Singapore has its sights on becoming a world-class, tech-driven city-state, and is transforming itself to become a Smart Nation. The public sector has been a key driver behind the push for digital transformation, spearheading initiatives to integrate cutting-edge technologies into our lives.
A notable aspect of Singapore’s public sector is the emphasis on nurturing a resilient and transparent digital ecosystem. Singapore has a forward-thinking approach when it comes to fostering trust. Cognisant that artificial intelligence (AI) will play a larger role in how we collect and use personal data, Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission recently called for a public consultation on collecting and using personal data in developing and deploying AI recommendation and decision systems.
Alongside cultivating citizen trust, Singapore embraces new technologies as it moves forward in its Smart Nation roadmap. Higher education institutions are now integrating automation and AI tools into the curriculum. At Nanyang Technological University, for instance, accountancy students are being taught how to automate accounting tasks, which positions them to become AI and automation champions in their workplaces after graduation. Focusing on digital upskilling alongside democratising access to learning drives inclusive growth across industries amid shorter business cycles and higher stakeholder demands.
Beyond digital upskilling, unleashing the full potential of innovation requires adopting a whole-of-society approach amid Singapore’s increasingly interconnected data landscape. This demands heightened partnerships between public agencies and the private sector to bring people and technology closer together to leverage innovation in a trustworthy manner.
AI-powered automation makes us more human
In Singapore, 47% of employees across industries — including the public sector — have been asked to take on more tasks at work in the past six months due to layoffs or hiring freezes, based on a global study that UiPath conducted recently.
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Amid unfulfilled positions, limited resources and workers retiring, engaging a digital workforce to handle transactional processes and data updates can relieve workers from time-consuming and monotonous activities. This gives them more time to take on higher-value tasks that entail critical thinking, problem-solving and meaningful stakeholder engagement. In short, AI-powered automation can make us more human.
With more time on their hands to tackle issues that require human judgment and compassion, the Singapore workforce is better empowered to embrace their roles as agents of positive societal change. Engaging a digital workforce mitigates the impact of workforce disruptions and fluctuations, ensures continuity and consistency in service delivery, and ultimately bolsters public trust in industries and their ability to meet citizens’ needs.
Automation is a technology that can support workers because it can understand visuals, process data, and execute actions based on rules. Bots can process information and forms of all kinds, and analyse, sort and file to their correct destinations. Instead of taking on all administrative requirements, employees can step in selectively when the need for human touch arises. Combining AI, automation and human capabilities can drive smoother and smarter government operations, fostering trust and stronger citizen-government relationships.
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The next frontier of AI in the public sector
On the other hand, AI is bringing intelligence into organisations at an incredible rate. While generative AI has been the talk of the town, specialised AI — which focuses on specific tasks and is trained on an organisation’s data — offers distinct advantages in enterprise AI compared to large foundational models trained on general knowledge like ChatGPT. An application of specialised AI is document understanding, where AI-powered software robots can extract, interpret and process data from structured and unstructured documents.
Within the public sector, changing regulations and mandated procedures can put additional demands on teams that may struggle with high volumes of tasks. With digital assistants through automation, workers in finance, human resources, procurement and IT can accomplish more accurately and efficiently while maintaining compliance with governance.
Propelling innovation in a trustworthy manner
Technologies like AI-powered automation have the potential to be the foundation of innovation for organisations, but we need to ensure they are trustworthy and transparent.
In Singapore, data is the lifeblood of the National Digital Identity initiative, facilitating seamless transactions across government agencies and private-sector services, including tax payments. As public agencies rely on data to deliver essential services and engage with citizens, keeping this information secure becomes critical.
Likewise, technology partners that deliver full data residency in Singapore, such as UiPath, will ensure that sensitive citizen data is securely protected within the nation’s borders, reassuring public agencies to unleash the potential of cloud-based innovation fully.
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As Singapore progresses towards its Smart Nation goals, it is critical to consider how innovation interacts with other platforms across Singapore’s digital ecosystem. Collaboration across the public sector is critical to facilitate innovation.
UiPath, for instance, recently unveiled a resource called Automation Genius, a platform that allows Singapore’s public agencies to coach and mentor citizen developers, drive creativity and discovery workshops and share best practices. This will allow public-sector leaders to stay updated with the latest innovations and ideate with other like-minded individuals on how automation can unlock exciting possibilities in their organisations.
Knowing that some public agencies have already started their automation journeys is heartening. For example, Vital (the central agency for corporate shared services) has created a “bot library” of automation best practices and scripts for more than 100 government agencies in Singapore. With automation at the core of its digital roadmap, Vital employs a citizen developer strategy that empowers officers to build bots with low- or no-code automation.
True digital transformation requires a holistic approach, with industries collaborating to promote sustainable economic growth, innovation spillovers and responsible technology use. It is certainly not far-fetched to imagine a future where we can empower citizens to automate their interaction with the government so that the digital interaction is truly bi-directional. The societal advancement from this innovation will be unrivalled.
Rob Enslin is the co-CEO of UiPath
