Speech by MOS Alvin Tan at AI Festival Asia

Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education & Ministry of National Development 

Dr Wan Rizal, Director of Stakeholder Management, Career Services and Partnership Group, NTUC & Labour Member of Parliament 

Ms Cassandra Lee, Advisor (Policy), Young PAP 

Mr Ang Yuit, President, Association of Small & Medium Enterprises 

Mr Aw Kim Geok, Director, School of Electronics & Info-Comm Technology, ITE 

Distinguished guests 

Ladies and Gentlemen 

Introduction 

1.             Pleasure to be here at AI Festival Asia 2026. Last night, I used Google Gemini for this speech. In fact, I had almost 11 rounds with Gemini, because it is not just artificial intelligence but augmented intelligence. I stress-tested this, and I spent 11 iterations until my premium model said “You ran out. Do you want to upgrade to the next tier model?” It has become something that all of us are getting familiar with. 

2.             This morning, I used NotebookLM to turn industry reports into a 45-minute podcast, which I sped up to become a 20-minute podcast that I played back while I was driving. It gives you a review and quick check on what you are doing today. Yesterday, I had a meeting with the Rwanda High Commissioner. My team took a photo and there was a big table in front which covered his right shoe. I fed it into Gemini’s Nano Banana and said “Please remove the table and reconstruct the shoes. 

3.             But the most interesting thing was by my 13-year-old son, who asked if I could download an app called IFTTT—"If This Then That." He’s set it up so that when he leaves school, a WhatsApp is automatically sent to his mother. 

4.             These aren't just toys. They represent a fundamental shift in how we reclaim our time and do things even better. People often tell me they are "too busy" for AI. In fact, I think, if someone like me can adopt AI, or a child can adopt AI to make things easier for him, then I think many of us can do the same. 

The MTI Obsession: A Future-Ready Economy 

5.             In fact, one of our obsessions at MTI is to build an economy where firms of all sizes can thrive – not just the big firms, but SMEs. SMEs account for 94% of firms in Singapore and employ almost half our workforce. You are basically the heartbeat of Singapore. 

6.             We cannot allow a "two-speed economy" where only MNCs have these AI "superpowers" while our SMEs do not. This festival is about equipping our SMEs with these skills! 

Riding the Three Waves: Agents, Robots, and the "Bilingual" Boss 

7.             To do that, it will be helpful for us to understand where we are in the AI evolution. I was in the tech sector, and I was there when we deployed AI. While I am not a super up-to-date expert, let me look at three ways that are defining AI, and what it means to be "small but mighty": 

a.      Agentic AI: This is like my son's "IFTTT" logic supercharged. It is AI that doesn't just "chat," it "acts." Imagine an AI agent for a retailer or shopkeeper that sees stock is low, finds the best price from three suppliers, and drafts the purchase order for your boss’ approval while you focus on your customers. 

b.      Physical AI: This is where AI gets "hands" – robots and sensors that take the "dirty and difficult" work so you can focus on higher order ones. I come to ITE College Central very often, and they have an incredible aerospace programme here. The students here partner with ST Engineering, in the use of physical AI in the past, to inspect an aircraft engine. With AI, there is predictive maintenance that’s evolved – you use Internet of Things (IoT), robots and sensors. It is far more accurate and saves time, energy and money. 

c.      AI Bilingualism: This is the most critical skill for 2026. It doesn't mean you need to learn to code. It means you speak two languages: the Language of your Business and the Language of the Machine. 

8.             When I think about this, I think about my mother. In the 1980s and 1990s, she ran a small Korean furniture business at Peninsula Shopping Centre. I used to help her out, and I saw firsthand the mental load she carried – the constant checking of stock, the manual tracking of what was popular. 

9.             If she had AI then, I think it would have made her work much easier. She would be AI-Bilingual. If she had it then, she would not need to spend so much time wondering which cabinet or coffee table was trending. She would speak the Language of the Machine with a simple prompt: "Look at my sales from the last three months and current trends in Singapore. Which furniture pieces should I order for the next quarter to maximise my margins?" and AI would churn it out for her. 

10.          This is a business owner using a machine to solve a real human problem. If she had AI back then, she could have done much more, with much less stress, and her business would have flourished. 

Clearing the Runway: Finance and Grants 

11.          She would have been very happy with what ASME has made available today to SMEs. 

12.          ASME is mobilising up to S$10 million to help you transform. Through SME@AITE, you can access the NTUC Company Training Committee (CTC) Grant and the Mentorship Support Grant (MSG). 

13.          It is already being deployed. SBS Transit, for example, used the CTC grant at their Bedok North Depot to build a "Physical AI" tyre inspection system. It "sees" wear and tear that a human might miss, saving 2,000 man-hours annually. Those technicians aren't replaced; they are upskilled to manage the system. It saves time, energy and money. 

14.          But technology requires capital. That is why the ASME-UOB partnership is so important because we are looking at financing models that could make repayments aligned with your actual cashflow. 

15.          Talking about capital, I thought I would share a bit more on my role on the MAS Board. I want to share with you what MAS is already doing together with banks to make the financial sector work hard for SMEs. We’ve launched initiatives like PathFin.ai and Project MindForge to help banks share "what works" in AI. 

16.          When MAS works with banks on AI, it’s so your bank can use AI to understand how to make your business better, and help you make the "Yes" to a loan application faster and the terms fairer. 

Creating the "AI-Bilingual" Workforce 

17.          Besides tools, we also need people who speak the language – to be AI-Bilingual. 

18.          The ASME-Young PAP 2026 AI Policy Position Paper is an important, vital roadmap. It highlights how smaller businesses can redesign roles to create meaningful jobs for the AI-Bilingual.

19.          You don’t need a massive software team. If you look (at) our very talented and hardworking ITE students, through SME@AITE, these "digital natives" act as interns for F&B and retail SMEs. They handle the data setup and the dashboards, while you provide the operations experience. It is a win-win solution that has already led to full-time job offers for many students. 

Conclusion: Reclaiming the Human Element 

20.          To our SME owners: We know your pain points – the wasted time, the feeling of being stretched too thin. Take heed – AI is your multiplier. It is here to take the "robotic" and mundane parts of your job out – the scheduling, the data entry, the manual inspections – and give them to the actual robots. This allows all of you, all of us, in fact, to focus on what only a human can do: build relationships, dream up new products, and lead your teams. 

21.          I hope you found your "IFTTT" moment at this festival. If not, I think you can do so after learning. Try it out, test it out. We have the resources and funding to allow you to do this. I wish all of you a very, very good week ahead, as we all try and play around with all our AI tools to make life better for us. Thank you very much.