Singtel honoured at Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards 2026 for advancing digital innovation

It clinched the AI - Telecommunications Award for its AI Contact Centre, and Enterprise Software - Telecommunications Award for its Empower Platform Digital Ecosystem.

Singtel was awarded accolades for its AI-powered virtual assistant that delivers fast, seamless and tailored customer support, and its Empower Platform Digital Ecosystem that enables a connected and collaborative ecosystem with innovative services and personalised insights.

Singtel’s Contact Centre introduced an omnichannel generative AI-powered assistant to transform customer support across both voice and digital channels. The multilingual virtual assistant now supports customer enquiries across messaging platforms and phone channels, while integrated speech-to-text and voice synthesis capabilities enable the handling of more complex interactions. The solution also supports end-to-end tasks such as appointment scheduling and transaction processing, reducing the need for manual intervention. Previously, automation tools were limited to text-based queries and struggled with multi-turn conversations and voice interactions, resulting in longer handling times and heavier reliance on live agents. 

With this new setup, the volume of cases handled by live agents fell by 10%, while resolution times for multi-turn interactions improved by 25%. Call containment increased by 8%, translating to approximately 120,000 fewer calls annually. Customer satisfaction scores also rose to above 80%. Internally, the tool provided automated call summaries which reduced handling times by an average of one minute per interaction, giving agents extra time to focus on more complex cases. 

Separately, Singtel’s Empower Platform Digital Ecosystem seamlessly connects customers, channel partners and internal teams through a unified digital ecosystem which leverages scalable, multi-instance infrastructure to serve a diverse network — including SMEs, multinational corporations, government agencies, partners, vendors, carriers, and internal users. Each group is able to access tailored services while maintaining smooth integration with internal systems. To date, the platform has fostered a collaborative community of more than 100,000 users.

The platform also enables frictionless data exchange, robust security, and an omni-channel experience, empowering co-creation and innovation across the value chain, anchored by four core pillars - APIs, Artificial Intelligence, Data Fabric, and Microservices. Data is centralised to unlock AI-driven actionable insights for personalised engagement and for delivering innovative services with real-time access to network and location intelligence. Streamlined, reusable components, combined with an agile approach, accelerate development, enabling Singtel to launch major products in under six months. 

Looking ahead, Singtel aims to expand Empower to serve more complex Enterprise use cases, increase API-as-a-Service adoption, enhance AI-driven recommendations and insights, and scale globally to engage new markets and partners. This will enable the cross-pollination of ideas and partnerships across markets to better serve its customers.

The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is the most prestigious awards programme for technological innovations, recognising exceptional companies in Singapore that are riding the digital disruption wave and leading the technological revolution and digital journeys of their respective industries.

The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Danica Avila at +(65) 3158 1386 ext 217 or [email protected].