Singapore to train 100,000 AI-savvy workers by 2029

SINGAPORE – Having accountants, receptionists, nurses or lawyers who are also savvy with artificial intelligence tools to solve real-world work problems is a future that Singapore is working towards with the launch of a new programme to train some 100,000 workers by 2029.

The effort will come under a new National AI Impact Programme (NAIIP), which will also cover plans to equip 10,000 enterprises with AI smarts over the next three years.

Announcing the moves at a debate on her ministry’s budget on March 2, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said that

AI know-how,

domain expertise and the human touch are a powerful combination.

“Not all of us can be AI engineers. But we can be

‘bilingual’ in AI

and our own areas of expertise, to solve problems in our domains.”

She said that to help more non-tech workers pick up AI capabilities, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will expand its existing TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) to include tailored programmes for the accountancy and legal professions for a start.

This is the first time TeSA is targeting non-tech occupations, and it will include more fields such as human resources.

Launched in 2016, the

TeSA initiative

has helped more than 24,300 mid-career workers move into tech roles like cybersecurity and cloud computing, and helps the existing tech workforce stay relevant.

Mrs Teo was responding to questions from Ms Cassandra Lee (West Coast-Jurong West GRC) about how the Government will equip the workforce with skills to use AI in their respective domains.

AI fluency programmes for the accountancy and legal sectors will be developed together with professional bodies such as the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, the Singapore Academy of Law and the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association.

These programmes, slated to take off in the first half of 2026, will teach accountants how to use AI in areas such as financial reporting and compliance monitoring; and lawyers how to tap AI for research, document review and contract management. The objective is to have these professionals redesign their work processes for greater efficiency or solve problems in their field of work more effectively.

They will also learn about issues such as responsible AI use and data governance. 

“By building these competencies, these professionals can devote more time to higher-value work which requires professional judgment and expertise, such as risk analysis, decision-making and client advisory,” said MDDI and IMDA in a statement on March 2.

Mrs Teo cited Ms Geraldine Lau, a Singapore-based senior manager for audit innovation at consultancy firm KPMG, as one such “bilingual” individual.

In November 2024, Ms Lau created an AI agent to extract and summarise merger, acquisition and regulatory announcements on the Singapore Exchange – which is time-intensive and repetitive – to help her with her audit risk assessment work.

It used to take her hours to extract the information, but the time has been halved since she started using the tool. Although Ms Lau does not have advanced coding skills, she has been crucial in facilitating the roll-out of the AI agent across KPMG in Singapore.

Mrs Teo said that while Ms Lau may not have matched the AI agent in speed when extracting documents, her domain knowledge is needed to ensure that the technology looks in the right places.

“With hours of manual work saved, she can now focus on deeper risk assessments and applying her human abilities – wisdom, calibration and professional judgment – to complex work,” said Mrs Teo.

Other efforts under NAIIP include a new AI fluency programme for tech workers like software engineers. The new programme will equip them to become full-stack engineers with the ability to handle complex systems and workflows using AI agents. More details on the training partners, application processes and course duration will come in the first half of 2026.

Enterprises will also get a leg-up in adopting AI under NAIIP.

The

Singapore Digital Economy Report

recently released by IMDA found that 14.5 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises had adopted AI in 2024, up from 4.2 per cent in 2023. Among bigger companies, the AI adoption rate had jumped from 44 per cent in 2023 to 62.5 per cent in 2024. 

Mrs Teo said that if AI follows the same path as previous technology waves, only a small group of companies at the frontier will get ahead, while smaller and less-resourced businesses will take longer.

“When they fall behind, more than gross domestic product is at risk. At stake are our entrepreneurs’ hopes and dreams, workers’ livelihoods, and their communities’ progress,” she said.

To help businesses, IMDA will be launching a Digital Leaders Accelerator Bootcamp to help business leaders build confidence and expertise through hands-on AI project development, said Mrs Teo, addressing Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Changi GRC) and Nominated MP Mark Lee’s questions on how small and medium-sized enterprises with limited resources will be supported in their AI journey.

More details will be shared by IMDA in due course.

The existing Productivity Solutions Grant, which provides financial support for businesses to adopt pre-scoped IT solutions, will also include a higher proportion of AI-enabled solutions – 50 per cent, up from the current 30 per cent.