Across different sectors, Singapore businesses are finding that the right use of artificial intelligence (AI) can transform time-consuming processes into faster, more accurate and more cost-effective operations.

For instance, a major hotel group, overwhelmed by thousands of supplier invoices each month, was struggling to keep payments on track. Automating data capture and approval workflows helped the company reduce overdue payments by 95 per cent and cut turnaround time by 80 per cent, while also minimising human errors and saving manpower.

Other industries are seeing similar benefits. An insurance brokerage firm that needed to compare policies from multiple insurers to find the best options for clients used AI to speed up the process. This significantly reduced the time required to prepare proposals, enabling faster service and more comprehensive policy comparisons. At a law firm, automation and smarter document handling led to an 80 per cent improvement in contract turnaround and better management of deadlines.

These examples reflect a growing trend. More Singapore companies are integrating AI into their operations to gain an edge over the competition, aided by a suite of government grants and advisory services — precisely what Singapore aims to achieve under the National AI Strategy 2.0.

ENHANCING SUPPORT FOR AI ADOPTION

Singapore was one of the first countries to introduce a National AI Strategy in 2019, kickstarting AI projects in multiple fields and investing more than S$500 million in AI research and development. Building on this, the second National AI Strategy (version 2.0) was launched in 2023 to further harness AI to uplift and empower people and businesses, including small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).

Indeed, AI is a key lever driving Singapore’s economic growth. “How do we stay globally competitive amidst the rapid external changes?” Prime Minister Lawrence Wong asked in his National Day Rally 2025 speech. Through innovation and technology, he answered: “One such area is quantum computing. It is a completely new way of processing information, with the potential to transform many industries.” For example, quantum computers could provide immense processing power to enable more advanced AI models.

While technology is the enabler, adoption often depends on the right guidance and financial support. This is where Singapore’s network of SME Centres plays an important role — to assist SMEs in assessing their readiness for AI, identifying relevant solutions and tapping on government support.

As a first step to adopt AI solutions, it is imperative for companies to assess their workforce’s digital maturity and IT infrastructure. “This evaluation ensures a more effective approach by identifying digital gaps and selecting AI solutions to address specific business challenges or create value,” said Ms Wendy Chow, director of SME Centre@SCCCI (Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry).

Funding support comes in various forms, such as the Productivity Solutions Grant, Enterprise Development Grant and the new Enterprise Compute Initiative. These programmes subsidise costs for companies to access resources, including consultancy services and workforce training. “Such schemes help SMEs defray investment costs, reduce risks and embark on their AI and digitalisation journey with greater confidence of success,” said Ms Chow.

MAKING THE AI LEAP WITH ANTELOPE

Returning to the earlier, real-world examples of the hotel group, insurance brokerage firm and law firm, the AI solution behind their improved outcomes is Antelope. This platform enables workflow automation and information retrieval from its document management system. Its generative AI assistant module, Antelope Genie, adds capabilities such as summarising and comparing lengthy documents, drafting correspondences, providing insights and extracting key data.

“At its core, our generative AI engine uses state-of-the-art natural language processing trained on vast datasets to comprehend complex documents, extract key information, and even produce new content tailored to specific business needs,” said Mr Clement Hong, founder and CEO of Antelope. “This enables dynamic document content generation, intelligent summarisation and automated classification, significantly reducing manual effort and errors.”

Antelope’s technology is now more accessible to businesses in Singapore through a partnership with Canon Singapore. With this collaboration, Canon expands its generative AI offerings while at the same time ensuring their suitability for everyday business use. Unlike traditional AI projects that demand hefty investments and technical teams, these solutions are easily configurable, intuitive and user-friendly.

“We focus on simplifying complex technologies, making them practical and easy to adopt for our customers,” said Mr Andrew Koh, head of Singapore operations at Canon Singapore. Through hands-on demos and small pilot projects that deliver quick wins, Canon helps businesses understand what is possible with AI, countering the misconception that AI is too expensive or too difficult to implement.

One SME client, who was initially sceptical, changed their mind after attending a live demonstration of the Antelope platform and seeing how fast it could process their invoices. “Their jaws literally dropped,” Mr Koh recalled.

DELIVERING REAL IMPACT ACROSS INDUSTRIES

The hotel group, insurance brokerage company and law firm profiled earlier illustrate Antelope’s applicability across diverse industries. Whether in hospitality, finance, legal or non-profit sectors, this AI solution can be deployed to streamline operations, improve decision-making and free up resources for higher-value work.

Antelope is now preparing to launch its next-generation product, Antelope Genie 2. Powered by agentic AI — a new class of AI where the system can operate independently and make decisions without human oversight, preset rules or user inputs — this next iteration of the Genie chatbot will be able to perform tasks autonomously and deliver more meaningful business insights.

“AI will only get better over time … to solve real-world problems,” said PM Wong in his National Day Rally 2025 speech. “It will fundamentally change the way we live, work and interact with one another.”

So, with the support of government grants and advisory services from SME Centres, there’s no time like the present for businesses in Singapore to utilise this cutting-edge technology and turn digital potential into practical results.