Why Singapore sees AI as an opportunity, not a threat

As AI tools advance, workers all over the world are fearful the technology will displace workers and replace jobs. But Singapore looks at AI not as a threat to its workforce, but an opportunity. On GZERO World, Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam frames AI as an accelerated version of a challenge the island state has always faced: adapting early to technological change. Because Singapore is small, open, and digitally-advanced, it will feel disruption from AI sooner than most. But that same exposure is also an advantage. The real test, Shanmugaratnam argues, is ensuring productivity gains from AI are shared across the workforce.

AI isn’t just a technology transformation, he says, it’s a people transformation. To ensure its benefits are felt evenly, the government is investing in skills upgrading to prepare its population for the technological shifts to come. Singapore’s model, he explains, has always been about ecosystem building: letting markets lead while the state works closely to anticipate change, support workers, and expand human capabilities. Singapore’s government wants to invest in people, so that AI isn’t something that happens to workers, it’s something that’s built with them.

“If you think about this challenge, not as a threat from a new technology, but a challenge of how to maximize human capital,” Shanmugaratnam says, “If you build up people’s capabilities, it works out for them and for your whole economy.”