Keynote Speech By SMS Tan Kiat How, at Redas Digital Future Symposium 2026 on 27 August 2026

Mr Tan Swee Yiow, President of REDAS,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. Good morning. It is good to be back among familiar friends from Singapore’s built-environment sector. Since we are still in our National Day month, let me wish everyone a very happy National Day and happy SG61.

2. National Day is a good moment to reflect on how far Singapore has come, and what it will take to build the Singapore of the future. For this audience, that question has a very literal meaning. You build the homes where Singaporeans raise their families, the workplaces that support our economy, and the neighbourhoods and communities that shape the daily life in Singapore.

3. Singapore’s development story is, in many ways, a built environment story. It was made possible by generations of developers, architects, engineers, builders, project managers, facilities managers and many others who turned national ambition into physical reality.

4. When I was at the Ministry of National Development, I had the privilege of working with many of you in the built environment sector and on the Built Environment Industry Transformation Map. During the process when we were working together on the industry transformation map, I had the privilege and opportunity to speak with and learn so much from all of you. One lesson stayed with me. The hardest part of transformation is rarely finding the technology. It is changing the way we work around it – our processes, incentives and relationships. Most importantly, relationships. We shouldn’t underestimate it. That lesson matters even more as AI advances.

5.  AI gives us new tools. What matters is how we use them to build better. Developers have a particularly important role. You do not simply adopt the future of the built environment. You help shape it.

6. At the same time, we all know that this sector is operating in a more demanding environment. Firms face cost pressures, manpower constraints and tight timelines. Projects are more complex. Supply chains are more exposed to disruptions. Expectations for sustainability and building performances are rising, and productivity must improve without compromising quality or safety.

7. There is also a longer-term challenge in attracting and retaining the next generation of built environment professionals. Young people want meaningful careers, and we want to support them. They want to work with advanced tools, exercise judgement and make a visible contribution. We must help them see a future in this sector. A resilient industry needs viable firms, respected professions and talented people who see a future in the built environment.

8. We cannot meet these pressures by simply asking everyone to do more. The industry cannot just work harder. We have to work differently.

9. AI can help. The good news is that the sector is not starting from zero. Our earlier transformation efforts over the many years and decades have recognised that productivity, sustainability, digitalisation, enterprise development and workforce transformation must move together in tandem. AI builds on this foundation. It can help teams compare designs, detect risks earlier, improve coordination, monitor progress across the many parties and optimise building performance.

10. But we should not measure progress by the number of AI use cases. The test is actually much simpler. We should ask whether it improves a real decision, workflow or outcome. That is why I really like the theme today: “Real Applications, Real Impact”, and that is the test. That test matters especially in the built environment, because the decisions are consequential and affect safety, building performance, major investments and assets that may remain in use for decades. Important investment decisions, assets, building safety, building performance – the decisions you make are consequential, not just for this generation, but many generations in the future.

11.  AI may produce a recommendation, but a professional must decide whether it is right. A model may identify a pattern, but may not understand a particular site condition. It may propose an efficient design, but may not fully account for constructability or maintainability. AI can produce an output, but professionals must own the outcome. So AI should augment expertise, not bypass it.

12. Practical AI fluency does not mean every architect, engineer or project manager becomes an AI specialist. That is not practical, but it means combining deep professional expertise with the ability to use AI critically and responsibly.

13. Most companies no longer need convincing that AI has potential. All of us are aware of AI and understand its potential. The harder question is how to turn that potential into business value. And that is where many organisations run into familiar problems.

14. Leadership may have strong ambitions for AI, but on the ground, data is fragmented, teams work in silos, legacy processes are not ready for automation, and employees are uncertain about what AI means for their jobs. This is why so many AI investments struggle to show returns. The problem is often not the technology. It is whether the organisation around it is ready. Buying an AI tool is easy, but changing how an organisation works is much harder.

15. I would suggest three practical principles for us to think about.

    1. First, be clear about the business outcome you want to achieve. Do not begin by asking where AI can be used. Ask what problem we are trying to solve. Is it a recurring delay, a costly process, a decision made without complete information, or a workflow that frustrates customers or employees? Start there.

    2. Second, close the gap between ambition at the top and reality on the ground. Leaders set direction, but the people closest to the work often know where the real friction lies. Bring them into the redesign, fix the data, and break down unnecessary silos. Rethink the workflow before automating it. There is little value in using AI to make a broken process run faster.

    3. Third, bring your people along. Concerns about job displacement are real, and we see it in different workplaces across different industry sectors. The anxieties are real, so we cannot dismiss them. People adopt AI more confidently when they can see how it helps them do their jobs better, develop new skills, and remain valuable even as work and job role changes. So redesign work with people, not around them. The aim should not just be more productive organisations, it should be people whose skills and judgment become more valuable as technology changes.

16. But transformation cannot stop at the individual firm. The built environment is a highly connected system. Developers, consultants, contractors, suppliers, facilities managers and technology providers all contribute to the same outcome. Developers and project owners have particular influence over how that system changes.

17. Developers are not simply users of technology. All of you are market shapers. What you specify, measure and reward shape what the ecosystem invests in. That goes for the Government too. The public sector is one of the biggest developers in Singapore. Whether it’s trains, MRT stations, HDB flats, or industrial parks like JTC, we are all developers. Together with REDAS and all of you, we have a role to play in shaping the outcomes we want.  If procurement focuses narrowly on upfront cost, firms have less incentive to invest in integration, collaboration and lifecycle performance.

18. But when all of us, as project owners, procure for outcomes, bring in expertise earlier and align incentives, they create different conditions for transformation. So procurement is not merely administrative, procurement is how ambition becomes market behaviour. You can bring expertise into projects earlier, create demand for interoperability and better lifecycle performance, and provide real projects where promising innovations can be tested and scaled.

19. I am very encouraged to see the REDAS Innovation Challenge reflect this approach. It starts with real industry problems and brings in innovators to solve them. Success is not the number of pilots launched, but how many useful solutions become part of normal industry practice.

20.  RAPID reflects the same principle at the industry level. Where a problem affects the whole value chain, the solution should not be developed in isolation. And where a solution benefits the whole sector, it should not remain trapped within one firm or one pilot.

21. Government must play our  part as well. We cannot ask industry to transform while leaving the systems around it unchanged. The Government must also build the enablers that allow the sector to work differently. CORENET X is one example. It is not simply about moving submissions online. It is about redesigning how industry and regulatory agencies work together around more integrated digital workflows.

22. The same principle applies for Government as it does for companies. Do not simply digitise an old process. Redesign the process. Our role is to keep improving the infrastructure, policies, rules and platforms around the sector so firms can innovate more easily and confidently. Industry must redesign the way it works. Government must keep redesigning the environment which the industry operates in . That is how we create the conditions for innovation to scale.

23. Ladies and gentlemen, as we look back over the last 61 years, and as we look forward, there is a lot of change, and the world is uncertain.

24. Singapore has always built under constraint. We succeeded not because we have land, labour or resources, or that we have oil underground. We succeeded because we have learnt to use whatever we have on this little, tiny red dot well. AI presents the same test in a new form.

25. So if I can leave you with the final four thoughts:

    1. Choose a problem that matters.

    2. Redesign the work with the people who know it best.

    3. Use procurement and partnerships to shape the right incentives.

    4. And when something works, help it to scale.

26. These are practical steps.

27. But the opportunity before us is significant . At SG61, we can look back with pride at what earlier generations built. But we should also look forward. We have the opportunity to build the next generation of Singapore’s built environment.

    1. One where technology frees our professionals to focus on higher-value judgement, design and problem-solving.

    2. Where project teams spend less time working around fragmented processes and more time solving important problems.

    3. Where smaller firms can participate in innovation.

    4. Where young people see built-environment careers as technologically-advanced, professionally-rewarding and central to Singapore’s future.

    5. And where we build not only more efficiently, but more intelligently, sustainably and resiliently.

28. In conclusion, the build environment does more than reflect Singapore’s progress. It makes Singapore’s progress possible. The homes you build, the workplaces we create, the infrastructure that connects us and the neighbourhoods and public spaces that bring people together. This is how we continue to shape how Singaporeans live, work and thrive for decades to come.

29. That is why this transformation matters. We are not simply modernising an industry. We are building the industry that will build Singapore’s future.

30. So let us build the next generation of the built environment, so that it, in turn can build the next generation of Singapore.

31.  On that note, I wish everybody a happy SG61, and I look forward to aSG100 in many years to come. Thank you.