AI adoption without a clear goal is money down the drain, warn industry leaders

Businesses that rush to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) without first identifying the specific problems they want to solve risk wasting time and money, industry leaders warned at a recent post-Budget 2026 forum.

Rather than chasing the latest tools, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should start by auditing where their teams are actually losing time, said panellists at The Business Times Budget Roundtable 2026: Levelling Up SMEs for Global Competition.

“The best way, and the most immediate way, is to look at where you and your team are spending their time on a daily basis,” said Koren Wines, managing director of Xero Asia.

“If you are spending your time still doing manual data entry or moving data from one place to another, there is simply no excuse for that any more,” she added.

Measuring AI’s impact, however, requires looking beyond the bottom line. Wines said the more useful gauge is whether business owners are being freed up from repetitive, low-value tasks to focus on growing their business – not revenue, which she described as a lagging indicator.

The true differentiator for scaling SMEs, she added, is having full visibility over their own data. “You can’t scale capability and production at the same rate as cost, you’ll just run your business into the ground. Getting those tools, services and information all lined up so that you have that visibility – that, I would say, is the X-factor.”

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling agreed, saying the goal of freeing up time from administrative tasks is ultimately to redirect business owners towards higher-value activities.

“It is about freeing up the time so that you don’t get bogged down by repetitive work, so that business owners will be out there doing business development, chasing leads, thinking of new growth areas, and meeting clients and closing sales,” she said.

That said, businesses should not let that assessment become an excuse for delay. Wines cautioned that those which are slow to digitalise and adopt AI risk being left behind altogether. “If you don’t keep up, you will not be able to compete,” she said.

AI-enabled efficiency

For some companies, that means starting small and building up. Allison Nam, chief commercial officer of advanced manufacturer Nandina REM, said AI adoption in her company has been a gradual process, requiring structured data and clear operational goals before meaningful integration is possible.

One area where she sees the most immediate promise is scenario-based training – using AI to help workers adapt to sudden changes in operating conditions.

Nam cited the example of the recent oil prices spikes due to the Iran conflict, which could force her machining operations to run at reduced capacity.

“How do you create scenario-based training whereby I still have to come up with the same output, but I’m going to give you a lot less electricity to run the machine?” she said.

“AI, with the robotics and with the structured data that comes with it, really can help us in creating a new way of thinking about training our staff about adaptability based on scenario-based training.”

To get started, Low suggested that business owners ring-fence at least half a day a month for an AI session with their team and use that time to identify pain points and map out which tools could address them.

The government, for its part, is helping businesses along the way. Acting Minister for Transport and Senior Minister of State for Finance Jeffrey Siow said Budget 2026 sets out a comprehensive plan to support AI adoption across key sectors; proliferate best practices through AI champion companies; and get every Singaporean comfortable with AI tools.

Small yet nimble

For SMEs daunted by the pace of change, however, panellists had a reassuring message: Being small is not a disadvantage.

“I always think being small is actually a very big advantage – just like David and Goliath,” said Nam. “Because you are small, you can be very nimble. You make decisions quickly, and you can take small risks, experiment and try different ideas.”

In today’s environment, where research and development cycles have been compressed from months to weeks, that speed is everything, she added.

Smaller companies are also able to have more direct, honest conversations with potential partners and clients about what they need and what they can deliver – something that larger organisations, constrained by bureaucracy and legacy systems, often struggle to do.

Wines agreed. “It used to be that the big companies ate the small companies,” she said. “Now, we live in a world where the fast eat the slow.”

Trying to pivot a large organisation in a volatile environment – where threats can emerge overnight, and distribution channels can shift without warning – is extraordinarily difficult, she added.

Smaller companies, unburdened by layers of approval and entrenched processes, are far better placed to respond.

Source: The Business Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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