AI can narrow inequality, if rolled out well: Indranee

SINGAPORE – As Singapore moves to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for its next bound of development, all Singaporeans, especially those from lower-income families, must have access to the technology and be well educated on how to use it, Second Minister for Finance Indranee Rajah said on Feb 16.

If deployed intentionally, AI can be a great social leveller, Ms Indranee said in a post-Budget edition of The Usual Place podcast that followed

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s Budget statement

on Feb 12.

Among the key announcements in the record $154.7 billion Budget was a

set of national AI missions

to spur the technology’s adoption in key sectors of the economy. Another was the establishment of a new National AI Council chaired by PM Wong to drive this agenda.

Asked by The Usual Place host Natasha Ann Zachariah if vulnerable groups may be left behind amid Singapore’s AI push, Ms Indranee said AI has the potential to reduce inequality or worsen it.

“It could exacerbate it if we are not careful and we’re not intentional about the way we roll it out, but it can be a great leveller if we do it right,” she said.

Part of this is ensuring that Singaporeans are taught from an early age how to use AI ethically, morally and thoughtfully, rather than to rely on it for answers, said Ms Indranee.

“The last thing you want is AI substituting human judgment, human discernment and human thought,” she said.

Acknowledging workers’ anxieties about being displaced by AI, Ms Indranee said a good way to channel these concerns is to think about how to improve one’s skills to do a job better in an AI-enabled world.

That is why Budget 2026 will see the Government provide

six months’ free access to certain premium AI tools

for workers who go for selected SkillsFuture courses, she said.

Asked if the Government has a sense of how many jobs will be redesigned or made redundant owing to AI, Ms Indranee said it is too early to tell, but this was one reason why

the National AI Council

was set up: to provide strategic direction and identify the sectors that Singapore should invest in and build up.

Besides the minister, the panel in the podcast also included Singapore Management University assistant professor of political science Nathan Peng and Mr Gunasekharan Chellappan, who is co-chair for the AI, cloud and data chapter of SGTech, an industry body previously known as Singapore IT Federation.

Mr Gunasekharan noted that AI has been around for the longest time, but in the past it was accessible to only those who knew programming.

What has changed with generative AI is that it has become a lot simpler, so that anyone, regardless of professional background and income, can learn and use the technology.

Incorporating AI into education would thereby be a great leveller of inequality, “making it easier for lower-income, middle-income families to be able to cross the divide”, he said.

Prof Peng agreed that AI has made certain aspects of education a lot more accessible, but added that it comes with a “tinge of inequality” as parents with better skills and education are better able to guide their children on the use of AI.

Some in the lower- to middle-income groups may also feel they are not in as good a position to capitalise on the advantages that AI can bring, and they therefore feel vulnerable, he added.

Ms Indranee said Singapore has been in this position of going through major technology change before, citing examples such as e-mail, smartphones and digital payments.

In the same way that the internet spawned a data analytics industry, AI might well create new jobs that are unimaginable today, she added.

Reducing inequality

Another key priority in the 2026 Budget was support for lower-income families, such as through

enhancements to the ComLink+ scheme

.

Prof Peng said that while wages for the lower- and middle-income groups have gone up and Singapore’s macro numbers are “very sound”, those in these groups do not always feel that their lives have improved as much as their rising wages.

This is because those who have more resources have poured even more into giving their children a leg-up, he added.

Ms Indranee said these are fair concerns, and the Government has in place the necessary measures to close the income and wealth gaps.

“What we have in place are all the building blocks for this. It’s a question of how we can execute better,” she said.

For instance, more infant care options and this Budget’s

enhancements to pre-school subsidies

ensure that lower-income families have access to good childcare, while assistance from self-help groups provides enrichment and tuition support during the schooling years.

But if a child does not turn up in school, these programmes would not achieve their purpose, Ms Indranee said, noting that attendance is the single largest factor in determining whether a child does well.

Programmes like ComLink+ thus help incentivise these families to ensure that their child is in school and can tap all the measures available, she added.

Ms Indranee was also asked about CDC vouchers and whether they would become a permanent feature of the Budget.

She said that the vouchers were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic, when times were bad for families across the board. They were then extended to deal with inflation caused by global wars, while also giving heartland businesses a boost.

With inflation having moderated, the economy doing better and incomes going up, it makes sense that slightly less in CDC vouchers was

given out in this Budget

, keeping in mind that there is still some need for assistance, she added.