More than eight in 10 Singapore enterprises have rolled back or shut down a live AI customer communications agent after deployment, even as the city-state leads the region on AI adoption, according to new research from Sinch.

The 82 per cent roll-back rate is eight percentage points above the global average, and comes despite Singapore recording the highest AI deployment rate in Asia-Pacific at 72 per cent, according to Sinch‘s report, The AI Production Paradox. The study surveyed 2,527 senior decision makers across 10 countries, including 152 respondents in Singapore, between January and February 2026.

APAC leads on deployment, lags on reliability

Across Asia-Pacific, 67 per cent of enterprises already have AI agents in production, five percentage points above the global average, yet 83 per cent have experienced an AI agent failure — nine points above the global average. Sinch said the figures show the prevailing narrative of enterprises stuck in “pilot purgatory” no longer holds; the challenge for organisations that have moved past deployment is now performance, reliability and control. In Singapore, 44 per cent of enterprises cited support team overload as the top consequence of AI agent failure, with one in three APAC enterprises sending more than 100 million messages a month, meaning a single AI failure can scale into a significant operational problem.

“APAC is the most advanced region in the world for AI-powered customer communications, but it is also where the gap between deployment and reliability is widest,” said Wendy Johnstone, Executive Vice President, APAC at Sinch.

A governance and infrastructure gap

Despite 75 per cent of Singapore enterprises prioritising investment in trust, security and compliance, only 27 per cent report fully mature governance guardrails, the lowest rate in APAC and below the global average of 35 per cent. Sinch said communications infrastructure satisfaction is the strongest predictor of successful AI deployment globally, yet just 7 per cent of Singapore enterprises say their current communications provider is fully meeting their needs — prompting 91 per cent to evaluate new providers, above the global average of 86 per cent.

Singapore enterprises are planning AI deployment across an average of 3.1 channels, with WhatsApp and website or in-app chatbots the most common channels for integrating AI agents. Sinch said 40 per cent of Singapore enterprises still plan to increase AI investment by more than 25 per cent this year, even as the proportion exploring higher investment levels remains the lowest in the region, trailing India at 71 per cent and Australia at 67 per cent.