SINGAPORE - Homegrown tech services firm NCS will invest $130 million over the next three years to develop AI intellectual property, pilot sector-specified AI projects and train its workforce.

NCS can also help smaller firms benefit from artificial intelligence (AI), Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on July 10 at its flagship forum NCS Impact 2025 held at Marina Bay Sands Expo.

“Besides offering AI-enabled solutions, they can partner companies to co-develop use cases, re-design their workflows, and even transform their business models.”

“I am glad to note that NCS will invest $130 million over the next three years to support its clients in scaling AI adoption, through its proprietary suite of tools, methodologies and accelerators,” said Mr Gan.

But as Singapore pushes ahead with innovations, it must ensure that the benefits of AI are shared broadly, he said.

Mr Gan added there is a need to institutionalise the use of AI within companies big or small, even though larger companies tend to use AI more than smaller ones.

Based on the Singapore Digital Economy Report released in 2024, AI adoption has more than doubled among large enterprises over the past five years, from about 17 per cent in 2018 to 44 per cent in 2023.

On the other hand, AI uptake among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased from 3.5 per cent to 4.2 per cent over the same period.

“Despite the lower rate of adoption among SMEs, it is heartening to note that both SMEs and large enterprises alike saw benefits from using AI – in fact, more than 90 per cent of both types of companies that used AI reported that the technology had improved productivity and processes,” said Mr Gan.

Under NCS’ $130 million investment, the company will develop Sunshine.AI, a suite of AI tools tailored for developers, IT operations teams and corporate users.

It comprises Sunshine.Coder, an AI coding assistant that supports la...