Transcript of SMS Tan Kiat How’s Keynote Speech at Singapore Computer Society (SCS) AI Conference

Ms Lim Bee Kwan, President, SCS
Distinguished guests and fellow colleagues

Good morning and happy Friday. I'm delighted to join you for the first SCS AI Conference -- this Conference is timely.

Over the past 2 years, the discussions around AI have shifted – from generative AI chatbots to multi-agent implementation, from trialing off-the-shelf AI tools to developing business use cases around possibilities enabled by AI; from piloting AI solutions in workplaces to fundamentally redesigning organisational processes and workflows to integrate AI capabilities.

The conversations around AI have shifted to a much more meaningful, thoughtful, and systematic implementation of the technology.

At the same time, AI technology is developing at a fast pace. Sometimes we feel that AI tools are evolving faster than we can adapt!

However, we can already see the potential of AI in upending many existing business models and possibly disrupting entire industry sectors. The tech sector is likewise facing this disruptive pressure.

Before everyone gets overly anxious, let me start with some good news. Demand for tech professionals remains robust.

1. IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report, released in October 2025, revealed that our tech workforce grew from 208,300 in 2023 to 214,000 in 2024. The fastest-growing roles were AI & Data specialists and Cybersecurity professionals.

2. This is in line with the 2025 Job Vacancies Report, published recently by MOM. Among the most sought-after job roles were those in software development, data analysts and data scientists.

Today, around 60% of our tech workforce are hired by non-tech firms, such as banks, logistics firms and manufacturing plants. 

Over the period of 2023 to 2024, tech roles in these non-tech sectors grew by 3.9%, compared to 1.1% in tech firms. We expect this trend to increase as AI adoption picks up pace across industry sectors.

So, that’s the good news – we still have jobs. And, there are still more vacancies in the tech sector than we can fill with warm bodies. There is strong and robust demand for tech professionals, especially in the non-tech sectors that are digitalising quickly and adopting AI in their workflows and organisations.

At the same time, AI tools are reshaping the nature of technical work.

1. For instance, junior software engineers used to hone their craft and gain experience with developing software codes.

2. I remember when I started work more than 20, almost 30, years ago – my first job was coding. That’s where you learn the basic foundation applied in the workspace, hone our skills and experience, and realise that not everything works exactly like in the textbook.

Today, AI tools, like Claude and Cursor have the capabilities to generate entire code blocks more efficiently than experienced developers.

GitHub Copilot can autocomplete not just lines of code, but entire functions. AI agents can execute multi-step development tasks on command.

We see a similar shift in other aspects of our tech roles.

1. For example, in cybersecurity, AI tools can now help security teams quickly triage alerts, summarise incidents into actionable findings, and recommend follow-up investigations or remediation steps. 

Beyond reshaping the nature of tech jobs, AI has created new roles and opportunities today.

1. Roles such as AI red teamers, model evaluators, alignment researchers and AI deployment engineers – these are new roles that have emerged over the past few years. These are roles focused not solely on building AI systems, but testing them, governing them, and deploying them safely in real-world conditions.

We are also seeing examples around the world of non-tech trained individuals using AI-enabled tools to launch, automate and scale businesses – from telehealth providers to resume builders. But as AI lowers the barriers to building applications, it then also raises the bar for us – tech professionals, traditional IT teams and tech firms serving businesses.

What does that mean for us?   

1. For the tech professionals in this room, this isn't just another wave of innovation to ride. It's a fundamental reimagining of the tech sector and tech-related jobs in the coming years.  

These trends raise fundamental questions:

1. With AI advancing so rapidly, how can Singapore remain at the forefront of this technological trend and continue to grow the tech sector and continue to create good jobs for our tech professionals?

2. If AI can do many of the tasks that our engineers are doing, especially entry-level junior roles, how can we continue to train and nurture the next generation of tech professionals and leaders? How do we respond to the disappearing early rungs in the career ladder of our profession?

   1. For instance, a software engineer’s role would have to go beyond coding. Instead, the value-add may now come from deeper engineering competencies such as managing AI tools, driving specifications, systems design and optimisation, ensuring data integrity, and designing governance and guardrails to manage AI adoption risks.

   2.  Another opportunity is to develop AI bilingual talent – engineers that can fuse AI know-how with deep business domain expertise.

As AI innovation and adoption accelerates across various sectors, businesses need tech professionals who can bridge the gap between technology and domain expertise. Going beyond pilots, organisations are focused on Returns on Investment - how the AI tool is used to solve real business problems, and whether it is scalable, cost-efficient and secure.

These are just a couple of possibilities. Importantly, all of us - the government, employers, tech companies and associations, and our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) must collectively find answers to these questions. 

Minister Josephine Teo has asked me to study these issues and work out a set of responses. In the coming months, I plan to engage relevant stakeholders and work closely with our tech sector associations – SCS, SGTech and TTAB to continue this very important effort.

Adapting and pivoting are not new for us. We have done so with previous waves of technology.

In the late 1980s to 1990s, with the introduction of personal computers, we established Singapore as a global hub for electronics by focusing on high-value, capital-intensive technology industries. We trained and developed IT professionals, and upskilled workers across the economy to transition into knowledge-based jobs.

In the 2000s, we then transitioned from a manufacturing-focused economy into a vibrant digital hub with the ambition to become a Smart Nation. We invested heavily in building up a strong base of tech talent, equipped with skills in software engineering, cloud computing and cybersecurity.

Now most recently with AI, under our refreshed National AI Strategy, we have made good progress in building up a pipeline of AI Practitioners and helping our workers across different industry sectors become more AI-fluent.

Even though I plan to engage stakeholders, we are not waiting to figure out the answers before we act. The external environment and the tech development trends are evolving too quickly for that.

Our pragmatic approach is to quickly leverage and adapt existing programs. 

1. A good example is IMDA’s TechSkills Accelerator, or TeSA, has been a cornerstone initiative in developing tech professionals and ensuring that our existing tech workforce remains relevant in a fast-changing sector. Since 2016, TeSA has placed around 24,300 locals into tech jobs and upskilled over 440,000 individuals in domains such as data and AI.

2. Earlier this year, MDDI announced that we will expand the TeSA programme to support non-tech professionals in developing AI bilingualism. For a start, we will focus on sectors that have high exposure to AI and serve multiple industries, such as the Accountancy and Legal domains.

3. We will also expand the TeSA for ITE and Polytechnics Alliance, or TIP Alliance, that was launched in 2022.

TIP Alliance members comprise industry representatives, key employers, IHLs and government, worked closely together to improve the employment outcomes for ITE and polytechnic graduates and create structured pathways that give our students real-world experience and industry connections. 

1. Since its launch, the TIP Alliance has secured over 1,000 committed tech jobs and facilitated more than 2,300 year-long internships to equip ITE and Polytechnic students with industry-relevant skills and practical experience.

2. I’m glad to share that over 200 companies have pledged to skills-based hiring – evaluating candidates based on what they can do, not just their academic qualifications.

The TIP Alliance has made good progress over the past few years. I will expand the TIP Alliance to respond to the AI trends I spoke about earlier.

1. First, on better preparing fresh graduates for the workforce, especially when the first couple of rungs of the traditional career ladders are being transformed and disrupted by AI.

2. For our students who are entering the workforce, we know that this can be daunting. It raises questions like whether companies will still hire fresh graduates if AI can perform basic tasks, or whether the skills that you learnt in school are still relevant in the workplace today.

3. I speak to many fresh graduates, and that is the anxiety – sometimes it is amplified, but I can understand why they are feeling so. When you are about to enter a very different environment, from school to the workforce, there is a lot of anxiety. Through the TIP Alliance, we have created many structured pathways experiences to ease this anxiety and better prepare our graduates.

I started this conversation with the TIP Alliance members last year.

I am heartened by the discussions amongst members. The discussions were open, constructive and productive. There was acknowledgment that everyone needs to play their part. We cannot expect the private sector to be fully responsible for basic on the job workplace training, especially when AI is automating many of the entry-level tasks.

We also cannot expect the schools to only focus on industry-ready skills at the expense of building a strong foundation – the latter is still needed, even though agentic AI can perform many of the tasks that humans can do. But without the foundation, students or graduates who enter the workforce will not be able to reskill, upskill, and continue their learning process.

What this means is that we need both hands to clap – not just putting the responsibility on employers or schools. Instead, both parties come together and have a discussion on what we can do collectively.

And, what we need is a more deliberate, end-to-end pathway, jointly built by schools, employers and Government. That is what the TIP Alliance is doing through longer and more structured internships for students, structured apprenticeships for those entering workforce, and work-study pathways for those who need to keep upgrading while on the job.

In other words, this is not a once-off intervention. It is a seamless pathway from learning to workplace exposure, to employment, and to continued skills deepening. This is how we intend to help our students and fresh graduates stay relevant in a fast-changing economy.

We are reimagining those early rungs of the career ladder and converting them into bridges between school and the workplace, where academia and the industry have a shared responsibility to build and strengthen these linkages.

Let me share what this looks like in practice.

1. Muhamad Syabil Hafizdini is an SIT student studying applied computing. He is also currently a software engineer at NCS, under the NCS Fusion Programme, a structured work-study pathway supported by the TIP Alliance. Through the programme, Syabil has balanced full-time work with part-time studies while deepening his expertise in cloud and AI.

2. I’ve met Syabil – he enjoys his work. He feels that there is continuous investment in him to reskill and upskill himself, and this allows him to apply those skills in the real-world environment. Syabil’s journey illustrates what is possible when schools and employers work closely together, with the support of the government.

We will do more for our fresh graduates under the TIP Alliance.

1. Earlier, when we started the TIP Alliance, we were looking at employment and pathway outcomes for ITE and Polytechnic students.

2. We will now expand the support to include University graduates. We will rename the effort to TIP Alliance+. “PLUS” stands for Pathway Linking University Students.

With the expansion, TIP Alliance+ will benefit all our IHL graduates – regardless of whether they are graduating from ITE, a polytechnic, or a university. Graduates will have access to structured learning pathways, hands-on industry experience, and comprehensive career preparation. We're putting in place a coherent, integrated system that supports every student's journey into the tech workforce.

This expansion will have 2 key enhancements.

1. First, we will enhance industry-relevant training and employment support for Infocomm and Digital Technology (IDT) graduates.

   1. To assist students in their job search, IMDA and NTUC’s e2i are launching the Tech Elevation & Career Hub. The Hub brings together tech jobs, training programmes, and career resources. This platform provides a convenient, single-entry point for fresh graduates to discover technology roles and access career support.

   2. For our students, this means a simpler and more facilitated journey into the workforce. Instead of navigating multiple platforms, they can go to one place to find tech jobs and internships, access career coaching, and identify training opportunities that can strengthen their employability.

   3. The platform will feature key employers such as NCS, ST Engineering, Accenture, and Shopee, as well as exciting roles such as Software Engineer, Data Engineer, Data Architect and Techno Functional Analyst.

   4. It’s a one-stop platform to support our graduates.

2. Secondly, we will implement specialised domain pathways, co-designed with industry partners, to help students adopt and build AI Bilingualism. As I shared earlier, employers today are no longer just looking for technical capabilities or the ability to write code. Employers are looking for individuals who understand how to apply and integrate AI into their respective domains, preferably from Day 1 with the company.

   1. To illustrate how these domain pathways support our students, let me share about Isaac Lee, a Health & Public Services Intern from Accenture. He joined a product training programme and hackathon with GovTech during his school term, where participants were tasked to build public digital services that addressed user needs.

   2. This hands-on experience within the public sector domain came in helpful when he later joined Accenture as an intern, as the programme required Isaac to go beyond product ideation and instead consider user requirements, technical constraints, and the integration of different components to deliver a working solution for citizens, i.e. develop solutions for the real-world, not just in abstract. This is for specialised and tailored environments, in which those solutions will be deployed.

   3. Stories like Isaac’s reflect the growing importance of domain experience. That is why we are launching specialised domain pathways, starting with the Government Tech Domain Pathway which will be led by SCS and GovTech. This pathway will give students hands-on opportunities to build both the technical and domain capabilities needed to develop digital solutions for the public sector.

   4. These domain pathways will take the form of short, stackable modules and industry exposure opportunities that sit alongside existing curriculum and internships. Through these pathways, students will not only pick up technical skills, they will also gain sector-specific knowledge, such as industry context, business needs and real-world constraints.

Besides Government as a domain, we will implement a similar track for the Healthtech sector led by SCS and Synapxe, and are exploring the same for the Financial Services sector in partnership with MAS and IBF (Institute of Banking and Finance).

IMDA will support the broader coordination, while partners such as SCS, IBF, GovTech and MAS will contribute industry expertise, sector knowledge and real project exposure.

Through the TIP Alliance+, we aim to provide our fresh graduates with the confidence that they can thrive in an AI-enabled workplace. We hope that Singapore continues to be a shining, vibrant hub that provides good opportunities for tech professionals.

Most importantly, the message I hope to leave with all of you today – beyond the specific announcements and initiatives, is the spirit of collaboration and partnership.

What we are doing is an ecosystem-wide effort.

1. We need industry partners who are willing to take risks on new talent – to nurture and groom the next generation of tech leaders and professionals for our economy.

2. We need educational institutions that can review and adjust their curricula quickly – working closely with the industry to bring in best practices and the latest technology trends so that we can equip our graduates with the skills for them to be ready when they enter the workforce.

3. We need experienced professionals who are willing and able to mentor the next generation. We are stewards in the tech sector. All of us here have benefitted from mentors who have guided and nurtured us – we can do the same for the next generation.

4. And we need government policies that foster the right mindset and support structures.

It is an ecosystem-wide effort – private sectors, IHLs, and the government. Most importantly, individuals themselves must be willing to invest in their own capabilities, futures, and careers.

I look forward to working with all our partners to ensure that Singapore continues to thrive in the AI world, and be a vibrant tech ecosystem – creating good jobs for tech professionals, and driving the next bound of growth for the economy.

Thank you very much.