Singapore unveiled a number of initiatives in its latest budget, including the establishment of a National AI Council and financial incentives, to pave the way for widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among businesses in the city-state.
Delivering the 2026 Budget speech in Singapore’s parliament, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said AI has the potential to boost productivity, unlock new discoveries and transform lives in a country facing a tightening labor market and an aging population.
To steer the country’s AI policy, the government plans to establish a National AI Council to be chaired by Wong. The council is tasked with coordinating research and development, regulation and investment promotion to ensure different institutions are “moving in the same direction”.
Additionally, a National AI Mission will be established to accelerate AI adoption in four areas: advanced manufacturing, connectivity and logistics, finance, and healthcare. Each mission is tasked with investigating areas where AI can help, such as automating logistics operations or enhancing financial advisory services.
We’re also introducing a new Champions of AI program to help companies who want to leverage AI to transform their business. We provide support tailored to each company, including guidance on corporate transformation and human resource development.
Mark Tam, Accenture’s country managing director for Singapore, said Singapore’s new AI initiatives show that AI adoption is progressing from experimentation to enterprise-wide AI transformation.
Specifically, he said the establishment of the National AI Council will provide “high-level sponsorship and collaboration” across the public and private sectors, and the National AI Mission will “strengthen efforts focused on clear value creation.” This reflects what Accenture is seeing among leading companies, scaling AI based on purpose, governance and measurable business outcomes, he added.
The budget also provides corporate IT leaders and CIOs with tax breaks to offset the cost of AI projects. For the 2027 and 2028 assessment years, businesses can claim a 400% tax credit on AI-related spending up to S$50,000 per year. In addition, Productivity Solutions grants will be expanded to cover a broader range of AI-enabled tools.
Silverlake CEO Cassandra Goh believes financial levers will encourage organizations to modernize their legacy infrastructure, especially those used in banking, with high-performance, AI-native architectures. “As a regional leader in financial technology, we are ready to help our partners leverage these strategic advantages to build future-ready banks that secure Singapore’s leadership in a fragmented global economy,” she said.
Wong pointed out that establishing a focus will help build a vibrant AI-enabled economy. To that end, he announced the development of a larger AI park at One North, expanding the existing Roron AI coworking space to bring together AI founders, practitioners, researchers, and innovators to build AI applications for enterprises and public services.
In doing so, Singapore seeks to play to its strengths as a trusted hub. “Our advantage is not in building the biggest frontier model,” Wong said, adding that Singapore is focused on deploying impactful AI applications not only effectively and responsibly, but also faster and more consistently than larger countries.
However, the success of these AI applications depends on connectivity and secure, high-performance networks, without which there is a risk that AI investments will not fully contribute to increased productivity and improved services, said Adeline Liu, Country Business Leader, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprises.
“Infrastructure must be seen as an enabler of strategy, rather than a back-office utility,” says Liu. “AI readiness should be treated as a core business capability, built into enterprise architectures, security frameworks, and operational strategies. This includes networks designed to intelligently handle high volumes of data traffic, ensure real-time responsiveness, and protect digital assets.”
To reduce the risk of AI displacing jobs, the Singapore government will help workers in other fields, starting with accountants and legal professionals, acquire practical AI skills. The SkillsFuture website has also been redesigned to provide clearer AI learning pathways, and Singaporeans who complete selected AI training courses will receive six months of free access to premium AI tools.
Amit Khandelwal, regional vice president and managing director for Southeast Asia at UiPath, said: “As intelligent systems such as agent AI take on more inference and execution tasks, our human workforce will increasingly oversee and guide the business processes of these agents. Reskilling our workforce will ensure that Singaporeans remain at the heart of the national AI drive.”
The budget also includes continued commitment to deep technology, with S$37 billion allocated under the RIE2030 (Research, Innovation and Enterprise) plan, which also includes investments in quantum computing, with Singapore taking an early bet nearly 20 years ago to establish a quantum technology center at the National University of Singapore.
Earlier this year, Singapore joined forces with Japan through a Memorandum of Cooperation on Quantum Science, Technology and Innovation to advance the development of quantum computing as countries race to move quantum computing from research to commercially viable infrastructure that can shape the future of industry.
