82% of Singapore firms pulled back live AI agents: survey

Despite leading APAC in AI deployment, many enterprises still face reliability, governance, and infrastructure challenges.

More than eight in 10 Singapore enterprises have rolled back or shut down a live AI customer communications agent after deployment, according to a new report by Sinch.

Sinch’s The AI Production Paradox found that 82% of Singapore enterprises had pulled back a deployed AI agent, 8% above the global average. This comes even as Singapore recorded the highest AI deployment rate in APAC at 72%.

Across APAC, 67% of enterprises have AI agents in production, the highest of any region, and 5% above the global average. However, the region also registered the highest post-deployment failure rate, with 83% of enterprises reporting an AI agent failure.

Sinch said the findings show that the challenge has moved beyond “pilot purgatory” to issues around performance, reliability, and control once AI agents are live.

AI failures have also created operational pressure. In APAC, 45% of enterprises cited support team overload as the top consequence of AI failure, whilst the figure stood at 44% in Singapore.

The risks are amplified by high messaging volumes. Sinch said one in three APAC enterprises sends more than 100 million messages per month, meaning small AI failures can quickly affect customer satisfaction, brand trust, and profitability.

Despite these challenges, AI remains a priority for Singapore enterprises. About 40% plan to increase AI investment by more than 25% compared with the previous year.

However, Singapore enterprises appear to be investing more selectively. About 75% are prioritising investment in trust, security, and compliance.

The report also found a governance gap in Singapore. Only 27% of Singapore enterprises reported having fully mature guardrails, the lowest in APAC and below the global average of 35%.

Communications infrastructure was also identified as a major factor in successful AI deployment. Whilst 82% of Singapore organisations rated high-performance infrastructure as essential or very important, only 7% said their current communications provider fully meets their needs.

As a result, 91% of Singapore enterprises are evaluating new communications providers, above the global average of 86%.

Singapore enterprises are also planning AI deployment across an average of 3.1 channels, with WhatsApp and website or in-app chatbots amongst the top messaging channels where companies are integrating AI agents.
The study was based on an independent survey of 2,527 senior decision-makers across 10 countries and six industries. APAC accounted for 586 respondents, including 152 from Singapore.

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