Singapore – Google's cloud unit is working with the government to spend $500,000 worth of benefits to each of its 300 selected local businesses to promote the use of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
AI Cloud Takeoff, as called initiatives, provides technical guidance, Google training resources and cloud service credits to help businesses build their in-house AI expertise and expand AI pilots to core operations.
Companies must be registered or established locally in Singapore, committed at least three employees in AI roles for at least six months, with formal support from business leaders, and ready to prepare at least one AI use case.
The use cases will be evaluated by Digital Industry Singapore (DIG), the government division that first won WING under the $150 million enterprise computing initiative announced in the 2025 budget.
Initiative The company aims to encourage businesses to partner with cloud providers to accelerate their adoption of enterprise AI and cloud.
A key feature is a two-week AI capacity building bootcamp with Google Cloud experts.
There are at least 26 of these centres in Singapore, focusing on innovation, experimentation, training, coordination and evaluation.
Senior Minister of Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said at the launch ceremony of the new programme that the government wants to have around 100 such centres, each serving as a catalyst for a wider industrial transformation.
Mitesh Agarwal, Regional Managing Director of Solutions and Technology at Google Cloud, told The Straits Times:
“That's when I began to realize that hiring technical staff like AI engineers, machine learning engineers and more, and staying motivated is not easy.”
Selected companies can consult seven advisory companies: Accenture, Asiapac, CloudMile, Deloitte, Kyndryl, NTT Data and Searce to guide data exploration and experimental stages to model, deploy, performance monitoring and optimization.
It takes six months for participants to set up a budget and determine at least one viable AI use case. Once each milestone is hit, the grant will be paid in a tranche.
Fintech Embed Chief Technology Officer Andy Welsh has urged businesses to choose existing issues when developing viable use cases as they try out the program.
“There are people who look at the problem and complain about it. Make your feedback faster and the results faster. Don't invent the problem. Stick to the already persistent nagging you.”
The $500,000 grant consists of an estimated $105,000 to grant 70% of consultant service costs, $200,000 for training credits and certification, and $195,000 for cloud credits.
Fintech Embed Chief Technology Officer Andy Welsh demonstrated his company's AI solutions for arcade games at the launch of AI Cloud Takeoff (AI CTO) held at Google Office in Pasir Panjang on June 13th.St. Photo: Gavin Who
Agarwal said the final tranches, which are cloud credits, are designed to encourage businesses to develop in the final stages.
He states: “When deployed in a real world environment, that's where (cloud) consumption increases based on the use of your customers.”
Google Cloud, the world's third largest cloud service provider, estimates that the $150,000 budget is the budget based on market share The company will save it It would be sufficient to create at least one viable use case.
that Added Companies applying for the program do not need to be current Google customers. That too If more than 300 companies apply, they are ready to support more companies.
This new scheme replaces Google's 2023 AI Trailblazers program, which graduated from 213 companies in the early stages of AI adoption. Agarwal said it was all Google customers.
Although companies have since been too wary of security and quality issues to adopt AI, he added that the market is more mature where many companies are already trying and adopting at least one enterprise AI solution now.
Embedded supply chain solutions company YCH Group, investment platform EndoWus, and software company Polybee are one of 30 companies that have been trying out new programs since late 2024.
YCH has acquired new AI-powered documents and cargo scanning solutions for use at Vietnam Superport. The company plans to gradually implement tools in supply chain cities in Singapore and Malaysia.
Container leasing company Seaco has listed 30 AI use cases in its pilot. Approximately six weeks ago I started using AI to identify damaged containers at Tuas Depot.
Its chief information officer, Damien Leach, said automation reduced the time from A few days and weeks Until a few minutes. Savings are expected to be at least about $10 million a year.
He states: “We interface with over 500 ports and depots around the world. Many of these ports and depots are in emerging markets. As you can imagine, the technology in these emerging markets isn't that great.
“So for us, the depot process was an important feature that we wanted to automate.”
Embed, which serves entertainment complexes such as TimeZone Games Arcades, has introduced AI kiosk solutions in the US to personalize Game RecIntroductions and themes based on customer preferences.
You can also direct your customers to games that perform poorly in the arcade.
Wales said: “The cool part about this is that this AI says these games are not performing well at the moment.
Companies can apply at http://goo.gle/aictoprogram. You can also contact Google Cloud at ai.cto@google.com to discuss AI usage cases.
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