Singapore companies adopt AI widely with limited oversight: report

Only 53% of Singapore leaders reported having moderate to strong safeguards to protect AI systems from risks.

Despite the near-universal adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) amongst Singapore companies, only 43% are actively investing in frameworks to govern the risks of next-generation AI technologies, according to a new EY survey.

The 2025 EY Responsible AI Pulse Survey, which polled 975 C-suite leaders globally, including 30 from Singapore, found that whilst 100% of Singapore respondents say their organisations have already integrated or are in the process of integrating AI into core business functions, oversight is not keeping pace.

The survey highlighted a significant governance gap. Only 53% of Singapore leaders reported having moderate to strong safeguards to protect AI systems from risks like data corruption or unauthorized access, well below the global figure of 71%.

Furthermore, 67% admitted their organisation’s current risk approaches are not equipped to handle the challenges posed by emerging technologies such as agentic AI and multi-modal AI.

Despite 90% of Singapore executives expecting to deploy agentic AI, systems capable of making decisions independently, within the next two years, just over half (55%) said they understand the associated risks.

Risk awareness is even lower for multi-modal AI, with only 43% familiar with the potential downsides, despite plans for widespread adoption.