On 21 May 2026, new initiatives were announced to help enterprises adopt artificial intelligence (“AI“) with confidence, strengthen cyber resilience, and future-proof Singapore’s digital infrastructure.
New Playbook to Simplify AI Transformation for Digital Leaders
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (“IMDA“), together with SkillsFuture Singapore (“SSG“) and Workforce Singapore (“WSG“), has jointly developed a new “AI for Enterprise Impact Playbook” titled “Unlock Your Competitive Edge with Digital Transformation: A Playbook for Enterprise Digital Leaders” (“Playbook“).
The Playbook aims to provide digitally progressive enterprises (also known as “Digital Leaders”), with a structured, step-by-step guide to navigate AI adoption. This practical, enterprise-centric guide helps enterprises to assess their readiness to adopt AI, identify relevant support, and take actionable next steps on their AI transformation journey. It also consolidates government programmes and resources from IMDA, SSG, WSG and Enterprise Singapore into a single, easy-to-navigate framework, making it simpler for enterprises to find the right support at the right stage of their AI journey, while helping their workers build AI-related skills. In this regard, the Playbook takes a holistic approach by recognising that successful AI adoption depends on both business transformation and workforce readiness.
The Playbook will guide enterprises through a simple three-step process.
- Step 1: Diagnose– Where are you today? Enterprises begin by completing a self-assessment using a built-in checklist to better understand their current readiness across the five dimensions listed below. Each dimension is rated from “Level 1” (just starting out) to “Level 4” (scaling and leading), helping them identify where they stand and to build their action plan.
- Strategy and leadership: This dimension examines how AI is embedded into the business strategy and how actively the leadership supports it.
- Talent and culture: This dimension looks at how ready the workforce is to adopt AI, including in terms of their skills, roles and openness to new ways of working.
- Data and governance: This dimension assesses how well data is managed and whether the enterprise has the guardrails needed for responsible AI use.
- Technology deployment and integration: This dimension evaluates how far AI tools have been adopted and scaled across the enterprise.
- Value creation: This dimension measures the tangible business impact that AI is generating, from productivity gains and cost savings to new revenue streams and business models.
Step 2: Match – What support is most relevant? Once enterprises have determined their readiness, they are shown the most relevant enterprise AI transformation and workforce upskilling support, which is available from IMDA, SSG, WSG and Enterprise Singapore, and which is aligned to their current stage of AI adoption and business priorities.
- Step 3: Act – What should you do next? Enterprises are then guided on the practical next steps that are aligned with their business priorities and workforce needs, including where to go for more information on programmes or grants, and how to apply for them. The goal is not to do everything at once, but to help enterprises take the next step with confidence and to progress from there.
Other Developments
- New award to recognise Singapore’s AI trailblazers: To commend small and medium enterprises (“SMEs“) that have achieved measurable business outcomes through AI use, IMDA and the Singapore Business Federation will jointly launch the inaugural SME AI Impact Awards 2026, as part of the National AI Impact Programme and in support of the National AI Strategy. The awards will recognise up to 30 winners across two categories: (i) the SME Innovation Excellence Award, for enterprises who are developing their own proprietary AI tools; and (ii) the SME Adoption Excellence Award, for enterprises who are successfully implementing ready-to-use or off-the-shelf AI solutions. The winners will receive the SME AI Impact Award Trustmark, which is a verified mark of excellence that strengthens credibility and market reputation.
- New partnerships to boost enterprise AI capabilities and cyber resilience: To help more SMEs build stronger digital capabilities in AI and cybersecurity, IMDA is expanding the Digital Enterprise Blueprint through two new partnerships with Grab and RSM Stone Forest IT (“RSM“), which will offer SMEs hands-on guidance, practical tools and expertise to adopt AI with confidence and to strengthen their cyber resilience.
- Grab: Grab will launch the Grab AI Programme for SMEs, in partnership with IMDA, to reach 10,000 food and beverage, electronic commerce and retail SMEs, through a range of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of AI, strengthening AI literacy and accelerating AI adoption. The programme offers free online training videos, complimentary masterclasses and webinars. It also includes a structured two to 14-day AI course, which has been co-developed with the Singapore University of Technology and Design, and which seeks to guide SMEs from understanding AI’s business value to building a practical AI roadmap, with hands-on experience using AI solutions relevant to their sectors that have been pre-approved by IMDA.
- RSM: RSM will roll out the RSM Cyber2SME™ Programme, offering complimentary phishing simulation exercises to 2,000 SMEs to help them to identify organisational vulnerabilities and to strengthen their cyber defence posture. Up to 1,000 SMEs will also benefit from cybersecurity awareness webinars and tabletop exercises covering cyber risks, AI and data threats, and incident response strategies.
- Staying ahead of AI vulnerabilities: Sonar, a leader in AI code verification and governance, will have a global launch of its new AI remediation agent in Singapore that was co-developed with engineers from IMDA and Singapore. As AI speeds up software development, organisations need a reliable way to fix real code problems at scale, without slowing their teams down. The new SonarQube Remediation Agent enables engineering teams across enterprises to automatically fix code issues and scan every fix before it is deployed, helping organisations confidently adopt AI-assisted development securely.
- Building a quantum-safe Singapore: IMDA has signed a Memorandum of Intent with Singtel, Ericsson and NCS Singapore to pilot and validate quantum-safe technologies for migrating Singtel’s infrastructure and systems.
Click on the following links for more information (available on the IMDA website at www.imda.gov.sg):
- Unlock Your Competitive Edge with Digital Transformation: A Playbook for Enterprise Digital Leaders
- IMDA Press Release titled “New Playbook Charts a Clear AI Transformation Path for Local Enterprises”
- IMDA Press Release titled “Building AI-Ready Enterprises: New Initiatives to Drive AI Deployment at Scale and Strengthen Digital Resilience”
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