SINGAPORE is investing more than S$1 billion into artificial intelligence (AI) computing, talent, and industry development over the next five years under the renewed national AI adoption strategy announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong during his Budget 2024 speech last Friday (Feb 16).

The adoption of AI has become a hot-button issue of late, not least following the recent wave of AI-led mass retrenchment exercises in tech industries around the world. The Singapore-headquartered ride-hailing and food delivery app Grab, for instance, announced that it will cut 1,000 jobs, about 11 per cent of its total workforce, due to industry changes and the rise of generative AI. This is the company’s biggest job cut since 360 employees were let go at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

As with every new technology that promises to disrupt industries, however, there lies the potential to not only create new jobs, but also improve them. The World Economic Forum predicts that while AI may replace around 85 million jobs by 2025, it will also create some 97 million new roles. Generative AI, used to produce various forms of content, in particular has the transformative potential to liberate workers from mundane tasks by automating them, and enhance productivity and innovation for companies, enabling a shift towards more meaningful employment.