings of 52%.

• But the pain points are real: high costs (44.9%), lack of talent (42.4%), no clear strategy (32.4%).

🎯 Where's the Demand? Four National AI Battlegrounds

The Singapore government has identified National AI Missions — here's where the money and policy firepower are going:

The Hidden Big Demand: Data Centres & Compute

• Singapore is Southeast Asia's most mature data centre hub, capturing 99% of regional AI infrastructure financing.

• But land and power constraints are pushing new demand to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

• South & Southeast Asia data centres: 24% CAGR over next 4-5 years, operational capacity exceeding 3.5GW, potentially doubling by 2030.

💰 How Much Real Money Is the Government Putting In?

• S$1 billion: Public AI R&D funding over next 5 years

• 400% tax deduction: On qualifying AI spending, capped at S$50K per year (tax years 2027–2028)

• OpenAI partnership: Over S$300M, establishing the first Applied AI Lab outside the US, targeting 200+ tech roles

• Kampong AI: New AI precinct at One-North, clustering startups, research institutes, and tech giants

• Target: 100,000 AI-ready talent by 2029

• Champions of AI programme: Supporting enterprise AI transformation with customised roadmaps

⚡ One Sentence for Investors

Singapore's AI story isn't about whether — it's about how fast and how deep. Individuals and employees are already all-in. Large enterprises are stuck in the "pilot-to-production" gap. SMEs are just getting started on government subsidies. The real demand explosion is in "helping businesses turn AI from a toy into a productivity tool" — and the compute infrastructure powering all of it.

That's why when Kenny Loh talks SGX AI plays — precision engineering, semiconductor testing, data centre REITs — the "shovel seller" logic is rock solid. Singapore itself is frantically buying shovels.