Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong has called on the nation’s banks and financial firms to harness artificial intelligence (AI) for creating better jobs and upskilling workers for higher-value roles, rather than focusing solely on cost-cutting. Gan’s remarks, made on Wednesday, follow global discussions on AI’s impact on employment. This includes Standard Chartered, which recently announced plans to cut over 7,000 jobs across four years due to increased AI adoption, and HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery, who acknowledged that generative AI would both “destroy certain jobs” and “create new jobs,” urging staff to embrace the shift.
Speaking at the DBS Leaders Dialogue event in Singapore, Gan emphasised that the city-state could not afford to resist technological advancements. “For Singapore, the answer cannot be to hold back change. If we slow AI adoption, we will weaken our competitiveness and ultimately hurt workers more, not less,” he stated. A report released by DBS Group at the event ranked Singapore as the third-leading AI financial hub globally, trailing only New York and San Francisco. The report highlighted the city-state’s position as the open-market hub closest to combining AI capability with institutional trust at scale. DBS Group is a multinational banking and financial services corporation providing a range of financial products and services across Asia.
Gan outlined that Singapore’s future as a premier financial hub hinges on transitioning AI from experimental stages to enterprise-wide adoption. This transition must ensure the creation of quality jobs and embed trust, safety, and security into AI development and deployment. He urged firms to consider not only cost savings when implementing AI, but also the potential for new roles and strategies for training existing staff. DBS Group CEO Tan Su Shan echoed this sentiment, suggesting Singapore’s compact size could become an asset if AI enables its limited workforce to achieve more, describing the technology as a potential “great multiplier.” Tan further elaborated that “small amplified by AI means our limited workforce can now do many more things than we could before,” underscoring the importance of bringing employees and customers along in the AI journey, as “humans matter.”
