Budget 2025: Why businesses see Enterprise Compute Initiative as a game-changer

The government will allocate $150m for the AI initiative.

The 2025 Budget features a range of measures to support businesses, but many industry leaders believe the Enterprise Compute Initiative will have the most transformative impact.

Under the initiative, the government will allocate $150 million to support artificial intelligence adoption among businesses, connecting enterprises with cloud service providers to access tools, computing resources, and expert consulting services.

BDO Singapore Executive Director Wong Sook Ling, Proofpoint Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific & Japan George Lee, and SUSE General Manager for Southeast Asia Gayathri Peria called the measure a "game-changer."

"By partnering with major cloud service providers, enterprises will gain access to cutting-edge AI tools, computing power, and expert consultancy, which will help them integrate AI seamlessly into their operations," BDO's Wong said.

Lee said the initiative will "undoubtedly position" Singapore's enterprises at the forefront of technological transformation but emphasized that realizing AI's potential requires businesses to prioritize secure, accurate, and fair data use.

Peria said pairing the government’s investment in AI infrastructure with open-source AI tools helps businesses create tailored solutions without the cost of proprietary software, boosting AI adoption in the Smart Nation 2.0 era.

EY Asean AI and Data Leader Manik Bhandari and Mendix SVP for APAC Jornt Moerland shared a similar view.

Bhandari said the $150m  funding will help create AI solutions and business applications that enhance productivity and transform enterprises.

Moerland, for his part said, the initiative will support local enterprises in integrating novel technologies, such as AI-assisted development, into their existing processes and systems.

Moerland also said the initiative will lower the barriers to entry for AI tools, benefiting the enterprise ecosystem.

Tahsin Alam, regional VP and general manager for Southeast Asia, at UiPath, said it will also empower small and medium-sized businesses to adopt and scale AI.

Kenneth Lai, VP of ASEAN at Cloudflare, and Kenneth Poh, country manager for NetApp Singapore and the Philippines, echoed this view. 

Lai added that the initiative will help fast-track productivity among businesses, while Poh said it will enable businesses to focus more on AI execution.

Terry Smagh, senior vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at Infor, said the measure enables more highly skilled Singaporeans to thrive in the digital economy.

Since the initiative also facilitates upskilling opportunities, Phoebe Poon, vice president of product management at Aicadium, believes it enables Singapore's talent to harness the full potential of AI, driving global competitiveness.

RELATED: BUDGET 2025: Gov’t revamping SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit model, grants

Tay Bee Kheng, president of Cisco ASEAN, agrees that the Enterprise Compute Initiative strengthens Singapore's position as a global AI player—an important role as AI has the potential to become one of the biggest technology disruptors of our lifetime, surpassing the cloud and even the internet.

"The Enterprise Compute Initiative comes at a good time, as the urgency to adopt AI rises while reality hits companies on what is needed to succeed. Notably, nearly all companies in Singapore reported an urgency to implement AI with only 13% being fully prepared to leverage AI," Tay said.

Chai Wai Fook, partner of tax services at Ernst & Young Solutions LLP, believes the initiative will accelerate Singapore's smart nation ambitions.

Simon Lee, senior vice president and managing director for Asia-Pacific and Japan at New Relic, expressed a similar sentiment, stating the measure will strengthen Singapore's goal of becoming a global hub for AI collaboration.

“Singapore’s strong interest in emerging technologies positions it well for practices like observability,” Lee said.

Overall, the initiative will play an integral role in enabling businesses to swiftly pivot and integrate AI into various processes and systems, said Fabio Tiviti, group vice president for APAC and Japan field operations at Workday.

Dan Bognar, vice president and managing director for JAPAC at HubSpot, described the measure as one that will write a new chapter for Singapore’s enterprises.

Brian Kealey, country leader at Salesforce Singapore, noted that the initiative will go a long way in helping Singaporean companies unlock AI's true value. However, he echoed PM Wong's call for AI solutions that are not only tailored to organizational needs but also seamlessly integrated into business processes.

"Unfortunately, commonly adopted solutions like chatbots and copilots are often outdated, struggle to provide accurate, trusted responses to complex requests, and cannot take autonomous action," Kealey explained.

“To unlock new capacity, Singapore enterprises should turn to autonomous AI agents—a limitless digital workforce capable of tapping into trusted organizational data, reasoning, and operating within existing workflows to act on behalf of overwhelmed teams,” he added.

RELATED: BUDGET 2025: Tech industry flags practical challenges of digital adoption