Singapore’s response to AI risks will fail unless businesses and investors follow
- Feb 24
- 1 min read
AI promises productivity gains, but without corporate and investor commitment, Singapore risks deeper inequality, higher emissions, and growing social strain as jobs are lost.
By Steven Okun, Megan Willis, Noemie Viterale
Feb. 20, 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) empowers businesses to do more with less people.
Many businesses are racing ahead to take full advantage.
DBS Bank’s announcement that AI will eliminate 4,000 jobs across 19 markets provides both a proof point and a harbinger of what’s to come. The United States’ latest economic numbers do as well, finding itself enjoying economic growth with no increase in employment.
Across the world, corporates eliminate job openings to make financial space for larger IT budgets and defer filling open positions that AI may soon make redundant.
The Singapore government’s actions to address these challenges constitute a political necessity, as more than half of employees in Singapore are worried AI will take over their jobs within the next two years, according to Manpower’s Global Talent Barometer.
Announced last week, Singapore’s Budget takes steps to mitigate the harms that will come from adopting AI without workforce training.
But this could amplify other harms that AI brings.
As sustainable business network and consultancy BSR puts it, “Social and environmental impacts are at the core of AI risks and opportunities.”
