More than a third of Singapore organisations are investing aggressively in AI with little evaluation of returns, according to a new IDC InfoBrief commissioned by Expereo, as the network infrastructure needed to support that investment lags badly behind.
The IDC survey of 800 technology leaders across APAC, Europe and the US found that 37% of APAC organisations are investing in AI aggressively without disciplined evaluation – nearly double the global average of 20%, and well ahead of the US (10%) and Europe (13%). Australia (45%) and Vietnam (44%) lead the region, with Singapore not far behind at over a third.
Returns lag behind AI ambition
Globally, 51% of organisations plan to prioritise AI or machine learning investment over the next 12 months, rising to 61% across APAC. Yet only 19% of organisations globally say their AI implementations have exceeded expectations. APAC fares better at 40%, but the majority of organisations in the region are still falling short of their own targets.
The most-cited reasons for underperformance in APAC are cost overruns or ROI not achieved (54%, rising to 80% in Malaysia), poor-quality training data (49%) and AI simply not performing as expected (46%).
Singapore’s network readiness gap
The InfoBrief points to network and infrastructure readiness as a key bottleneck. Only 9% of APAC organisations describe their network infrastructure as fully ready to support AI, cloud and digital initiatives, and 37% say it will need upgrading or replacing soon. Singapore ranks among the most exposed, with 58% of organisations saying they need more flexible, scalable networks – behind only Thailand (74%).
Ben Elms, CEO of Expereo, said: “Without resilient, scalable, cloud-optimised networks, even the most well-funded AI programmes will struggle to deliver ROI. Getting the network right is no longer an IT decision; it is one of the most important conversations happening in the boardroom today.”
Adoption outpaces oversight
APAC leads globally on AI adoption, with 35% of organisations reporting extensive use across the business against a 25% global average. But oversight is not keeping pace: 41% of APAC technology leaders are worried about losing track of AI-related costs and ROI as adoption deepens, rising to 54% in Malaysia. Digital sovereignty is also climbing the agenda, with 38% of APAC organisations rating it a high or top priority.
Eric Wong, President APAC at Expereo, said organisations that address infrastructure foundations early are generally seeing stronger outcomes and faster operational impact from their AI initiatives, as the region reassesses whether its networks are ready to support AI at scale.
