The goal of Google Cloud and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG)’s artificial intelligence (AI) initiative is to assist 300 Singaporean businesses in creating their own specialized AI centers of excellence (AI CoEs) within the next 12 months.
This innovative program, called AI Cloud Takeoff (AI CTO), is part of the Singaporean government’s Enterprise Compute Initiative (ECI). Its goal is to move businesses from early AI testing to the development of scalable, custom AI solutions that boost global competitiveness and create new revenue streams.
A transformation blueprint, technical assistance, and cash incentives totaling up to S$500,000 will be provided to participating enterprises in phases as they meet significant milestones. The program comes after a successful November 2024 pilot with 30 businesses.
Serene Sia, Google Cloud’s country director for Singapore and Malaysia, stated during today’s launch event that Singaporean organizations have advanced beyond the simple use of AI.
“They are now telling us that it is about taking off with AI, not just adopting it,” Sia stated. In order to unlock even more value, Singaporean enterprises want to develop more sophisticated, purpose-built solutions. Building data-to-AI pipelines, encouraging a culture of learning, and integrating with current systems are some of the new issues they tell us they are confronting in the process.
In order to enable companies to “innovate confidently, become more competitive, and generate revenue in new ways,” Sia explained that the AI CTO program was created in collaboration with DISG to offer a “blueprint to digitally build and scale their own AI solutions.”
In order to centralize AI knowledge, tools, and governance, organizations will create an internal AI CoE, a specialized team. Google engineers and a team of seven certified partners, including Accenture, AsiaPac, Deloitte, and Kyndryl, will provide them with hands-on support, professional upskilling, and access to Google’s AI models, including Gemini, through the Vertex AI platform.
The program is a fundamental component of Singapore’s national AI policy, which aims to develop AI talent and innovation domestically.
The program provides a “powerful launchpad for companies on their AI innovation journey, from early experimentation to full-scale transformation,” according to Low Yen Ling, senior minister of state for commerce and industry.
She also emphasized the government’s strong support and objective of developing a robust pipeline of AI CoEs to serve as catalysts for transformation in the entire industry. “Both large and small businesses can benefit from AI by automating manual business processes, improving worker skills, increasing productivity, fostering innovation, and increasing both their top and bottom lines,” she said.
Low explained how the government will offer specific assistance to help companies create a minimum viable product and expand their AI capabilities. This assistance will include funding for 70% of consulting and cloud usage costs, with a ceiling of S$105,000 per company.
The pilot program’s success has already produced measurable business results. Kyndryl and YCH Group, a domestic logistics company, collaborated to create AI agents for the Vietnam SuperPort project. While one agent analyzes X-ray cargo scans for forbidden items using object identification models, another uses Google Cloud’s Document AI Workbench to extract and validate information from complex shipping paperwork.
The improvements created by AI CTO are anticipated to “boost staff productivity by up to 35% and cut errors by 50%, greatly enhancing port efficiency, security, and regional delivery speed,” according to Yap Kwong Weng, CEO of Vietnam SuperPort.
Other pilot grads include Embed, which created a generative AI tool to personalize customer experiences at family entertainment centers like Timezone, and Seaco, which created a multimodal AI agent to automate container damage checks.
