Turning Singapore into a productivity powerhouse with AI agents

AS GLOBAL trade becomes more fragmented and uncertainties grow in 2025, Singapore is increasingly vulnerable to structural shifts in the global economy. These external pressures, coupled with a tight labour market, present a challenge to Singapore’s growth prospects. As the nation celebrates 60 years of remarkable growth and transformation, the focus is on navigating the path ahead.

Labour tightness means forgone economic output. A McKinsey manpower market report estimated that gross domestic product in 2023 could have been 0.5 to 1.5 per cent higher in the advanced economies if employers had been able to fill their excess job vacancies. In Singapore, the labour shortage is pronounced, with 164 job vacancies for every 100 jobseekers as at December 2024. The need to drive productivity gains is therefore patently clear.

Combining productivity growth with meaningful work

However, in addition to productivity, we must also emphasise the long-term creation of good jobs in order to drive growth. In a recent speech, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam urged the audience to think about productivity more broadly, including tapping artificial intelligence (AI), so as to “maximise our potential to create good jobs for everyone who wishes to be in the workforce”. Those displaced by creative disruption should have opportunities to transition “not just into flipping burgers, but into new jobs in other sectors”, he said.