AI MOMENTUM, MATURITY

& MODELS FOR SUCCESS

FOCUS ON SINGAPORE
Based on findings from a global executive survey
by SAS, Accenture Applied Intelligence,
and Intel with Forbes Insights

MAKING AI BUSINESS-SMART

1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 3
1: PROGRESS TO DATE.......................................................... 4
2: OVERCOMING CHALLENGES.......................................... 9
3: ACHIEVING OPERATIONAL MATURITY........................12
WHAT’S NEXT FOR AI IN SINGAPORE? ........................... 15
In our recent survey report, AI Momentum, Maturity & Models
for Success, we examined the responses of 330 executives
focused on artificial intelligence (AI) at large companies across
the world, across industries. Which specific technologies are
they using? Where in their organisations are they focusing AI
efforts? Which AI capabilities are they relying on most heavily?
What processes are they putting in place to support their AI
strategies? We asked all of these questions and many more –
and the resulting survey answers were illuminating.

Twenty-five of those who responded to our survey are based

in Singapore, giving us the uncommon opportunity to analyse
AI trends and practices at that micro-level. This analysis
reveals a community of AI leaders that is largely in step with
global peers but also exhibits some noteworthy variances. We
believe these Singapore-specific findings may be useful for
Singapore-based AI leaders to assess their progress against
global peers – and adjust their strategies accordingly. Here are
several of the most revealing and interesting insights from our
survey findings.

3
1: PROGRESS TO DATE
Singaporeans are keeping pace in terms of overall deployment
of AI – but most are still in the experimental phase
Compared to their APAC and global peers, Singaporeans report being slightly ahead of
the pack in terms of deployment: 84% of Singapore leaders say they have either deployed
AI or it’s under development in their organisations, compared to 74% of APAC respond-
ents and 73% of global respondents who say the same. But most are still operating in the
experimental phase of AI – a total of 67% say their AI efforts are either partially deployed
as an experiment, deployed as a prototype or sandbox, or not yet deployed – but close.

Given the fact that companies in Singapore tend to be cautious, often adopting a
“start small/fail fast” approach, this may not be so surprising. It may also be in line with
the overall state of AI maturity and adoption around the world, according to Oliver
“ SAIingaporean companies are leading
solution implementations – and
Schabenberger, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology
Officer for SAS. “Think about your first ride in a car-sharing service, or the first time you
they have some unique advantages
used online banking,” says Schabenberger. “In a sense, those represented a leap of faith compared with their peers, starting
in newer technologies. That is where we are with AI right now.”
with their modern digital infrastructure,
which enables them to perform
quick trials and validate AI business
cases. The challenge will come when
Singaporean companies start to scale
AI solutions outside of Singapore.
Santhosh Viswanathan
”
Managing Director of APJ Territory Sales and Marketing,
Intel

4
 Are you or your team developing or deploying How would you characterise the status of your
articifical intelligence-based technology? organisation’s deployment of AI?

Fully deployed in multiple

5% 12% 13% use cases or lines of business
8% 10% 10% Not at this time

We are considering/
8% 16% 17% planning deployment Fully deployed for
29% 12% 14% a single use case

It is under
48% 41% 40% development
Partially deployed
43% 28% 28%
as an experiment

Deployed as a prototype
13% 14%
or sandbox

Yes, it has been

36% 33% 33% deployed

10%

Not yet deployed

14% 35% 32% anywhere, but it is close

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

5
Singaporean AI leaders are less likely than APAC peers to
view analytics as having a major role in their AI strategies
While the deep connections between AI and analytics capabilities are generally
To what extent do you expect to see analytics
acknowledged by those operating at the forefront of AI capabilities, these
having a role in your organisation’s artificial
connections appear to be less visible to those in earlier stages of AI adoption.
In Singapore, only a third report that they expect analytics to play a role in their intelligence strategy?
AI strategies – fewer than their APAC counterparts. This may be because these
companies view automation – not analytics – as the primary driver of their first
steps into AI. But as AI adoption grows in sophistication and complexity, analyt-
ics will likely play a clearer and more prominent role, even as the connections 12% 22% 16% Full and central role
between AI and analytics may be obscure for some leaders today.

According to Jason Loh, SAS’ Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Lead in Singa-
pore, labelling confusion and perceptions may be a contributing factor. “Many
organisations caution against the term ‘AI,’” says Loh. “AI projects are usually 24% 26% 22% Major role
viewed with scepticism and met with varying interpretation of the topic. To gain
acceptance, some SAS-based machine learning projects are conservatively
labelled as automation, or simply improved business systems, even when they’re
deploying advanced, predictive text-mining models. In Singapore, though, the
good news is that in the face of some persistent misperceptions, local govern-
ment is investing heavily in data analytics for both the private and public sectors,
and public awareness is growing with greater media coverage and more AI 52% 29% 33% Moderate role
successes across all verticals.”

12% 17% 22% Minor role

5% 6% No role at all

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

6
Which AI capabilities are Singaporean companies
putting to work today?
Big picture, this list shows that AI leaders in Singapore are working with a fairly wide
variety of types of AI initiatives, with automated forecasting, robotics, and virtual and
augmented reality topping the list of AI initiatives Singaporeans are deploying, develop-
ing, or considering. It is useful to consider which types of initiatives are most used today
alongside those which seem poised for broader adoption in the near future. For example,
automation appears to enjoy relatively widespread adoption today, while initiatives that
are typically driven by analytics – such as deep learning, natural language processing,
visual perception, computer vision, and more – are still being considered.

To what extent do you expect to see analytics having a role in your

organisation’s artificial intelligence strategy? “ Tacross
here is still a lot of experimentation
AI capabilities, differing
SINGAPORE across industries, and we expect
% % that to continue as AI continues to
DEPLOYING CONSIDERING
evolve at a rapid pace. But beyond
Virtual / augmented reality 39 17
experimentation, companies will
Process optimisation 26 17
need to find ways to strategically
Automated forecasting 57 0
scale and industrialise AI to achieve

”
Collecting, processing, and organising information
to support intelligent reasoning
22 13 the desired ROI.
Machine learning 4 13 Joon Seong Lee

Managing Director for Applied Intelligence, Accenture
Robotics / robotic process automation 39 17

Natural language process / speech recognition /

22 22
language translation

Deep learning 9 57

Visual perception / image recognition /

22 22
computer vision

7
On which business activities are Singaporean
AI leaders focusing their efforts?
As with many other regions, Singapore’s AI leaders appear to be heavily focused on external
communications and marketing/sales initiatives. These activities top the list of functional
areas in which AI is being deployed – not only in Singapore but around the world.

Why such a high level of focus on marketing and communications with AI? Judging
by separate findings on the difficulty of implementing AI (such as costliness, disruptive
impact, lack of interpretability and transparency, and more), it may be the case that these
are simply the areas in which AI success is most easily found today, rather than those that
are ultimately likely to deliver the most value to the enterprise.

In which of the following functional areas are you deploying AI?

Where are you not currently deploying AI, but are considering to in the future?

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

% % % % % %
DEPLOYING CONSIDERING DEPLOYING CONSIDERING DEPLOYING CONSIDERING

External communications (marketing, social

57 17 73 8 71 10
media, PR)

Marketing / sales 52 26 69 18 66 16

Customer relations / interactions

22 26 60 20 61 20
(for example: chatbots)

HR / workforce management 43 22 61 22 60 19

Security / fraud detection 30 26 55 23 51 26

Operational improvement 17 26 51 34 47 25

Monitoring through external devices / systems 13 26 45 22 37 26

Logistics and supply chain 9 4 39 30 36 28

Production-floor systems 4 9 41 30 27 34

Expediting transactions 9 9 29 38 24 39

Fleet / mobile facilities 9 4 27 27 22 31

8
2: OVERCOMING CHALLENGES
When it comes to results from their AI efforts, Singaporeans haven’t
yet seen the success reported by their APAC counterparts.
When asked about the impact of deployment of AI-based technologies on their opera-
tions, 39% of Singaporean leaders report that their efforts have been “successful” or
“highly successful.” Meanwhile, 51% of APAC respondents reported success.

While these results suggest that Singaporean companies haven’t seen the levels of suc-
cess with AI they desire to date, it is also possible that Singaporean leaders simply have
higher expectations for claiming success with AI – because their digital transformation
efforts are generally acknowledged to have begun much earlier, and progressed much
more swiftly, than those of their APAC counterparts.

Rate the impact of deployment of AI-based technologies on your operations.

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

4% 6% 14% 8%
TOO EARLY 30% TOO EARLY SLIGHTLY TOO EARLY
16%
TO TELL TO TELL SUCCESSFUL TO TELL SLIGHTLY
SLIGHTLY
17% SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSFUL
HIGHLY 20% 17%
SUCCESSFUL HIGHLY HIGHLY
SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSFUL

28%
22%
MIXED
RESULTS
32%
MIXED
SUCCESSFUL
26% 31% 27% RESULTS

MIXED RESULTS SUCCESSFUL SUCCESSFUL

9
What’s holding back AI implementation in Singapore? Leaders weighed in.

In our survey, we presented respondents with a long list of potential roadblocks to AI

implementation, allowing them to select three. Among leaders in Singapore, costliness
and/or disruptive impact, lack of interpretability and transparency led the way.

According to SAS’ Jason Loh, “many of the Singaporean leaders are willing to invest in
AI solutions but are concerned over smooth deployment and adoption throughout the
solution’s intended lifespan. This appears to improve as more organisations embrace
robust AI/ML deployment strategies and better management of AI assets.”

Also, Loh says that concerns about the lack of model interpretability and transparency
are for practical reasons. “Here in Singapore, the number of AI startups failing has made
leaders more cautious of their choices,” says Loh. “In fact, it has become a trend in some
local banks to have a structured process to make AI use cases more understandable and
transparent to accurately determine the value and risk of AI startups that they engage.”

The following chart offers a look at the top five concerns that are holding back AI imple-
mentation in Singapore, according to survey respondents. While there is no standard road
map to successful AI implementation, the path to winning with AI will almost certainly pass
through three familiar areas:

PEOPLE: Reskilling will be needed to optimise AI adoption, and to assist those who may
be displaced by AI capabilities.

PROCESS: Proper oversight of the AI strategy will focus on use cases that are relevant
and could deliver demonstrable business value.

TECHNOLOGY: AI adopters should be looking for technologies that offer choice,

control, and transparency – not total reliance on “black-box” technology or the
advanced programming skills of an entire data science team.

10
 What do you see as the primary challenges to successfully implementing and applying AI in your organisation? (Select top 3)

SINGAPORE

Solutions are too costly or disruptive 32%

Lack of model interpretability and transparency 32%

Use cases are weak or irrelevant 28%

Lack of oversight 28%

Resistance from employees due to concerns about job security 24%

Poor data quality 20%

Difficulty finding the right talent 20%

Compatibility with existing systems and processes 16%

Lack of development / deployment expertise 12%

Concern about built-in bias 12%

Ensuring AI-based outputs are objective and neutral 12%

Lack of alignment between business objectives and IT 12%

Our technology infrastructure needs upgrading 12%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

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3: ACHIEVING OPERATIONAL MATURITY
Compared with their APAC peers, Singaporean AI leaders are
leading the way in reviewing the outputs of their AI systems.
Oversight is a big issue for any new technology that advances so quickly that business and
technology leaders struggle to keep up – particularly a technology such as AI, which has such
a significant potential impact. For Singaporean leaders, the good news is that nearly 75% of
them are reviewing AI outputs at least weekly, compared to 56% of their APAC counterparts.
But even more aggressive and attentive oversight should be planned. For example, as AI is
embedded in more parts of the organisation, daily reviews of AI outputs could easily become
the standard, which could in turn fuel users’ appetites for up-to-the-minute AI capabilities.

Oversight practices can gain focus when considered in tandem with concerns about
AI in other survey responses. For organisations with concerns about confidence in AI,
potential unintended consequences, and transparency, a well-executed oversight plan
can bolster their AI strategies while delivering the practical, everyday governance that
these strategies demand.

How often are outputs from AI reviewed or evaluated?

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

12% 1%
5% 4% 4%
UNSURE
ALMOST HOURLY
ONCE OR 5% ALMOST
TWICE
HOURLY NEVER
NEVER A YEAR
18% 16%
29% 24% ONCE OR
DAILY
28% DAILY
TWICE
AT LEAST DAILY A YEAR
ONCE A
MONTH 32%
AT LEAST
ONCE A 26%
MONTH AT LEAST
43% 24% 31% ONCE A MONTH
WEEKLY WEEKLY WEEKLY

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What happens when AI results need to be overridden?
Only 3 in 10 in Singapore have an override process in place.
As with any technology, AI systems are bound to produce questionable or unsatisfactory
results from time to time – or even frequently. That puts the pressure on leaders to have
processes ready to snap into action when such results occur. On this front, Singaporean
leaders are not as far along as their global and APAC counterparts. Only 30% of Singapo-
rean AI leaders report having processes in place to override or augment questionable or
unsatisfactory AI results. In Singapore’s heavily digitalised economy, this can be manifested
as a strong reliance on automation, designed without human override processes or capabili-
ties. This may not be a problem yet, as the survey findings also revealed that many of these
AI initiatives are still in the experimental phase. As AI projects become mainstream and
companies implement automation and AI at a larger scale, expect these organisations
to seek more sophisticated and extensive override processes.

If an AI system produces questionable or unsatisfactory results,

does your organisation have a process in place for augmenting or overriding it?

APAC GLOBAL
SINGAPORE
5% 4%
10% UNSURE UNSURE
UNSURE 8% 11%
30% NO NO
YES 37% 37%
25%
YES YES
NO

50% 48%
35% UNDER UNDER
UNDER CONSIDERATION CONSIDERATION CONSIDERATION

13
Singapore is setting the pace in creating processes to support
AI-based systems
One important measure for determining the seriousness and maturity of AI adoption
efforts is the depth of processes created specifically for AI systems. On this measure,
Singapore is leading the way, with 95% of Singaporean leaders saying they have done
so. Now the question is whether these processes can keep pace with the growth and
expansion of AI capabilities throughout the organisation.

What kind of processes do you have in place to monitor and manage AI-based systems?

SINGAPORE APAC GLOBAL

95%

84%
81%

67%
60% 62%

32%

Processes created
for AI-based systems
Standard management
processes used for all
technology systems
24% 24%
16% 17%
10%
Humans have oversight Proactive human approval
ability to intervene into required at processes
AI-enabled processes targeted to AI-based systems

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR AI IN SINGAPORE?
It seems clear that we are rapidly approaching a • F
 EAT (Fairness, Ethics, Accountability and Transparency) principles,
developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, promote the
moment in which AI capabilities will finally be adopt- responsible use of AI and data analytics in finance.
ed at large scale, across industries – in Singapore and
According to many observers, government support is already having a
around the world. Overall, survey respondents show a real impact. “The Singaporean government is very actively supporting
level of enthusiasm and AI-focused activity that points tech startups by creating a favourable business environment,” says Intel’s
to an upcoming explosion of AI adoption, even as gaps Viswanathan. “As a result, there’s a vibrant tech startup community here
in finance, e-commerce and technology, many of which are implementing
in capabilities and strategy are also revealed, as shown some form of AI in their solution offerings. The government is helping in
by many of these survey results. other important ways, too. For example, one of the key requirements within
AI is availability to data, and the government has been very open to sharing
What’s next for AI in Singapore? We anticipate the rapid growth and APIs that can tap public data in areas such as transport.”
maturity of processes to support these advanced systems, in everything
from oversight to ethics and beyond. Even as Singaporean companies are In this favourable environment, once the early hurdles identified in this
taking a relatively conservative approach to operationalising and scaling survey are cleared, the benefits of AI should follow – which will in turn likely
their AI initiatives, it seems likely that they are merely pacing themselves, lead to a spike in adoption rates. Although Singapore benefits from a high
gaining confidence as they go. As they move ahead, it helps that virtually level of government support on the issue of AI, as well as a relatively large
every major technology company and global financial institution has a number of AI-focused technology providers, skilled talent is scarce and in
presence in the city, aiding and accelerating close collaboration. Perhaps high demand. Organisations with a clear strategic vision for AI, the ability
most important, Singapore’s government bodies are not leaving AI’s to attract or develop quality talent, and the insight to make smart invest-
development to chance: ments in technology will be those that win in this environment.

•  he National Research Foundation’s AI Singapore programme is a

T Regardless of what direction AI takes in Singapore in the near future, these
national initiative in AI designed to catalyse and boost Singapore’s AI survey results offer a fascinating baseline view of where we are today and
capabilities, engaging research firms, universities, and others, aiming point the way to future possibilities. Any executive in your organisation
to power its future digital economy. with responsibility for putting AI to work, or for offering strategic guidance
on AI adoption, should use these findings to inform their next big steps
• S
 ingapore’s model framework for AI governance. The Singaporean gov- in AI.
ernment recently announced that it is working with the World Economic
Forum’s Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution to help drive the ethi-
cal, responsible deployment of artificially intelligent technologies. This
framework is the first of its kind in Asia, providing guidance to business-
es as they grapple with issues that have emerged with new technology. Learn more at sas.com/aimaturity.

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