AI investment concentrates in high-growth sectors

Finance, professional services, and education emerge as leading beneficiaries.

Singapore’s AI-driven growth potential, estimated at S$198.3 billion by 2030, is becoming increasingly sector-specific, with finance, professional services, and education emerging as the strongest near-term winners. But experts warn that talent shortages, uneven digital maturity, and insufficient industry-led training could slow progress if not addressed urgently.

Glenn Wray, Head of Strategy and Marketing at Blackbox Research, said early indicators point clearly to financial services as the leading sector for AI deployment, adding that regulatory technology, or regtech, “is emerging as a potential critical niche for Singapore.” In Blackbox’s work with the Singapore Business Federation, Wray noted that “business growth confidence is highest within the banking and insurance sectors,” with one in three firms prioritising AI investment over the next 12 months.

Wray also highlighted the education sector’s rising role in supporting AI expansion. “Education is one of the highest sectors in terms of hiring confidence,” he said, suggesting that a sector preparing to train an AI-literate workforce could become “a secondary supporting growth lever.”

Associate Professor Chai Kah Hin of NUS SCALE stressed that AI’s impact will be economy-wide but uneven. He pointed to finance as a key early mover. “The finance sector… is highly digitised and can use AI to improve risk assessment, strengthen fraud detections and many other areas.” Professional services and the information sector also offer “quick wins, quick gains,” he added, predicting a “significant productivity uplift” across data-centric work.

The biggest challenge remains talent. Chai said the economy needs both advanced AI builders and domain experts with sector-specific understanding. “The fastest and most sustainable way to address the shortage is to train our existing workforce,” he said, noting the need to “help them integrate AI into daily work.”

Wray said juniors have strong technical skills but “lack a little bit of industry knowledge,” while senior talent often lacks soft skills such as “agility and strategic thinking.” Rather than focusing only on coding, he argued that industry must “teach tech entrepreneurship” to create “business savvy innovators.”

Capturing the S$198 billion opportunity will require coordinated action. Wray said industry and government must “operationalise more public private partnerships” and adopt “practitioner led certification,” while also injecting cash-flow support into small businesses and establishing trusted AI standards and sandboxes.