Few chief AI officers at Singapore listcos despite growing AI push: survey

[SINGAPORE] About 76 per cent of firms globally have a dedicated chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) but adoption in Singapore-listed companies remains limited.

These were the findings from a recent survey of 2,000 CEOs by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, in collaboration with Oxford Economics.

Although the report did not give examples, global companies such as London-based bank HSBC, technology firm Meta Platforms and brewer Heineken have appointed chief AI officers. In Singapore, such roles are still the exception rather than the norm.

“Dedicated CAIO roles at C-level within Singapore-listed companies remain rare,” said John Young, a partner at the Singapore office of leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles. He is a member of its global technology and services practice.

Young noted that many companies remain cautious about creating standalone AI leadership positions despite Singapore having built strong national momentum around AI leadership.

This is seen with the appointment of Dr He Ruimin as Singapore’s CAIO, who oversees national efforts to develop and implement Singapore’s AI strategy, as well as the formation of a National AI Council, chaired by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

“From conversations we’re having in the field, many organisations are cautious about ring-fencing AI under a single executive,” he said.

This comes even as executives recognise the growing strategic importance of AI.

Heidrick & Struggles’ 2026 CEO and Board Confidence Monitor found that 44 per cent of Asia-Pacific leaders identified AI as one of the most significant issues their organisations expect to face in 2026, while about half said they were confident in their ability to manage it.

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Although CAIO roles among Singapore-listed companies are few and far between, the accelerating pace of AI capabilities is prompting companies to rethink how leadership teams are structured and how responsibilities are distributed across the C-suite.

“The CEOs delivering real results from AI transformation aren’t just deploying AI faster, they’re redesigning their organisations to bring together the best people with the best technology,” said Mohamad Ali, senior vice-president at IBM Consulting.

According to the IBM report, all CEOs from the organisations with a CAIO expect the role’s influence to increase by 2030.

In Singapore, AI-led tech services company NCS Group recently appointed Edward Chen as its first chief AI officer.

Chen said that the role was created to drive the company’s AI strategy with greater focus and coordination. “The chief AI officer role was created to accelerate how NCS develops and brings AI platforms and products to market, while scaling AI adoption and transformation across our clients and operations,” he explained.

Chen added that the appointment helps align AI initiatives across the organisation around a common strategy, operating model and platform.

While NCS continues to have strong AI talent embedded across its industry groups and delivery teams, he said that the operating model allows the company to deliver AI solutions that are “higher quality, faster to deploy, more cost-effective, and built with security and governance from the ground up”.

Still, many companies in Singapore are choosing to embed AI responsibilities within existing executive portfolios rather than establish dedicated AI leadership roles.

Ivan Ng, governing council member and tech and digital committee co-chair at the Singapore Institute of Directors, said that this is because successful AI adoption depends on “broader integration across data, platforms, operations and governance”.

Heidrick & Struggles’ Young noted: “In many cases, companies may find it more practical to expand the remit of existing CIOs, CTOs, digital or innovation leaders, as these executives already oversee the underlying technology infrastructure, governance, transformation programmes and implementation teams required to deploy AI effectively.”

He pointed to a recent search by a bank here for a chief innovation officer, where AI accounted for roughly a quarter of the role’s remit rather than serving as its sole focus.

“The bank recognised that AI was just one of several areas requiring innovation, alongside blockchain, cybersecurity, infrastructure and fintech,” he said.

Young added that companies increasingly view AI as an enterprise-wide capability rather than a standalone business function.

“The reality is that AI cuts across every part of the business,” he pointed out, noting that “many organisations will view AI readiness as a CEO and board-level priority, with accountability distributed across the leadership team rather than concentrated in a single role”.