Survey finds agentic AI audit gap in Singapore firms

Some 94% use or test agentic AI, but only 29% can produce an audit trail of its decisions.

Most surveyed Singapore businesses are using or piloting multi-step agentic AI systems, but fewer than one in three can provide evidence explaining AI-driven decisions, according to research by Sumsub and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA).

The study found that 94% of respondents had adopted or were testing agentic AI, whilst only 29% could produce an audit trail of its decisions.

The gap could make it difficult for organisations to explain automated decisions to regulators, shareholders and customers, increasing their exposure to compliance, operational and reputational risks.

About 70% of respondents had guidelines assigning direct responsibility for AI outcomes. Some 40% placed responsibility with a specific person, whilst 30% assigned it to a team.

Businesses were generally more comfortable using AI for lower-risk activities. Around 90% were willing to let AI handle routine tasks but showed greater caution when financial liabilities were involved.

Only 16% had significantly expanded the scope or autonomy of their AI systems in the past year, the lowest reported rate amongst the APAC markets surveyed.

Singapore scored 65.6 on the study’s AI governance benchmark, slightly below the regional average of 67.1.

Sumsub attributed the result partly to Singapore’s more advanced regulatory framework, which may have led local businesses to assess their capabilities against stricter technical standards.

Businesses reported the greatest impact from AI in data-related tasks at 29%, followed by operations and workflow processing at 21%. Fraud detection, anti-money laundering and risk monitoring accounted for 15%.

The main barriers to further adoption included the technical complexity of modern AI models, cited by 66% of respondents, platform integration at 50% and tracking actions by external AI tools at 49%.

SFA president Holly Fang said businesses need to strengthen traceability, accountability and governance as AI moves from assisting workers to handling more critical workflows autonomously.

Some 98% of Singapore respondents said they were ready to adopt third-party verification systems that link autonomous AI actions to verified identities.

The study was conducted by Blackbox Research between April and June 2026. It surveyed 720 AI decision-makers across nine APAC markets and four sectors: financial services, IT and software, e-commerce, and mobility and delivery.

The report did not disclose the size of the Singapore sample. Its findings therefore reflect the surveyed respondents and should not be interpreted as representing all Singapore businesses.

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