Opening Address by MOS Jasmin Lau at Singapore Heartland Enterprise Summit

Mr Yeo Hiang Meng, BBM, President, Federation of Merchants' Associations, Singapore

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

1. Good afternoon, it is my pleasure to be here with all of you today, especially our heartland merchants and business owners.

2. To many of us in the community, you are a part of the neighbourhood and a part of our way of life. Maybe you are greeting each other already by name, you already know many of our residents in the community, and the role you play is not just about being a part of our economy. I think you make Singapore what it is and we feel very strongly in trying to figure out how to support all of you in this path to success.

3. Today, I want to discuss how the Government can support you to ride this AI wave so that you can continue to be a special part of Singapore.

4. AI often can feels like it is something meant for big corporations with large IT teams, who have consultants, data scientists, technical staff, and lots of time to experiment. They can even set up a separate team to do the experimenting.

5. For many of you as heartland merchants and small business owners, your daily reality is very, very different. Your margins are tighter, your teams are smaller, and manpower is hard to find – we're not even talking about expensive; they're even hard to find and to hire.

6. Some of you are already doing the work of three or four people. You may be the boss, but you’re also the cashier, the stock controller, the customer service officer, and sometimes even the repairman. You're doing it all by yourself.

7. So when the Government comes along and encourages you to adopt AI, we do hear very reasonable responses from all of you when you say, “When? How? After I finish doing everything else?” It is really not easy for all of you.

8. But what I saw earlier at the exhibition also gives me some optimism. The examples showcased today are not about AI as a distant or complicated tool. Many of the solutions you see, do show you how AI can be a practical business tool for you.

   1. For example, 361 Degree Consultancy’s AI-powered WhatsApp Ordering System, Lunchbox Solutions’ AI-powered voice ordering solution – these are all worth exploring if you're in the retail or F&B business.

   2. You also have AI-powered features in platforms like Grab, and these are quite low barriers of entry for many of you. It doesn't require you to know how to code or to program, but it may require you to at least explore within the app and the solutions, so you understand the technology a bit better.

9. These examples do show you how AI can be useful for our SME's, and this is also why we are strengthening support for our SMEs to experiment and try AI, adopt solutions with greater confidence, and then decide which one you want to invest in and which one you want to scale.

   1. We launched the National AI Impact Programme, which sets aside support for 10,000 businesses like yours – not just the big names – to try AI in their day-to-day operations, and to help 100,000 workers get comfortable using it. Just now, I asked some of the exhibitors what are the common responses they get when they try to do outreach for their solutions, many of them said that quite often business leaders will say, “I think my staff don't know how to use.” “I think my staff is scared of using.” I think that's often the barrier that we hear, but it's a real one. We have to figure out how best to overcome that barrier.

   2. Practically, it also means more of the tools, such as the ones you see at today's exhibition, will come with funding support, so trying something new is a smaller burden on your pocket. So please go off and explore and take a look at what could work for you.

10. For many merchants like yourself, the day is full before it even begins.

11. This is why AI can help you, not in the form of a grand transformation, but in the form of a helping hand that can take some of the burden from t daily work.

12. This helping hand can give you back time. Time you can use to:

    1. Improve your product,

    2. Take care of your customers,

    3. Train a younger worker, or

    4. Think about the next step for your business.

13. It can also make your business more sustainable, easier for your next generation (下一代) to pick up, and less dependent on knowledge that sits in one or two persons’ head.

14. But at the end of the day, why SMEs should try AI cannot come only from the Government. I can stand here and give you a speech, but I cannot fully understand the challenges that you go through on a daily basis. It will be a lot more effective if you hear it from your peers from other business leaders who have tried these solutions, who have found that it does work, and perhaps doesn't take too much time or effort to implement.

15. This is why events like today’s Summit are very, very important. It gives all of you a chance to hear directly from one another. To ask questions honestly, like, “How much time did this really save?” “Did it cost you more time, or did it save you some time?” “Was it expensive?” “Was it easy to work with this solution provider? Did they follow up with you each time you ask a question?” “Can this work for a business like mine?”

    1. I encourage all of you as you go through the exhibits today, you can also ask them, “Which businesses have you worked with?” And then, on your own in your own networks, go and ask, a.     “Did it really work for you as well as the exhibitors say?” “Were there challenges that perhaps you didn't realise until you started using the tools and how best can I learn from your experience?”

    2. Do swap notes on what worked, what didn't, and what's worth trying.

16. My last point that we will build understanding and resilience by doing, and not waiting. Quite often, we do meet many business leaders who say it's very, very difficult to choose which solution provider, and to decide whether I try by myself using Claude or ask someone else to try for me, then have to decide which staff to send for courses. It's very difficult, very paralysing to decide.

17. For many of you, I can also understand that training your workers can feel like a luxury. Time spent away from your business does have a real cost. So for many of you, learning must fit into real life.

18. This is why I would encourage all of you to think about AI adoption, not as something as a long course that you have to commit to right at the start. You don’t have to overhaul your entire business. It can start with one task, one tool, one small pain point, and one tool.

    1. You can use AI to draft quicker replies to common questions from your customers.

    2. You can use it to translate a menu so that customers from different segments can order from you.

    3. Or maybe just manage your orders and your inventories a lot more smoothly.

19. The Government's role, of course, is to make that first step for all of you easier. But the best way to learn about AI and to learn about the tools is to simply try it out for yourself.

20. There is a simple place for all of your to start. If you haven’t, you can search "SMEs Go Digital" online.

    1. It is a curated list of tools that other businesses have already tried, and these tools have been checked for you already, some with funding support already built in.

    2. If you are not sure which tools will fit you, there's also a short questionnaire online, called the GenAI Navigator. It will help to point you in the right direction based on your business, and not as just a generic business leader.

    3. So you do not need to start by asking "How do I use AI?"

    4. You can simply start by asking "What's the one thing in my day, in my business that is painful or that takes too long?

    5. I encourage all of you to take five minutes this week to look it up, try out the navigator and see if you get some early answers.

21. Let me say a few words in Mandarin.

22. 各位商家朋友下午好，很高兴看到这么多人出席这个峰会。

23. 我们的邻里商店不只是经济的一部分，也是社区的一部分。

24. 跟大家分享一下，我两个孩子 – 五岁和三岁 – 其实他们学华语都是因为我们带他们出去社区买食物。最近他们学了买鱼圆面，他们现在可以跟auntie说：“我要鱼圆面，加米粉。”其实我们也知道我们自己可以从Grab 订餐，很方便, 可是就是缺了那个人与人之间的联系。所以我们其实很喜欢带他们出去。我也希望在未来的时代，我的孙子 （如果我幸运有孙子的话）他们也有这个机会可以感受我们在社区人与人之间接触的感觉。

25. 虽然我的工作是要推广AI，我自己还是觉得如果我们的邻里企业可以继续一代接一代，其实为会对我们新加坡社会有好处的。

26. 当然，我也了解你们做生意确实是不容易。每天你们一开门，就有大大小小的事情要处理。有时候，从早忙到晚，连坐下来好好吃一顿饭的时间都没有。

27. 政府相信人工智能可以成为大家的得力助手，帮助大家更快、更轻松地处理一些繁琐的工作。这样，大家就可以把更多的时间和精力放在最重要的事情上：把生意做好，把顾客照顾好，把多年建立起来的口碑和人情味延续下去。

28. 我们并不要求商家们一下子改变多年的经营方式，而是希望陪大家一步一步地去尝试，先从简单的地方开始，例如用人工智能来回答顾客的问题、整理你们的订单，或者用科技来减少一些重复、繁琐的工作。

29. 所以我鼓励大家，今天不妨先踏出一小步，听一听其他商家的经验、然后想想自己最希望解决什么问题，再看看有哪一些合适的工具值得去认识一下,去尝试一下。

30. 在这个过程中，当然政府会继续提供支持，帮助我们的邻里企业善用科技，在科技浪潮中不只是跟得上变化，也能站得更稳，走得更远。

31. Lastly, our government is committed to walk this AI journey with all of you through practical support. We hope that all of you will not be afraid to try out AI tools, and think about it as an additional helping hand that can help your business become more resilient for the future.

32. AI should not be something discussed only in boardrooms or technology campuses. The benefits of AI belong in our heartlands as well.

33. Thank you, and enjoy the rest of the summit.