SINGAPORE: Singapore will have to put more thought into helping businesses, especially smaller ones, harness the use of artificial intelligence in their work processes, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday (Jul 29).

To this, Mr Wong said Singapore is well positioned to do so "company-by-company" given its compact size, adding that the country should also "not just rush headlong" into AI and think hard on how to redesign jobs and retrain workers at the same time.

He was speaking during a dialogue at an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Singapore Business Federation (SBF) conference titled "Global-City Singapore: SG60 and Beyond".

The dialogue was moderated by IPS director Janadas Devan and covered a wide range of topics including US trade tariffs, Singapore’s social compact and inequality in Southeast Asia.

In response to a question from Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh about how prepared Singapore is to harness the benefits of the technology, Mr Wong said there is a lot of potential to be unlocked when it comes to AI.

"We will have to think harder about how we can help every company, big and small, especially our smaller enterprises, make full use of AI."

That will involve integrating it into processes, transforming businesses and industries, and elevating productivity in a more significant way.

While AI is relatively accessible, most people still do not make use of its full potential, Mr Wong said. “Most of us use AI the way we use Google. That's not exactly the best way to use AI.”

Mr Wong said he recently spoke with a chief executive officer who set aside some time with his management team to think about how AI can transform their company.

The team realised there were “tremendous advantages” that they had not thought about before.