Companies without the necessary infrastructure, including people, will face challenges moving beyond rudimentary use of artificial intelligence (AI) to extract more value.
“We believe operations should be powered by technology, not tech for its own sake, but to make operations safer, better, and smarter,” said Ng Tian Beng, president and group CEO of Certis. The Singapore security services company taps AI across its range of robotics solutions, which include Ace (autonomous canine explorer) and humanoid concierge Max.
Certis is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, Temasek Holdings.
Beyond using AI to generate insights, Certis also leverages the technology to orchestrate decisions in its operations and “drive action in the real world”, said Ng, who was speaking at AWS (Amazon Web Services) Summit Singapore 2026.
He further underscored the need to ensure all of these not just work, but function securely and safely, against potential breaches, manipulation, and failures.
Operators must be able to understand AI and trust it to respond accordingly and operate reliably, he said.
“The question is no longer if AI will transform operations. That’s a given,” Ng added. “The real question [now] is how quickly we can bring together these tech out of the lab, and into [the] real world, so we can make a difference.”
Both Max and Ace were built on Certis’ AI operations and orchestration platform, Mozart, which is powered by AWS technologies.
Certis’ computer vision AI agent, for instance, uses models trained on Amazon SageMaker to detect more than 20 types of security incidents, such as unattended objects, Ng said.
His team also has started building AI agents on Amazon Bedrock.
“The more important question now is what comes after adoption — and whether organisations have the structures in place to turn early momentum into durable, organisation-wide value,” AWS said in a blog post.
Pointing to a study it commissioned, conducted by Strand Partners, AWS noted that AI adoption already is pervasive, but few businesses have transitioned into more advanced use across their core functions.
For instance, while 75% of Singapore SMBs (small and midsize businesses) in financial services are using AI, a lower 29% apply the technology in more advanced use, such as combining multiple AI models or creating their own AI systems.
The same findings are apparent amongst SMBs in healthcare, where 61% have adopted AI, but just 16% do so in a more advanced stage, the study found.
Barriers in doing so may lie internally, where 38% of financial services SMBs highlight internal approval and signoff as the longest stage in their AI deployment, AWS noted. The study polled 1,500 respondents across three verticals, including manufacturing, in Singapore.
Across the board, under 40% say they do not have a formal process for escalating AI outputs that employees are unsure about.
This suggests these organisations lack a clear channel for raising concerns or seeking guidance about AI-generated results, AWS said.
The cloud vendor added that organisations need to move into the next phase of their adoption, which involves building the operational foundations to scale AI.
“Singapore’s SMEs have moved decisively on AI,” said Priscilla Chong, AWS’ Singapore managing director. “The next step is making that investment sustainable by integrating AI across functions, so it shifts from a point solution to a core part of how the businesses run.”
Human skillsets needed to apply AI
Along with the necessary digital and cloud infrastructures, Singapore also have to build up capabilities and provide funding support to help organisations adopt and scale AI, said Desmond Tan, who is Senior Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office and also deputy secretary-general of NTUC.
The country’s AI strategy focuses on those key areas, with recognition that “strategies only succeed when people can apply them”, said Tan, during his speech at the AWS Summit.
“We must equip Singaporeans with the skills, confidence, and practical know-how to turn these investments into real, tangible outcomes,” he said.
For now, just 33% of Singapore companies have a talent strategy that is aligned with their AI strategy, according to research from Accenture.
Conducted between December last year and February 2026, the study drew responses from 70 technology leaders, including CIOs and CTOs. It also polled 518 respondents in Singapore that included fresh graduates and early-career professionals.
Some 46% of technology heads reveal that their organisation has not redesigned job roles or responsibilities, the report noted.
About 81% of entry-level workers say they have beginner-level or zero understanding of prompt engineering, while 80% have similar understanding of AI ethics and governance.
“Singapore’s AI future will not be won or lost on algorithms or the latest technology, but on our ability to equip people, redesign work and build trust,” Mark Tham, Accenture’s Singapore managing director, said in the report.
Noting that Singapore’s enterprises have “largely mastered the technology part”, Tan also urged CEOs to “own the redesign of work with the same urgency”.
This would be crucial since that is where the real growth is, he said.
The Singapore minister added that AI should not result in jobless growth and productivity gains should not come at the expense of workers.
“If companies adopt AI with intent, workers learn with confidence, and if innovation is guided by strong values, AI can be both quietly powerful and visibly transformative,” Tan said.
