How Singapore businesses and employees can become truly AI-ready in 2024

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2023. It has also become the defining term of 2023 for many organisations and individuals. Come 2024, AI is set to stay in the spotlight – especially in Singapore – as the country launches its National AI Strategy 2.0.

Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has underscored the need to cultivate a pool of skilled talent to advance this refreshed AI strategy, including building up a base of confident AI users among enterprises and workers. This goal will require Singapore organisations to not only acknowledge but act on the imperative of upskilling their workforces. A recent 2023 study commissioned by Zoom, in collaboration with Morning Consult, revealed that 74 per cent of employees feel that their employers are providing adequate resources to start utilising AI at work.

AI upskilling is no doubt the way forward, but the question then arises: How can organisations ensure that upskilling initiatives are truly effective in helping their teams become AI-ready this year?

The AI journey starts with employee buy-in

The journey towards AI readiness must begin with getting employee buy-in, a process that may necessitate a shift in mindset.

Understanding employees’ pain points and mapping their concerns to the potential benefits of AI should form the foundation for any approach to encourage upskilling. As it stands, employees do not need much convincing of or education about AI’s benefits. The same survey revealed that 94 per cent of Singapore employees already acknowledge time-saving as a top benefit of AI, alongside helping to reduce repetitive tasks and freeing up time for higher-value activities.

Indeed, teams are often bogged down by small, rote yet manual tasks that cumulatively take a lot of time and energy – think composing post-meeting recaps or catching up on unread chats.

With AI expediting these tasks, employees stand to gain not just time, but the ability to unlock greater creativity and collaboration with the time saved. That said, concerns over job security persist and should not be overlooked.

Of those surveyed, 82 per cent expressed fears about the potential for human job loss as AI adoption at work becomes more widespread. To address this, the onus falls on organisations to create an optimal environment and culture where there is a balance between machine and human intelligence.

The fact remains that certain human attributes, such as empathy and creative problem-solving, are qualities desired in the workplace that AI cannot replicate.

Beyond espousing the benefits of AI, organisations must educate employees on how they can work alongside their smart assistants.

Singapore’s sceptical leaders

Another critical group to consider is business leaders in Singapore. According to the survey, only 45 per cent of Singaporean leaders believe that teams using AI possess a distinct advantage against teams who do not – the lowest percentage reported among the eight markets involved in the study.

This is despite the leaders themselves recognising the impact that AI can have in making their work days more productive, whether it is reducing the number of repetitive tasks (91 per cent) or completing work faster (91 per cent).

When asked about their perceived barriers to AI adoption, four in five leaders said their teams were resistant to using new tools. There is a clear gap in the perceptions of leaders and employees’ actual attitudes. To close this loop, it is key to have the right AI-driven solutions in place to actualise the benefits of AI. Ultimately, organisations want solutions that are easily onboarded, quick to roll out, and demonstrate impact – at cost-effective prices.

Starting the AI journey with solutions that do not have a premium price tag, or those that come already integrated within existing technology platforms, would go a long way in convincing leaders to start experimenting with AI.

This then paves the way for organisation-wide implementation, and eventually building a case for AI upskilling, once teams see first-hand the impact that AI can have on their day-to-day work.

Make AI upskilling part of learning

With employee experience continuing to be a priority in 2024, organisations should look towards integrating AI as an essential part of the learning and development puzzle.

Employees today continue to prioritise their own development, and AI upskilling is a natural addition to the digital upskilling that workforces have to continuously undergo in order to remain competitive.

In fact, organisations can turn to AI itself to facilitate faster AI upskilling. For example, organisations can make use of intelligent conversational AI and chatbot solutions for employees who are learning about new AI tools or features. These chatbots, which work around the clock, can answer questions and guide employees towards further resources that they can tap when they learn on their own time.

Undeniably, there is an initial investment of time required for learning new tools and ways of working.

But as history has proven, the long-term benefits of upskilling far outweigh the costs. By ensuring that AI sits within the employee experience agenda, AI upskilling is positioned as a critical step for employees’ own learning and development journey.

The year 2023 might have been the year of AI, but 2024 will see AI being made more accessible to workforces.

Many organisations already have AI investments in place – the next step is to ensure their teams know how exactly to utilise these tools.

The writer is Asia-Pacific head at Zoom