AI growth stalls as 78% cite weak data infrastructure

Confluent said firms are prioritising data streaming as they move AI projects from pilots into production.

Singapore companies’ AI ambitions are being held back by gaps in real-time data infrastructure, according to Confluent’s 2026 Data Streaming Report.

The report found that 78% of Singapore IT leaders said the lack of real-time data infrastructure is stalling their efforts to scale AI. It also found that 75% of organisations in the country are already deploying or piloting agentic AI solutions.

However, many firms are facing challenges as they move AI initiatives into production. About 78% of Singapore IT leaders said they have encountered at least three challenges when scaling AI, including insufficient infrastructure for real-time data processing (78%), fragmented data ownership (73%), and insufficient skills and expertise in managing AI (73%).

The issues are also affecting agentic AI projects. Most Singapore IT leaders said they experience or expect difficulties with data infrastructure and quality (95%), legacy system integration (95%), and large language model reliability (93%). Over 73% reported stalled agentic AI projects, with half saying the work was completely abandoned.

Confluent said attention is shifting from AI models alone to the infrastructure needed to deliver trusted and up-to-date data. Around 86% of Singapore IT leaders rated continuous and current business visibility as a top priority.

Data governance is also becoming more important, with 86% saying effective management of data sovereignty is important and 82% valuing data provenance and tracking capabilities.

The report said 90% of Singapore IT leaders believe data streaming platforms can help address governance, risk, and compliance issues in agentic AI.

Another 91% said these platforms can help unblock agentic AI progress by improving LLM reliability, whilst 92% said they make data more trustworthy, contextualised, and discoverable.

Investment priorities also reflect the growing focus on data foundations. About 86% of Singapore leaders ranked data streaming as an investment priority, compared with 85% for AI and machine learning solutions and 90% for data management and governance.

Some organisations are already seeing gains, with 65% reporting richer and more responsive customer experiences and 61% citing greater automation and responsiveness of internal processes.

The report surveyed 4,625 IT leaders across 14 countries, including Singapore.

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