Singtel lands S$28 million funding from government for AI push

[SINGAPORE] Singtel Singapore has been awarded up to S$28 million by the government to fund a multi-year artificial intelligence programme which seeks to accelerate its capabilities in AI operations.

The funding, announced on Friday (Jun 5) at Singtel’s FutureNow Innovation Centre at Tanjong Pagar, covers talent development and employment as well as governance and technology framework.

Singtel is the first company to be funded by Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), a joint government office between the Economic Development Board, Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

The telco’s partnership with DISG is in line with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, which seeks to strengthen the country’s AI sovereign capabilities, while also growing local AI talents.

“This is more than funding – it is a strong vote of confidence in Singtel’s role in advancing Singapore’s AI innovation,” said Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon in his opening address.

The first phase of the partnership will improve the group’s foundational AI capabilities, which includes the development and deployment of agentic AI models across all business units.

Singtel expects the funding to create new “high-value AI-related roles”, while also accelerating large-scale upskilling and reskilling across the organisation.

The telco has already put 13,000 employees in Singapore through a foundational AI literacy programme.

Its Singapore arm, Singtel Singapore, expects to train all its Singapore-based employees in AI, while also developing 300 of them to be AI specialists and another 3,000 to become AI practitioners.

Speaking during a media roundtable, Ng Tian Chong, CEO of Singtel Singapore, noted that the roles of managers in organisations might evolve from just managing humans, to managing both AI agents and humans.

However, Moon does not see the evolution of AI agents as a displacement mechanism.

“It is not AI replacing humans,” he said.

“Instead it is people – those who are prepared to embrace, learn and use AI – who will be the ones to displace those who are resistant and scared of AI.”

Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI’s board, said during the media roundtable that reskilling existing talent with AI skills is more effective than external hiring.

OpenAI said last month that it will commit more than S$300 million to develop Singapore’s AI ecosystem. The firm aims to grow its Singapore-based technical teams to more than 200 roles over the next few years.

“We are all kind of new to it,” said Taylor, who is also co-founder of agentic AI company Sierra, a company which partnered Singtel.

As job descriptions change, hiring criteria are also shifting as companies are now looking towards a combination of domain expertise as well as willingness to upskill, said Singtel’s Ng.

“A 50-year-old with 25 to 28 years of experience who has done the upskilling could be more useful than a 35-year-old who refused to attend training,” he added.

Apart from the workforce aspect, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Tan Kiat How described a widening “K-curve” between organisations which adopt AI and those that do not.

Speaking in a panel discussion with Moon and Taylor, Tan said that Singapore’s unique ability to work in a tripartite environment – with the government, union and industry – allows society to benefit from AI.

“(At the) end of the day, we have to be the right arm of the K-curve, and the longer we take to embrace technology means that actually the difference is compounding,” he said.