SINGAPORE, June 2 — Singapore is developing a registry of artificial intelligence agents for about 150,000 civil servants, as the government moves to expand the use of AI in public service operations while strengthening data security and surveillance safeguards.
The registry tracks ownership and activity of AI agents that can make decisions and perform tasks at machine speed.
It is part of a broader suite of tools being developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), aimed at strengthening governance as civil servants increasingly use AI for tasks such as coding, report writing and scheduling.
GovTech CEO Go Weibun said: Straits Times The initiative, known as AI Assistant Desk, aims to provide every civil servant with a secure personal digital assistant.
“We want to ensure that people use AI agents correctly, with a layer of customizable rules, sanctioned AI tools, and registries to improve visibility and security,” he was quoted as saying.
An AI agent is a system that can independently use computer tools in ways similar to humans, such as completing online transactions or performing risk assessments with minimal or no human intervention.
Advances in natural language processing and inference have expanded capabilities to enable systems to understand and dynamically respond to human instructions.
The AI assistant desk is still in development and is currently being tested by some civil servants ahead of a wider rollout planned for late 2026, the report said.
Go said that even if third-party AI tools are added or replaced, the security framework will remain in place, with controls that can limit functionality such as deleting files or sending emails to external recipients.
The development is part of Singapore’s broader push to strengthen AI adoption across the public sector, with Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo previously saying the government was already experimenting with AI agents for administrative tasks such as license applications and social assistance processing.
GovTech says more than half of Singapore’s 150,000 civil servants are already using its AI chatbot Pair for productivity, writing and research support.
The agency is also developing AI tools for cybersecurity, including automated penetration testing of about 2,000 government systems that handle citizens’ data and transactions.
GovTech said this will enable continuous testing for vulnerabilities rather than periodic manual checks, improving overall cyber resilience in an increasingly complex threat environment.
