Minister Josephine Teo's Opening Address at NCS AI Mission Centre

1. Good afternoon, everyone.

2. I think it is an understatement to say that the AI landscape has changed significantly. Today, it is difficult to have any serious discussion without AI coming up. Even amongst government leaders and policymakers, AI easily accounts for 60 to 70% of conversations.

3. I was just reflecting on the past 12 months. I remember being the Minister-in-Attendance for Chinese Premier Li Qiang during his visit to Singapore, and much of his discussions with our leaders centred on AI. Similarly, when Vietnam's General Secretary Tô Lâm was in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue and a State Visit, much of the discussion also revolved around technology, particularly AI. A few days ago, I met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz – his conversations with Singapore's business community, as well as his Singapore Lecture, also centred on AI.

4. Earlier this month, at the Singapore International Cyber Week, we had a record turnout of over 15,000 participants from more than 100 countries. On that occasion, the headline was Senior Minister K Shanmugam's remarks on the expectations of transparency from frontier AI model labs. These examples illustrate how AI is front – and centre in virtually everything that we are thinking about.

5. Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong took part in a meeting led by the Norwegian Prime Minister and Finnish President on the need for greater control over frontier AI models. Two hours later, I was on a call with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global Commission on AI for Good, where the conversation had shifted significantly from when the Commission first met, with much greater emphasis now placed on AI safety.

6. Against this backdrop, I thought it would be useful to share some reflections on the context in which NCS is launching its AI Mission Centre. The two words that came to mind were "hard truths", because there are some hard truths about what it takes for a country to truly benefit from this technology.

Three hard truths about AI

7. The first, is as they say, “Rome was not built in a day”. You cannot so easily start from zero and hope to benefit from AI overnight. It is not that easy to benefit from agentic AI systems unless you have gone through the process of cleaning up your data, establishing the proper architecture, and putting usable pipelines in place. You also cannot achieve this unless you have gone through a generation of digitalisation, which in turn would have been difficult without an earlier generation of computerisation. These layers build on one another. You cannot establish a strong foundation from nothing.

8. To use agentic AI systems safely, you also need to consider the harnesses, particularly the permissions granted to these systems. Give too little permission, and you cannot fully benefit from their autonomy. But you would not dare to give too much permission unless you are confident that your cybersecurity measures are firmly in place. That is the inherent challenge.

9. While a solopreneur may find it relatively easy to benefit from using AI, organisations with existing legacy systems will face greater challenges in adopting AI. They will need to overcome these challenges and build on the foundations already laid to fully realise the benefits of AI. This is also a timely reminder of why we must not readily give up the edge that we have built over the years. We must continue to build on it.

10. The second hard truth is that it truly takes a village to grow an industry and drive transformation. In corporate speak, we use terms like "hub" or "ecosystem", but essentially, it is a village.

11. Just last evening, I attended a private event organised by the newly established Southeast Asia Quantum Industry Association (SEAQIA). Among those present were researchers who had come through the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT), a research entity that we started building more than 20 years ago. Back then, we did not know when the CQT’s applications would materialise. Today, many of these researchers have gone on to establish spin-off companies, contributing to Singapore's growing quantum ecosystem.

12. There were also many venture capitalists at the event. I was curious whether investors were prepared to put money into quantum at this early stage – the answer was: yes. Even family offices were willing to consider the potential returns. They were particularly encouraged by Singapore's recent announcement that we would set aside S$1 billion to grow the start-up ecosystem and support scale-ups, including through greater investments in funds of funds. This is another important part of the ecosystem that has generated excitement.

13. Another aspect of our quantum ecosystem that surprised me was something I learnt earlier this year at Davos. I was on a panel alongside several quantum experts, including Nobel Prize-winning physicist John M. Martinis and took the opportunity to explain Singapore's interest in quantum technologies. I shared, for example, how our port handles a significant volume of containers each year, and how optimising its operations involves very complex computations, making quantum computing potentially useful.

14. Before I could finish, John mentioned that he was coming to Singapore. I asked him why, and he explained that Singapore has a well-established semiconductor manufacturing industry, and that many of the components needed for quantum computers could potentially be adapted from semiconductor manufacturing. He was already thinking of meeting companies here to explore whether they could dedicate some of their production capacity to manufacturing these components.

15. This was something we had not quite expected. We had thought that Singapore might have a stronger role to play in quantum software but were less certain about the hardware aspects. It turned out that we also had an advantage there. This was reaffirmed at last evening's SEAQIA event, where several attendees shared that they were drawn to Singapore because of our strong semiconductor industry.

16. The point I am trying to make is that it takes an entire ecosystem, and you cannot develop just one part of it without the others. In many ways, the journey we are taking in quantum mirrors how we have built up our AI ecosystem over the years.

17. Dr Lawrence Liu was very much involved in AI Singapore (AISG) in its early days. I remember Lawrence telling me that when AISG first embarked on its 100 Experiments programme, they approached businesses but were often met with blank looks. Many did not understand what AI was about. AISG subsequently trained some 10,000 people just to build a baseline understanding of AI. Without those early efforts to build up the ecosystem, we would not be in the position we are today, moving from Lorong AI to Kampong AI, and building the vibrant AI hub that we now have.

18. The third hard truth is that actions speak louder than words. It is not difficult for any country or city to write out a national or municipal AI strategy. The hard part is having a real bias for action and creating something that is real.

19. So, what is real? It is infrastructure — data centres, data pipelines, mobile networks, and compute. These are the hard things that we cannot run away from. It is also enterprises and businesses with the capabilities, energy, drive and ambition to adopt AI. They may fail along the way, but they learn valuable lessons that help them succeed the next time.

20. What are also real are people with the right skills, and jobs that are being created as we speak. It is the policies and programmes that provide the impetus and support for transformation. More than a decade ago, the Government decided to adopt a cloud-first approach, which helped drive the move towards cloud computing. Today, we are making a commitment to use AI and agents in public service delivery, while ensuring that our people are properly equipped with the skills for these roles. These are the actions that speak louder than words and are far more important than any strategy document we put out.

NCS’s contribution to Singapore’s AI ecosystem

21. This brings me to the question of where NCS can make its biggest contribution as we continue to build our ecosystem and take meaningful action towards creating a vibrant AI hub. It occurs to me that turning ambition into action is where NCS can make the greatest contribution. I see three reasons for this.

22. The first reason is that over 45 years, NCS has built up a relationship of trust with your clients. You understand the challenges they face and the opportunities available to them. These relationships are not easily replaced. More importantly, the trust that your clients have in you, gives them the confidence to get started and pursue bigger ambitions with AI.

23. This is a unique strength that NCS brings. Not many organisations can say that they have a team of forward-deployed engineers and, at the same time, have been around for 45 years. That is not an easy combination to replicate – but NCS can say that.

24. Second, NCS is also walking the talk. I want to congratulate NCS on being named among the first 24 Champions of AI recognised by the National AI Council. This recognises not only NCS's role as a systems integrator, but also its willingness to look inwards and recognise that however well it has organised itself, there is still room to improve.

25. Many years ago, Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, said something that I think remains true today – if the rate of change inside an organisation is slower than the rate of change outside it, the end is in sight. This is especially relevant in today's fast-moving technology landscape.

26. By continually transforming, learning the ropes and going through the challenges of becoming fit for the AI age, NCS is gaining valuable experience that it can share with clients. This lends greater credibility and a deeper appreciation of the challenges that your clients face.

27. At the same time, I appreciate NCS's balanced approach to thinking about returns. Returns for customers, because they pay the bills; returns for employees, because they provide the capabilities and strengths of the organisation; and returns for the future, because ultimately, we are here to create a better future for all of us. Well done on that.

28. The third strength is that, over the years, NCS has not been content to limit its impact to Singapore. You have built a sizeable regional footprint. NCS is not just a partner for meaningful AI action, impact, and returns in Singapore. Your impact  extends well beyond Singapore.

29. Through the clients you serve across the region, you can also draw on their talents, strengths, and insights to bring expertise back to your Singapore clients. This exchange of expertise will put us in a stronger position as a region and continue to help Singapore attract the world's attention.

30. Next year, Singapore will assume the rotating ASEAN Chairmanship. One of our priority deliverables for 2027 will be in the digital domain, specifically an initiative on AI that is still being developed. I believe we are getting close to finalising it, and that NCS will be able to play a very positive role in bringing meaningful AI action not just to businesses in Singapore, but to the wider region.

31. Once again, congratulations to NCS on the launch, and thank you everyone.