Singapore forms Tripartite Jobs Council to help workers and businesses navigate AI disruption

[SINGAPORE] A new council bringing together Singapore’s unions, employers and government will be formed to tackle artificial intelligence’s (AI) impact on jobs and businesses, while also helping workers navigate the changing job landscape more broadly.

The Tripartite Jobs Council (TJC) was jointly announced on Thursday (Apr 30) by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), ahead of May Day on Friday.

Speaking to the media, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said the council would take a coordinated approach across three key areas: supporting businesses in adopting AI in a way that drives growth and protects jobs; providing broad-based and sectoral training to raise AI fluency among workers; and providing targeted transition support for at-risk workers.

“The Tripartite Jobs Council represents our collective commitment to translate AI’s potential into good jobs for Singaporeans,” he said.

“By harnessing the combined reach and capabilities of our unions, employers and the government, we will help every worker maximise their potential, and every business can thrive by bringing out the best in their people.”

NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng, who initiated the council, said it would bring together and scale tripartite capabilities under one roof.

“AI is changing the way we work, and it is critical that our workers are not left behind,” he said.

“TJC is our steadfast commitment to support workers, equip them with relevant skills, and ensure they benefit from new opportunities in the AI-enabled economy.”

SNEF president Tan Hee Teck said the council’s efforts would focus on ensuring that sustainable growth for businesses and good jobs for workers go hand-in-hand.

“AI is developing at a tremendous pace untouched by past technological shifts and will have wide and deep impact on businesses across the world,” he said.

More details on TJC’s composition and plans will be shared in the coming months.

Uneven adoption, with SMEs lagging

The announcement comes against a backdrop of uneven AI adoption across Singapore’s economy – with tripartite leaders identifying small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as among those that stand to benefit most from the council’s coordinated push.

Tan Hee Teck cited data from the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Singapore Digital Economy Report 2025 showing that AI adoption among SMEs has more than tripled to nearly 14 per cent in 2024, from around 4 per cent in 2023 – but still lags far behind larger firms where adoption has exceeded 60 per cent.

A separate MOM survey on AI adoption in the workplace, also released on Thursday, covered 2,560 businesses and close to half a million workers. It was conducted from January to March this year and found that 71.5 per cent of businesses had not yet adopted AI, said Dr Tan See Leng.

Among the 28.5 per cent that had started, meaningful integration remained limited: only 3.8 per cent had integrated AI into core processes, while most remained at the planning (7.4 per cent) or piloting (6 per cent) stages.

On job displacement, the survey offered a more reassuring picture. Only 6.2 per cent of firms reported reduced headcount after adopting AI. Instead, firms were redesigning roles (18.9 per cent) and creating new AI-related jobs (13.9 per cent).

“AI is primarily transforming tasks, rather than replacing jobs or workers,” Dr Tan said.

Asked which sectors TJC would prioritise, the minister said the approach would be multi-pronged, targeting as wide a range of workers and businesses as possible – but SMEs will be a key focus given their scale and the number of workers they employ.

He highlighted four sectors that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had identified during Budget 2026 as areas where Singapore holds a competitive advantage, and where the council would focus its efforts: advanced manufacturing, connectivity, finance and professional services.

For SMEs, the challenge is less about willingness than capacity, said Dr Tan See Leng, noting that cost and a lack of in-house expertise were the two biggest hurdles cited by firms in the MOM survey.

“You can incentivise them but you cannot force them,” the minister said, adding that the approach would involve encouraging companies to start small – for instance, by automating vendor management – rather than attempting to overhaul entire operations at once.

Labour chief Ng said NTUC’s experience with the Company Training Committees (CTC) – one of the union’s existing programmes TJC will seek to scale – showed that business strategy needed to come before technology.

“Technology is neutral. You can easily throw money away if it doesn’t support or strengthen your current business model,” he said.

The council’s tripartite make-up could help drive CTC adoption among SMEs, some of which had remained wary of participating due to concerns over unionisation, even though the programme does not require it.

A broader remit

Beyond AI adoption, the council is also intended to address job and career transitions across different worker segments and life stages.

For fresh graduates, Dr Tan See Leng said the new combined statutory board – the Skills and Workforce Development Agency – would reach out to undergraduates while they are still in school, offering curated industrial attachment and internship programmes to ensure a smoother transition into the workforce.

He also flagged what he described as a “fractionalisation of work” – a reorganisation of roles rather than outright displacement – that mid-career workers would need to adapt to, particularly those in analytical and data-oriented jobs.

“AI is primarily transforming tasks, rather than replacing jobs or workers,” he said.

The council also has its sights on workers who have stepped away from the workforce to take on caregiving roles, with the aim of supporting their return to employment. For older workers who wish to continue working, Dr Tan See Leng said the council would look at building in optionalities to extend their career longevity.

For senior workers, Ng noted that anxieties about job security were already pronounced among older employees, and that AI was likely to exacerbate them.

He said NTUC deputy secretary-general Desmond Tan has been engaging senior workers across sectors including healthcare and public transport as part of this effort.