THE Singapore government has invested about S$500 million in artificial intelligence (AI) research and development in the last five years.

This was part of a bigger effort that the government has put in place to harness AI for public good, said Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo at German software provider SAP’s first developer community conference in Singapore on Wednesday (Jun 14).

The government is looking to partner the private sector to bring the benefits of AI innovation to society.

Research from Boston Consulting Group has shown that even modest investments in AI can generate meaningful revenue growth for companies, while benefiting employees in terms of expanded skill sets and greater job satisfaction, said Teo.

She added: “This is provided their employers invest in their training and redesign jobs appropriately to promote career growth, because the potential for AI to disrupt the labour market is also very great.”

To that end, the government is running several initiatives with the private sector to nurture tech talent.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Friday, 8.30 am

Asean Business

Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies.

Sign Up

One example is the Company-Led Training programme, which has trained and placed more than 2,600 individuals in AI and data analytics roles.

SAP Labs Singapore, an innovation hub launched in partnership with the Economic Development Board in March 2022, plans to hire and train about 200 early-career professionals in AI over the next two years.

Most of the roles are for fresh graduates, who will go through an upskilling programme to become “professionally ready”, said SAP Labs Singapore’s managing director Manik Saha.

The company is focusing on graduates from local universities, and has already filled 50 roles in the last three months.

“I know the quality that we get, and I’m convinced that we don’t need to look overseas for talent,” said Saha.

Additionally, US-based philanthropic initiative Schmidt Futures will fund up to 110 post-doctoral fellows at the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technical University, Teo announced at the event.

These fellows will focus on using AI to expedite innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.