AWS: AI adoption grows 20% in Singapore

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has found* that AI adoption continues to accelerate in Singapore. In the past year alone, 27,000¹ Singapore businesses adopted AI for the first time—equivalent to over three new adopters every hour. In sum, nearly 170,000 (48%) of businesses in Singapore have adopted AI², up from approximately 143,000 (40%) a year ago. This represents a 20% year-over-year growth rate, AWS said.

AI adoption is the strongest in the financial services industry (71%), followed by the technology sector ( software developers, data analytics firms, cloud service providers, and digital startups) at 70%, and healthcare at 63%. Among Singapore’s businesses that have adopted AI, 82% reported an increase in revenue, at an average increase of 19%, while 90% report significant productivity improvements. A large majority (85%) of those who have adopted AI say the technology is likely to increase their growth in the next year, and 89% expect an average of 17% in cost savings thanks to AI.

These gains have enabled reprioritisation of goals, towards enhancing customer service and relationships (52%), developing new products and services (46%), and investing in employee training (42%).

The research also found that AI-adopting firms in Singapore are using AI primarily for enhancing customer service (34%), generating customer-facing content (30%), and generating internal content (30%).

While AI adoption is increasingly widespread in Singapore, most businesses are not yet harnessing its most advanced uses. Almost two thirds (65%) of Singapore’s businesses that have adopted AI remain focused primarily on basic use cases³ rather than developing new products.

Among industries, retail shows the highest concentration at this basic stage, with 71% of AI-adopting retail businesses still at this elementary level. Only 17% of Singaporean businesses have reached the most transformative stage of AI integration, where AI is no longer just a tool but a core part of product development, decision-making, and business models.

On the other hand, the technology industry is leading the way in terms of the most sophisticated AI usage, followed by financial services, and then healthcare.

Startups⁴ are particularly enthusiastic and innovative in their use of AI in Singapore. The research shows that 82% of startups in Singapore are using AI, of which 42% are building entirely new AI-driven products with AI. In contrast, while 62% of large enterprises⁵ are using AI, only 16% of these are delivering a new AI-driven product or service, and only 30% have an AI roadmap that outlines how their organisation will leverage AI. This gap in AI innovation could shape Singapore’s economic future, AWS suggested.

Drilling deeper, the study found that a lack of skilled personnel is hindering 43% of businesses in Singapore from adopting or expanding their use of AI. Businesses reported having the technology and the vision but are unable to find the people to bring it to life. As a result, companies are seeking to upskill their workforce – 30% have already implemented AI-specific training programmes and, on average, 40% of employees have undergone digital training in the past year.

The report identified three priority actions to unlock Singapore's AI potential and prevent a 'two-tier' economy:

- Develop industry-specific digital skills programmes to address the preparedness gap, as AI literacy will be crucial for 48% of future jobs, even though only 32% of businesses feel ready.

- Maintain Singapore's pro-growth regulatory environment with innovation testbeds and cross-border AI projects.

- Accelerate public sector AI transformation in healthcare and education, as 71% of businesses are more likely to adopt AI when government leads and 75% of startups cite public sector adoption as crucial to scaling their solutions.

"Singapore stands at a critical inflection point where early AI adoption success must now translate into deeper integration—moving from experimentation to being AI-powered,'" said Priscilla Chong, Country Manager, Singapore, AWS.

"Getting past the proof-of-concept stage for promising AI projects requires more than just good technology – it also requires capital investment, dedicated skills development and organisational commitment in fostering a culture that prioritises innovation, embraces continuous learning, and adapts readily to change. 

"We see tremendous potential in public-private funding partnerships that could jumpstart the AI journeys of businesses, particularly in helping them bridge the gap between basic and transformative implementation. By bringing together government initiatives with private sector expertise and resources, Singapore can accelerate its transition to an AI-powered economy."

Across the region, the global study found:

- Today, over 1.3 million businesses in Australia use AI, including over 180,000⁶ businesses that adopted AI between 2024 and 2025.²

- In the past year alone, 5.9 M businesses in Indonesia began using AI, equivalent to over 10 a minute on average in 2024. This brings the total percentage of AI-adopting firms to 28%, up from 19% a year ago, representing a growth rate of 47%.

- Forty-three percent of Japanese firms regularly use AI, up from 33% a year ago. This is a year-on-year growth rate of 30%.

- Around 499,000 businesses in Korea adopted AI last year²—or nearly one a minute.⁷ Nearly half of all firms have adopted AI (48%), up from 40% last year.

- In 2025, more than one in four Malaysian businesses (27%) are using AI,² up from one in five last year. This rapid expansion was driven by 630,000⁸ new businesses implementing AI technologies during 2024.

- Eighty thousand 80,000 businesses in the Philippines began using AI in the past year alone, averaging more than nine every hour in 2024. This brings the total percentage of AI-adopting firms to 21%, up from 14% a year ago, a growth rate of 50%.

- In the past year, around 150,000 businesses⁹ in Thailand began using AI – equivalent to over one every three minutes on average. This brings the proportion of AI-adopting firms to 32%, up from 24% a year ago, a 33% year-on-year growth rate.

- Some 47,000 businesses¹⁰ in Vietnam began using AI in the past year, equivalent to an average of over five an hour. This means AI-adopting firms make up 18% of the whole, up from 13% a year ago, a growth rate of 39%.

Source: AWS blog post. Make agents a reality with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore.

To help businesses unlock AI's full potential, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, announced in July 2025, is now generally available. Amazon Bedrock AgentCore directly addresses the skills and implementation barriers identified in the research, enabling organisations to accelerate their journey from basic to transformative AI adoption.

The solution makes it possible for developers to get AI agents from pilots to full-scale production quickly with an enterprise-grade operational foundation that is secure, reliable, scalable, and purpose-built for the unpredictable nature of agents.

Explore

Browse country reports at https://www.unlockingaispotential.com/

*To better understand the scope of AI and where companies of different scales might be headed, AWS collaborated with Strand Partners to conduct the AI adoption survey in Singapore. The Unlocking Singapore’s AI Potential study surveyed 1,000 business leaders and 1,000 nationally-representative members of the public in Singapore.

1 Calculated based on recent estimations of the total number of active enterprises, which was, in 2023, 345,100 enterprises in Singapore’s enterprise landscape. Source: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/~/media/Files/visualising_data/infographics/industry/Singapores%20Enterprise%20Landscape 

2 "Adopted AI" or "consistently use AI”: a business that consistently uses at least one AI tool. This would not include businesses that experimented with AI once or twice, or ran a temporary pilot programme, for instance.

3 Such as using publicly-available chatbots and scheduling assistants.

4 A startup is defined as a business founded in the last two years which provides a new product/service or innovation and is aiming for rapid growth in terms of employees and turnover.

5 A large business is defined as a business with 500 or more employees, founded 10 years ago or more.

6 Calculated based on the total estimated number of registered businesses in Australia, which was 2.6 M in 2024. Source: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators

7 There are approximately 6.24 M businesses in South Korea (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1125155/south-korea-number-of-businesses/). Eight percent (nearly 499,000) adopted AI in the past year.

8 Calculated based on recent estimations of the total number of active enterprises, which was 9 M in 2024: https://www.ssm.com.my/Pages/Publication/Statistics/Companies%20and%20Business%20Registered/Companies%20and%20Business%20Registered%20Statistic%20for%202024/Company-and-Business-Registered-Statistic-2024.aspx

9 Calculated based on recent estimations of the total number of active enterprises, which was 1.96 M in 2024: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/investment/192407-thai-business-registrations-hit-record-high-japan-emerges-as-leading-investor

10 Calculated based on recent estimations of the total number of active enterprises, which was 940,000: https://en.vietnamplus.vn/pm-pham-minh-chinh-urges-smes-to-break-limits-for-growth-post310717.vnp