Govt can’t protect every job in AI shift, but will protect every worker: PM Wong

SINGAPORE – As artificial intelligence disrupts entire industries, the Government may not be able to protect every job – but it will protect every worker, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

To aid the AI transition, Singapore plans to scale up company training committees (CTCs) across various sectors and companies, he said at the annual May Day Rally on May 1.

An NTUC initiative first mooted in February 2019, these committees bring together a company’s management and union representatives to figure out what skills employees need as businesses evolve, and to plan the training and job changes that follow. More than 3,800 have been formed.

CTCs can apply for funding through grants that support up to 70 per cent of the qualifying cost related to business transformation or training, and these grants have supported more than 900 projects as at 2026.

Because the CTC model has worked and delivered concrete results, the Government can take it further, said PM Wong. He noted that with AI, there is no one-size-fits-all solution as every sector is unique and companies face different constraints.

“But together, unions and employers can drive AI adoption for stronger growth and better jobs for our workers,” he said.

That is also why the Government, the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation have set up the Tripartite Jobs Council, PM Wong said.

Announced the day before the rally, the council is meant to bring together resources, coordinate efforts and guide the AI transition. It will also ensure that the national push for AI “will always benefit workers”, he said.

Describing AI as the “defining technology of our time”, PM Wong said its impact on workplaces will be much greater than previous waves of technological transformation.

Jobs will change, some will disappear, and the pace of change will be faster than anything Singapore has seen before, he told more than 1,600 union leaders and attendees at the rally in Downtown East.

“I cannot promise that there will be no disruption,” he said. “But this I can promise you: As our economy transforms, we will create new and better jobs. We may not be able to protect every job, but we will protect every worker.”

PM Wong said the Government will provide the tools, pathways and support for workers to use AI.

“But we also need Singaporeans to step forward. Do not let anxiety or uncertainty hold you back from learning and using AI,” he said, urging people to master the technology.

Companies that embrace AI will stay competitive, and workers who build AI skills will have better opportunities and prospects, he added.

Singapore will take deliberate steps to ensure the benefits of AI are shared by all, said PM Wong as he outlined several moves to strengthen support for workers.

One of them is combining two government agencies overseeing skills upgrading into a new agency known as the Skills and Workforce Development Agency, he said.

The Government is also strengthening the SkillsFuture movement, and has implemented a support scheme for those who are involuntarily unemployed, he added.

PM Wong said many Singaporeans have told him they want to do more with AI, but they just do not know where to start.

That is why the Government is providing additional support, he added. “That is our commitment to Singaporeans. You make the effort, and we will be there for you – every step of the way.”

He said that labour chief Ng Chee Meng will set out NTUC’s plans to help workers when Parliament sits next week, and the Government “will support this important work”.

AI has become a part of people’s daily lives and is already transforming how work is done at the frontier, PM Wong noted.

He cited the example of Google, where two years ago, 25 per cent of the search giant’s new code was written by AI. Today, the figure is 75 per cent.

Beyond chatbots, there are now AI agents which do not just answer questions but can plan and execute complex tasks. Companies are already using these agents to manage social media, draft reports and handle administrative work, he said. “These are workflows that used to require entire teams. Now a single person with AI agents can do all of that.”

The technology will not just impact productivity, but also disrupt and reshape entire industries, PM Wong said.

Singapore has formed the National AI Council to coordinate the national effort so that the country is ready to succeed in this new environment, he said.

PM Wong, who is also Finance Minister, had in the February 2026 Budget announced this council – which he chairs – as well as other moves to incentivise Singaporeans to pick up AI-related skills through SkillsFuture courses and other tools.

Singapore’s goal is clear: to build deep AI capabilities, drive adoption across the economy and make the country a hub for AI innovation.

This is ultimately to ensure that AI benefits every worker – with better jobs and better opportunities, he said.

Progress has been good, and leading global companies are strengthening their AI activities here, he said.

He again cited Google, which has been in Singapore since 2007. In 2025, the company established Google DeepMind here – its first AI research laboratory in South-east Asia.

Singapore will continue to attract more investments, not just from global tech leaders but also fast-growing start-ups in this space, PM Wong said.

He highlighted a company named Advanced Machine Intelligence, founded by leading AI scientist Yann LeCun. It uses Singapore as its base in Asia for its work harnessing AI to understand and interact with the real world.

“So as we attract more of these investments, as we grow our AI ecosystem, we will ensure that opportunities for Singaporeans expand correspondingly,” PM Wong said.

At the same time, Singapore is helping its own companies transform.

PM Wong cited DBS Bank, which has embedded AI across its operations after starting to invest in the technology more than a decade ago. Today, the bank is training all its employees to use AI tools and many of them have benefited from this transformation, he added.

PM Wong said Singapore can do all this because of its unique advantage: tripartism.

In many other countries, change leads to division where unions fight employers, businesses look after themselves and workers are left behind, he added.

But in Singapore, the Government, unions and employers work together – not as adversaries but as partners.

For 65 years, the labour movement has walked alongside workers through every major economic shift – from industrialisation in the 1960s and 1970s to the computerisation wave in the 1980s and globalisation in the 1990s, PM Wong said.

It has also done so through crises, he said, citing the Asian financial crisis, SARS, the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have overcome every wave of disruption. And we will do so again – together.”

PM Wong said the tripartite system works because of trust between different parties, even though they do not always agree. “In fact, there are hard conversations, even some ongoing now. Sometimes unions push, employers push back. Sometimes the Government may have certain concerns over a few suggestions.”

But the conversation does not break down and all parties continue talking and working at it, he added.

Singapore does not just blindly copy what others do, he said. “We develop our own innovative solutions – practical, effective and suited to our needs... This is the Singapore way.”