Singapore's new Digital Enterprise Blueprint aims to drive AI adoption among 50,000 SMEs over next 5 years

Areas of focus include enabling SMEs to be smarter by adopting AI-enabled solutions; scale faster; be safer through improved cyber resilience, and to upskill workers to make full use of digital capabilities.

Singapore has launched its Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB).

Officiated by Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Tan Kiat How on Wednesday (29 May 2024), the initiative aims to accelerate digital transformation and enable the adoption of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) among Singaporean enterprises.

With this Blueprint, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be given an avenue to harness technology to optimise the way they work, as well as strengthen digital resilience and cybersecurity across the ecosystem. A total of 50,000 SMEs are expected to benefit from this over the next five years, through four key areas of focus:

1. Empower enterprises to be smarter by adopting AI-enabled solutions
2. Enable enterprises to scale faster through cloud-based and integrated solutions
3. Equip enterprises to be safer through improved cyber resilience
4. Support enterprises to upskill workers to make full use of digital capabilities

Currently, seven partners have committed to the DEB. 

In line with the DEB, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said it has worked with worked with sector leads to co-develop Industry Digital Plans (IDPs), a roadmap for enterprises which highlights solutions that meet specific needs of the sector. Moving forward, it will refresh the IDPs to incorporate AI-enabled solutions that would be relevant to meet the needs of the enterprises in that sector.

IMDA added that it expects 15,000 SMEs to benefit from AI-enabled solutions under the SMEs Go Digital programme over the next two years. For digitally mature SMEs, and as part of its GenAI x Digital Leaders initiative, it has partnered technology giants to benefit more than 400 such enterprises.

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Speaking at the opening gala of the Asia Tech X Summit, where the DEB was launched, President of the Republic of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam acknowledged that AI, particularly generative AI, "is going to have profound consequences." 

"It's still early days, still a lot of hype, but I think the way this plays out will bring profound change in all we do, and in the way our economies are organised.

"And it's fair to say that the pace of advancement of AI and related technologies is far outstripping our public policy and regulatory responses, and even the thinking on public policy. That’s not incidental. It's because AI and the related technologies around it are moving very fast", he added.

He then moved into sharing a few broad observations and reflections on this, excerpts of which are shared below:

First, he shared, is the need for both ambition and humility in "defining our goals in regulation and how extensively we can regulate AI."

"We have to avoid the extremes in regulatory thinking. We can't leave it to the law of the jungle; we can't leave markets to the law of the jungle and most especially, we can't leave AI to the law of the jungle. We would otherwise be letting might be right. We would be letting whichever players emerge the largest in AI to dictate the norms that shape medical practice, social media, the way democracies function, even warfare. But that clearly shouldn’t happen. It mustn't happen."

"But what does getting regulation right mean?, he continued. "We cannot realistically aim to ensure that AI only delivers good. It is not realistically achievable, and if we wanted to avoid the risk of bad outcomes altogether, it would mean putting a stop to AI innovation. And that means putting a moratorium on all the potential good that AI can bring in medical science and discovery, and a whole range of other areas."

Thus, he affirmed: "Getting regulation right must mean avoiding a search for perfection or holding innovation back until we have achieved the perfect solution where AI only gives us what is good for people and society."

Second, he noted: "What we do now, just like with climate change, is critical. We cannot wait until after the fact to know the consequences of this new generation of AI - whether the good will outweigh the bad.

"We can't wait till we find out whether singularity has arrived, whether superintelligence has come upon us, where machines have the general intelligence to do better than humans in most tasks."

President of the Republic of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam

"We therefore have to start shaping AI and the technologies around it now. Shape how it is developed and how it is used. It is going to be difficult. Steering AI to deliver the most good, and to prevent the worst, together with climate change, are probably going to be the most complex and important challenges facing the global community, with the most profound consequences if we get them right or wrong", he added. 

He also affirmed: "We must get past the hype and despair over what generative AI will bring. Whether we get a world of plentiful and better jobs, a world safe for democracy, depends on what we do now, working collaboratively - between scientists and engineers, public policy makers, private corporations, labour leaders, and civil society - to shape technological evolution so it delivers the most good and we avoid the worst."

Third, the President called for everyone to think of AI governance as, ultimately, an enabler for innovation itself. "If we just let live with anything goes, it's not going to be sustainable over the long term. Innovation will not be sustainable.

"Governance is an enabler to ensure that technological advances and AI advances remain trusted, are accepted by societies, and is hence critical for innovation to be sustainable. Without human guidance and international norms around the use of AI, it will ultimately run aground. So, think of governance as an enabler for sustained innovation, not as an encumbrance. It's not one versus the other."

Coming to his last two points, President Tharman highlighted:

• This can only be achieved through international cooperation and collaboration. "And we must build broad coalitions for this, not only involving the leading countries where AI’s foundational models are being built, but smaller countries which are doing AI and related technological R&D, and which are using AI to transform their economies, like Singapore."
  
  He added the need to pool resources, make the most of expertise from every source, collaborate to test large language models and to do the red teaming. "And ultimately collaborate to form norms that are broadly accepted internationally, even if there are variations and differences. That has to be a very important project that occupies the policymakers amongst you especially."
  
• There is also a need to look for early wins, even with the complexity and enormity of the task. "Get momentum around what we know is doable and attainable, move with great energy and collaborate internationally for early wins," he shared.
  • Areas this applies to include healthcare, food security, education, and finance.

Conversely, the President brought up a point on the challenges that AI brings, and the need to address them. In jobs, for instance, he shared: "The truth is, for all the thoughtful academic debate that's taking place, we cannot say if more jobs are going to be displaced than jobs that are going to be augmented with the use of AI and other tools. It could go either way. But it depends on what we do today. We have to avoid the risk of a large segment in the middle of our societies - hardworking people with middle skills - being displaced.

"It can happen, but we can avert it. We've got to double down on reskilling and development of new skills, giving people the confidence to move into new jobs. It's something Singapore is working very hard on. It can be done. Start shaping that outcome now - what happens to jobs, 10, 15, 20 years down the road depends on what you do now."

President of the Republic of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam

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Head over here for President Tharman's full speech. 

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