Address by SMS Tan Kiat How at the ATxEnterprise 2026 Opening Ceremony

Good morning. Welcome to ATxEnterprise 2026. It is good to be back and to see so many of you here.

Today, I would like to speak on how we are working with partners to go beyond buzzwords and make AI real for enterprises, particularly our SMEs.

Two years ago, we launched the Digital Enterprise Blueprint which was jointly developed with the industry.

The Digital Enterprise Blueprint, or DEB, identified four areas for our enterprises in the AI era.

1. First, to Be Smarter by using AI. As more digital tools become AI-enabled and more accessible, enterprises can leverage AI to raise productivity and create new value.

2. Second, to Scale Faster through integrated digital solutions. Moving from siloed point solutions to integrated systems and data, businesses can improve operations and adapt more quickly to market needs.

3. Third, to Be Safer through cyber resilience. As SMEs become more digitalised, they will need to raise their cybersecurity posture to deal with cyber risk.

4. And most importantly, enterprises must Upskill Workers to fully realise the potential of digital transformation.

I am very heartened that since the DEB launched in May 2024, more than 26,000 SMEs have benefitted from the programme. Within two years, we have crossed the mid-point of our five-year target of 50,000 SMEs. These figures represent businesses that took concrete steps forward. This is encouraging progress.

Based on our latest statistics, enterprises’ digital adoption in Singapore is now near universal.

1. 96.4% of enterprises adopted at least one digital solution in 2025, up from 84.6% in 2019.

2. The average number of digital technologies adopted per enterprise also increased from 1.7 in 2019 to 2.5 in 2025.

3. In addition, 97% of SMEs adopted at least one sector-specific digital solution under IMDA’s Industry Digital Plans in 2024, up from 85% in 2023. Not only are more enterprises adopting digital solutions at scale across different industry sectors, but they are also adopting more sophisticated, advanced solutions for their sectors.

These trends show that enterprises are not only going digital but increasingly adopting more sophisticated and industry-tailored solutions. AI adoption among enterprises has accelerated rapidly, rising more than fivefold from 4.3% in 2023 to 23.5% in 2025.

Firms are also investing for the long term:

1. 68% of AI-using firms plan to train and upskill workers in AI capabilities.

2. 63% plan to redesign jobs and workflows around AI.

Encouragingly, AI usage among workers is also healthy. In 2025, 73.8% of surveyed workers used AI tools at work, with most using them several times a week or daily.

Let me highlight a couple of examples:

1. Castlery, a homegrown furniture brand with customers also in the US, Australia, UK and Canada, built a GenAI-powered Personal Shopping Assistant through tech discovery with AWS and partner Axrail. Customer response time reduced by 34%, and the customer experience team saw 13%-time savings.

2. Another example is UEI Logistics, which took steps to improve their cyber resilience after ST Engineering's complimentary Cyber Threat Scanning revealed vulnerabilities. They saw that taking a proactive approach early would be far less costly than reacting after an incident. UEI Logistics moved to implement continuous monitoring and a pre-approved endpoint detection solution – a significant step up from standard antivirus, which can only catch known threats.

I share these couple of examples to highlight what meaningful transformation can look like. These are not frontier technology companies. They are enterprises dealing with the same constraints and opportunities that many other companies face.

What matters is building momentum – taking practical steps to strengthen capabilities and create value over time. If they could make this work, so can all of you.

SMEs in Singapore are not undertaking their digitalisation and AI journey alone. As part of the DEB, we have worked with industry partners across the ecosystem to work with SMEs to make AI real for them.

1. Close to 6,000 SMEs have benefitted from AI programmes through partners like Salesforce, DBS, the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and Prudential.

2. Over 2,400 have benefitted from cloud programmes by Alibaba Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft.

3. And close to 2,800 have taken steps to strengthen their cyber defences through Singtel and ST Engineering.

Today, we have 13 DEB partners contributing across all four pillars. Let me give you a sense of what partner contributions have looked like in practice.

1. SCCCI, in partnership with IMDA, launched the AI Experience for SME Programme - giving business owners hands-on exposure to pre-approved AI solutions and expert guidance on applying them to their specific context.

2. Singtel, working with Enterprise Singapore and IMDA, has been helping SMEs strengthen their cyber defences through the Singtel Cyber Protect Programme, where enterprises can access complimentary enterprise-grade mobile and broadband security protection for twelve months – a first for many SMEs.

These are practical, targeted contributions that make the DEB more than just a framework on paper. Partner organisations that SMEs can approach, depending on business needs, and where they are in their journey. In short, we are making good progress on many fronts since the launch of the DEB two years ago.

However, the world is not standing still. We cannot afford to stand still. I would like to touch on three trends that are important to enterprises in the coming years.

First, global tensions are reshaping supply chains, trade relationships. The uncertainty is making it harder for enterprises to plan with confidence and invest for the long term.

For SMEs, the exposure is immediate. If a key supplier is disrupted, or a key customer pulls back, you feel it across your entire business. There is no buffer of scale to absorb the impact.

This is where digital capability matters. Enterprises with digital systems are more adaptable and resilient. They can find new suppliers faster, pivot their customer approach more quickly, and stay competitive and relevant.

Second, AI is also transforming industries. This is not just about getting a technology upgrade. It is about what your business can do that it could not before – handling customer enquiries, generating quotes, processing orders at greater speed, even with manpower constraints.

AI itself is evolving rapidly. We now speak of agentic AI -- systems that do not just assist, but act. That carry out multi-step tasks autonomously and operate continuously. For enterprises that get this right, the productivity gains are significant. For those that do not engage and use it sensibly, the gap compounds.

These developments set the context for our raised ambitions for AI.

Third is cybersecurity. Many of us have ramped up on using digital and AI tools, but the more you digitalise, the more your cyber posture matters. They are not separate conversations – to use digital tools and to be cyber secure.

The data on SME cyber incidents is stark. According to CSA's Singapore Cyber Landscape report, around 6,100 phishing attempts were reported in 2024 – a 49% increase from the year before.

Business Email Compromise scams, where attackers impersonate suppliers, vendors, or senior executives to trick employees into making fraudulent payments, resulted in $35.3 million in losses across 377 cases in 2025 alone.

These attacks succeed not because businesses lack technology, but because they exploit human behaviour. The most common entry point is a phishing email that looks legitimate, appearing to come from your bank, your supplier, or even from you. Now AI-enhanced, these emails are more personalised, better timed and harder to spot. One wrong click, and the organisation may be compromised.

When that happens, the consequences are not just financial. Almost all of those who were impacted suffered business loss, reputational damage, or operational disruption.

And your company may not even be the intended target. A ransomware attack propagates through supply chains and shared systems. If you are a supplier to a company that gets hit, you could find your own operations paralysed – even though you had not been the direct target.

This is why “Be Safer” is a core pillar of the DEB – not an add-on. And it is why the cybersecurity work we are doing with our DEB partners needs to keep growing.

One measure of how this is landing: over 14,000 SMEs have adopted pre-approved solutions across AI, cloud, integrated digital solutions, and cybersecurity. We are continuously raising the quality of what is on offer – working with professional bodies like SGTech and the Singapore Computer Society to grow capabilities in our tech workforce and companies, to scale AI solutions and impact for our broad base of SMEs. This is how we are working with industry to scale AI impact across the economy.

To support our SMEs to harness the benefits of AI and strengthen cyber resilience, I am pleased to welcome two new DEB partners.

1. First is Grab. Many of you will be familiar with its network of merchants.

   1. Grab together with IMDA is helping 10,000 F&B, e-commerce and retail SMEs strengthen AI literacy and accelerate AI adoption to enhance productivity and unlock business growth opportunities.

   2. This is done through several initiatives, of which one is co-developing a two-day AI programme together with SUTD, for SME merchant partners.

   3. It takes participants from understanding AI's business value, to identifying use cases, to building a practical roadmap for their own business. Through the hands-on programme, participants will use pre-approved AI solutions curated by IMDA and apply AI to their own business needs.

   4. Secondly, Grab will also run masterclasses and webinars co-curated with IMDA, designed around the AI capability gaps observed among Singapore's SMEs.

2. The second new DEB partner, RSM Stone Forest IT. As a CSA-appointed CISO-as-a-Service cybersecurity consultant, they work with SMEs to enhance their cyber defense.

   1. Through the new RSM Cyber2SME Programme in partnership with IMDA, they are tackling, what I shared earlier, one of the most persistent and under-addressed vulnerabilities: phishing.

   2. To defend against phishing, you need to strengthen the human aspect of your defense. To test and train people and build habits that reduce risk. That is exactly what this programme aims to do.

   3. Up to 2,000 SMEs will receive a complimentary Phishing Simulation Exercise that is customised to different employees' job functions. Employees will receive a realistic simulated phishing email across 1 month.

   4. Business owners will receive performance report and a one-to-one advisory session with RSM cybersecurity practitioners to review results and provide actionable recommendations for managing cyber risks.

I encourage all SMEs to sign up on IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital platform today, as part of strengthening your company’s cyber resilience.

For enterprises that are further along on their digitalisation journey, our Digital Leaders, we also have a range of resources to enable meaningful transformation in an age of AI.

Last year, I announced that we would scale GenAI support to 1000 Digital Leaders and 500 projects.

Today, more than 1,200 enterprises have benefitted, with close to 300 AI projects committed as of April 2026, and more are in discussion with IMDA. 

In March, we launched the Digital Leaders Accelerator Bootcamp. This programme equips enterprises with the capabilities, practical tools and methodologies to implement AI across teams, processes and operations.

But we heard from enterprises that the landscape of available support can be hard to navigate. Knowing what to do with AI is one challenge. Knowing where to start and which support to tap is another. That gap has costs — in time, in missed opportunity, and in transformation efforts that stall before they scale.

Today, I am pleased to launch the AI for Enterprise Impact Playbook – jointly developed by IMDA and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG). What makes this different is its starting point: it begins with the enterprise, not the programme.

1. Built on insights from real transformation journeys, it helps enterprises assess where they stand across five dimensions — Strategy & Leadership, Talent & Culture, Data & Governance, Tech Deployment & Integration, and Value Creation — then maps them directly to the most relevant, actionable support. Programmes and resources across the government agencies are consolidated into a single, easy-to-navigate path forward.

2. This self-help resource is now available on IMDA’s website. I strongly urge every enterprise here – wherever you are on your AI journey – to use it. The playbook helps you find your entry point and move beyond trying to understand where to start, to a set of actionable plans and support you can tap on.

We want the benefits of this AI transition to be broadly shared, not just among those who were already well-resourced. This means helping businesses become more productive, resilient, and competitive. Businesses that upskill their workers to thrive in good jobs, in an AI-enabled economy.

To recognise the enterprises that have already moved, adopted AI and seen positive impact, IMDA and SBF are organising the inaugural SME AI Impact Awards 2026, as part of the National AI Impact Programme, in support of Singapore’s National AI strategy. 

1. The Awards recognise SMEs that have made a measurable impact: whether through proprietary AI solutions they have built themselves, or by successfully implementing off-the-shelf AI tools, and achieving real business outcomes. Winners will receive the SME AI Impact Awards Trustmark. If you have done the work, step forward. Show other companies who are hesitating to start, what can be done.

2. Nominations open on 1 June on the IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital platform.

To every enterprise here – whether you are just beginning or already deploying AI at scale – you do not have to do this alone.

Singapore's enterprises can make this transition, and it is our shared responsibility and our commitment to make this journey as seamless as possible for all.

Pick up the AI for Enterprise Impact Playbook. Start with the Assessment. Find out where you are. Work with one of our partners.

To all our DEB partners, thank you. Today’s progress is yours as much as ours.

To the ATxSG organising teams – thank you for another edition that continues to grow. ATxSG's sixth year is not a celebration of where we have been. It is a commitment to where we are going, together.

And together, we are moving beyond buzzwords, hype and slogans. We are making AI impact real and tangible for our enterprises and workforce here in Singapore.

Thank you.