Singapore firms build AI tools, but lack clear strategy

Remote has published research showing that 96% of Singapore companies built internal AI tools, automations or workflows over the past year. Most did so without a deliberate strategy.

The findings are based on a survey of 250 Singapore-based companies, part of a wider poll of 3,250 business and HR leaders across eight countries.

Singapore was among the most active markets for in-house development in the study, ranking just behind Australia at 97% and above the global average of 91%. The data also showed that 96% of Singapore businesses expect to increase their reliance on custom tools over the next two years.

That level of activity has not been matched by planning. Only 37% of Singapore companies described their approach to custom AI development as deliberate, while 59% said they were building on an ad hoc basis to solve problems as they arose.

The research points to a widening gap between experimentation and the controls needed to manage it. Among Singapore respondents, 35% said regulatory compliance concerns were a leading barrier to getting more value from AI, 33% said their data and systems were not ready, and 32% said they were dealing with too many disconnected tools and experiments.

Those pressures are growing as AI systems move closer to business functions that handle employee and financial data. Companies are extending custom workflows into areas such as payroll and people operations, where errors or weak controls can have legal and operational consequences.

Payroll caution

Use of AI in payroll remains relatively limited in Singapore compared with some other markets in the survey. Just 19% of Singapore companies said they currently use AI for payroll support, compared with 27% in the UK and Australia.

The gap suggests some businesses are more cautious about introducing automation into higher-risk processes than elsewhere in the organisation. Payroll depends on accurate workforce records, internal controls and knowledge of local rules, making it harder to treat as a simple extension of workplace experimentation.

Remote said the pattern in Singapore reflects a broader trend: teams are willing to build their own workflow tools but may lack the governance or connected systems needed when those tools affect sensitive operations.

Commenting on the findings, Eli Chuah, APAC Senior Consultant at Remote, said: "Singapore's People and HR teams have proven they can build. The tools exist and the appetite to keep building is clearly there. The next test is doing it with the same rigour as any other system that touches employee data: clear ownership, unified data, and compliance built in from day one. Skip that, and tools meant to save time can create legal and operational exposure instead. It's a pattern we see everywhere: teams are comfortable building the workflow layer themselves, but still need trusted, governed infrastructure underneath for high-stakes parts like payroll."

Regional picture

The survey places Singapore near the front of a broader shift towards custom software and automation among employers and HR teams. Respondents came from the US, UK, Spain, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Australia, and the research focused on decision-makers at Director level and above.

Within that group, Singapore stands out not only for the scale of internal development but also for its clear intent to continue. Nearly all companies surveyed in the city-state said they expected to rely more heavily on self-built tools over the next two years.

Yet the findings suggest enthusiasm for AI deployment is not resolving basic questions about ownership, system integration and readiness. Companies reporting disconnected experiments and weak data foundations may find it harder to expand AI use beyond low-risk tasks.

For employers in Singapore, the challenge appears to be less about access to tools than about putting structure around their use. The figures suggest many companies have moved beyond trialling AI and are now confronting the operational issues that come with embedding it in routine business decisions.

The survey found that 35% of Singapore respondents cited regulatory compliance concerns as a top barrier to getting more value from AI, while 33% said their data, processes or knowledge systems were not ready for wider use.