SMS Tan Kiat How’s Opening Address at SCS Gala Dinner & Tech Leader Awards 2026

Ms Lim Bee Kwan, President, Singapore Computer Society

Council Members of the SCS

Award recipients, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen

Opening

1. A very good evening. It is a pleasure to be here this evening amongst the SCS community –  industry leaders, practitioners and friends from the tech sector, as well as to celebrate the achievements of this year’s Tech Leader Award recipients. To all the awardees – my heartiest congratulations. Even though AI has progressed, I think it doesn't replace this human connection that we all have with one another. That is what makes this relationship in this community so vibrant and strong.

2. Just last month, I joined you at the SCS AI Conference, where I spoke about how, through the expanded TIP Alliance+ effort, we are re-imagining the early rungs of the career ladder for tech graduates from institutes of higher learning, polytechnics, and autonomous universities entering the workforce. I am heartened to see the strong support from the entire industry ecosystem as well as SCS.

3. We all know that many fresh graduates from our schools are anxious about their first job because the early rungs of that career ladder are disappearing. But I am very proud that in Singapore, we are doing something unique. We come together and work together with schools, government, industry, employers and the student themselves. We build and strengthen the bridge between employers and the school. Please give SCS a round of applause too. This community has made a real difference in terms of the tech profession.

4. Tonight, I would like to speak on another important topic that is close to my heart and take a wider perspective. Beyond the fresh graduates entering the tech workforce. Because the questions before us are not only about new entrants. They are about the entire tech sector. Our companies, our professionals, and what it will take for Singapore to remain a vibrant tech hub in the years ahead in the age of AI.

5. Before I turn to those questions, let us take a moment to acknowledge how far, collectively, we have come over the years. In 2015, our digital economy contributed roughly 8.3 per cent of our GDP. In 2024, it reached $128.1 billion or 18.6 per cent of GDP, which means that for every five dollars our economy generates, about one dollar comes from the digital economy. And between 2019 and 2024 alone, our digital economy grew at a compound annual growth rate of 12 per cent, well ahead of our overall GDP growth. The ICT sector itself nearly doubled over those five years and remains one of the fastest-growing sectors in our economy. This is remarkable progress.

6. Our tech workforce has grown — not just in size, but in depth, diversity and sophistication. We now have around 222,000 tech professionals in Singapore, up from approximately 173,000 a decade ago. But more telling, is the shift in the profile of that workforce. The fastest-growing roles today are in artificial intelligence, data analytics, and cybersecurity – fields that barely registered as distinct professions ten years ago. How far we have come and how different the landscape is. With 40% of women in technology, Singapore remains at the forefront of promoting greater gender diversity and inclusion in the tech industry within Southeast Asia. We have done well. This tells us that our workforce has not simply expanded, it has evolved and become a pinnacle excellence.

7. This is a strong foundation we are building on. A digital economy that has more than doubled its share of GDP. A tech workforce that is continually growing year-on-year, and is doing work that is more sophisticated, more consequential, and more globally connected. That is the good news. But at the same time as we talk about AI and transformation, we are not immune to this shifting sense below our feet and the big changes that may happen.

The disruption is bigger than jobs

8. There has been a growing wave of so-called “one-person companies”, which are solo founders running real businesses at meaningful scale. They do so by stitching together AI agents, automation tools and cloud services to do the work that used to require entire teams. Marketing, customer service, software development, finance functions can all be run by one person, with AI doing the heavy lifting.

9. Of course, what I’ve described as is a more extreme form of automation and embedding AI in organisations. But I use it as thought experiment, whether or not this becomes the dominant way of working, the trend is clear. AI is not just changing what individual workers do. It is changing what an entire company looks like. It is reshaping the economics of how services are delivered, how value is created, and how companies compete. Our Prime Minister Mr Lawrence Wong also spoke about how AI is transforming how work is done during his May Day Rally speech last week, and a few days ago, Parliament took over more than seven hours to discuss the motion on AI and jobs that was tabled by the SG/NTUC.

10. For our tech sector, it is growing engine powering AI, this is a profound shift. The conversation can no longer just be about productivity gains or about layering AI onto existing workflows. We need to ask more fundamental questions about the implications to the tech sector and tech profession – how AI will impact the business models of our tech companies, and the careers of our tech professionals.

11. Tonight, I want speak about three areas. First, what AI-powered disruption means for our tech companies, especially those providing client services. Second, what it means for our tech professionals when it comes to skills and jobs. Third, what kind of tech leaders we need moving forward.

What this means for our tech service companies

12. Let me start with our tech service providers – the systems integrators, consultancies, IT operations and maintenance firms. Many of you in this room lead these businesses. You have built strong companies on the back of skilled engineers, well-honed delivery methodologies, and trusted relationships with your clients. But the foundations of this business model are being tested.

13. Today, AI tools can already generate large parts of a codebase, triage and resolve a meaningful share of support tickets, draft system designs, and automate routine maintenance. The traditional value proposition built around manpower, billable hours, and time-and-materials contracting will come under pressure as clients ask why they should pay for engineers when AI agents could do much of the work in a fraction of the time.

14. I raise this because I know many of you are already thinking about this. I spoke to many of you in the last few months. But I want to offer a few observations on where I think the opportunities lie.

15. Firstly, the companies that will thrive are those that move up the value chain, from delivering manpower, to delivering outcomes. Instead of paying for headcount or hours, clients will pay for accountability, for integration, for security, for trusted partnerships that solve real business problems end-to-end. The companies that can deliver that, with AI augmenting their teams rather than replacing their value, will be in a stronger position.

16. Secondly, the playing field is widening. Smaller companies, even small teams, can now take on work that used to be the preserve of much larger players. That is both a competitive challenge and an opportunity especially for Singapore. It is an opportunity for our firms to punch above our weight and compete with larger firms to be on a more level playing field. New local champions may emerge, including from places we may not expect, perhaps somewhere in the room as well

17. Thirdly, the speed of adoption matters. The tech companies that experiment quickly with AI-native delivery models and learn from those experiments will be far better placed than those who wait for the dust to settle before getting started. It speaks to our strength of many of us in the tech sector – nimble, agile. entrepreneurial. When there is a level-playing field, the windows of opportunities are much wider. Now, it’s for us to strike when the iron is hot and for the tech sector to continue to strive and grow.

What this means for our tech professionals: Skills

18. I now turn to our tech professionals.

19. In my speech at the SCS AI Conference in April, I focused on fresh graduates. But the bulk of our 222,000 tech professionals are already in the workforce. The question of reskilling and upskilling our existing tech workforce is an urgent one.

20. So, I am pleased to announce that the Government will upskill 40,000 tech professionals through the National AI Impact Programme. Under this effort, IMDA is partnering AI Singapore to launch the AIxTech, an industry validated AI Fluency programme. The programme will equip both tech professionals and final-year IDT students with AI competencies from writing code to orchestrating end-to-end agentic AI systems.

21. Three features of AIxTech are worth highlighting.

    1. First, learners will get access to a wide portfolio of leading AI tools from around the world which will be refreshed regularly to stay relevant as the technology evolves. Trainees will gain versatile, hands-on experience across leading AI coding solutions such as Claude, Codex, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, and Kiro.

    2. Second, AIxTech is designed to meet the busy professionals where you are. Phase 1 offers online modules with hands-on coding workflow training that professionals can fit around their work schedules. Phase 2 offers post-course support primarily through an expert-led learning community to help these professionals in applying their new skills to their workplaces.

    3. Third, responsible AI development is built into the programme from the start and not bolted on as an afterthought. As our professionals build with AI, they should also be equipped to do so safely, ethically, and accountably.

22. AIxTech has already drawn very good early interest and support from over 30 organisations across industry, trade associations, institutes of higher learning and government agencies.

What this means for our tech professionals: Jobs

23. Ultimately, when you reskill yourselves, it is about jobs and being relevant in the workplace. This is because in designing our programmes, we have always leaned on industry to co-create and validate them with us. This includes both companies in the ICT and non-ICT sectors.

24. Today, about 60 per cent of our tech workforce work in non-ICT sectors, such as financial services, professional services, and manufacturing. And this is the faster-growing share. Only 40 per cent are in tech firms themselves.

25. This 60-40 split is significant. Because much of the AI conversation tends to focus on tech companies. But the bigger story and the harder questions sit in the IT departments of our non-tech companies.

    1. What is the in-house IT function for, in an AI-native era? If much of your routine systems administration, helpdesk support, and even application maintenance can be automated or handled by AI agents and external platforms, what is the unique proposition of the team? How can we redesign their job roles and equip them with key skills to enable them to be crucial to the success of company?

    2. How do you reposition the IT department from a cost centre that runs systems to a strategic function that drives business transformation?

    3. How do you grow the tech professionals into AI-bilingual leaders who deeply understand the business, and can translate AI capabilities into competitive advantages in their sectors?

    4. And how do you nurture the next generation, when many of the entry-level tasks done by junior engineers are being automated?

26. These are not questions any one of us can answer alone. We require what we’ve always done – bringing together like-minded partners in the ecosystem, the community we have here in Singapore, and coming together to discuss, think of solutions and act. We continue to grow the tech sector and pathfind a way forward.

27. Thus, I am very glad that we will formalise and expand our industry engagement efforts through a workgroup to study the Future of the Tech Work. SCS, SGTech, and the Tech Talent Assembly (TTAB) have agreed to lead engagements with their members and networks to canvass views on how the tech industry, teams and jobs and skills are changing. They will speak to tech professionals across all career stages and in different archetypes of firms.

28. This workgroup will be co-led by IMDA and Workforce Singapore (WSG), which will be merged with SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) to form Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA), along with SCS, SGTech and TTAB as members. Together, we will identify moves at the ecosystem level, such as identifying market opportunities for our local tech businesses, how to build capabilities in our tech workforce, including those who are still in school, and review existing or develop new policies and interventions.

29. A workgroup that studies the future of tech work needs to operate the way tech does — with continuous integration of ideas and continuous delivery of insight. We will ship what we learn when it is ready, not when it is perfect, and continue to iterate and refine, just like how software is built today. We hope to deliver something in the coming months.

30. MDDI looks forward to be part of this conversation with industry and professionals. If we get this right, we are not just securing existing jobs. We are creating new competitive advantages for our tech sector, good jobs for our professionals, and for Singapore as a regional digital economy hub. I would like to thank CE Cher Pong, CE Dilys, President Bee Kwan, Chairman Nicholas, and President Maxim for leaning forward in this.

Developing the tech leaders Singapore needs

31. Let me turn briefly to the third element, on how we should continue to attract and develop top tech leadership in Singapore.

32. If we want Singapore to be an important node in the regional digital economy, we need leaders who can shape global conversations on AI, cybersecurity, and frontier technology. That is why IMDA started the SG Digital Leadership Accelerator in 2022, to grow a strong community of tech leaders based here in Singapore. I am happy to share that we have doubled this community since 2022 and it is now more than 1,600-strong.

33. And tonight, we welcome into this community a new cohort of 21 SG Digital Leaders who will help drive AI and frontier tech conversations across multinational corporations and start-ups.

34. Let me give you two examples of the calibre of leaders in this network. Dr Alvin Chan is the founder of Neeuro, driving AI-powered neurotechnology from Singapore and shaping global conversations on AI and frontier technology. Shanice Choo is APAC Innovation Lead at Clifford Chance, one of the world's leading international law firms, where she exemplifies the growing importance of digital leadership beyond the traditional tech sector, reflecting how digital and AI fluency is increasingly shaping conversations in professional services.

35. This is the kind of leadership Singapore needs more of - professionals who are technically excellent, commercially sharp, globally connected, and anchored here in Singapore.

Closing

36. Let me close where I began. The disruption ahead of us in the age of AI is real. It will reshape the careers of our professionals, the business models of our tech firms, and the role of in-house IT in every sector of our economy.

37. None of us has a complete map of where this is heading. But our response cannot be to wait. The tech sector in Singapore has never been a place for those who wait.

38. If we get this right, if we transform our companies, reskill our professionals, attract top leaders, and build new pathways together – we will create new competitive advantages for Singapore. We will continue to be a place where good tech jobs are created, where ambitious tech firms can build and scale, and where the brightest tech talents in the region want to be.

39. Thank you very much for your support, and I look forward to all of you playing an important role in shaping the future.