Agentic AI adoption among Singapore enterprises has more than doubled in a single year, according to ServiceNow’s 2026 Enterprise AI Maturity Index, which surveyed 4,500 senior leaders across 19 countries, including 200 in Singapore. Adoption rose from 22% in 2025 to 51% in 2026, but the study found only one in ten enterprises has moved beyond individual use cases to redesign processes where AI completes multi-step tasks end-to-end.

Singapore’s overall AI maturity score jumped 19 points to 53 out of 100, above the global average of 51 and ahead of the country’s own 2024 peak of 45, following an 11-point dip to a low of 34 in 2025. The largest group of enterprises (33%) still use AI mainly to assist individual employees with day-to-day tasks, while 18% have made no progress on advanced adoption at all, above the global average of 11%.

Adoption outpaces workflow transformation

Agentic AI tools, capable of taking action without human input at each step, are becoming more common in Singapore workplaces, but the study found that how enterprises use them matters as much as whether they have them. Singapore leads the global average on six of seven AI maturity dimensions, with talent readiness its widest margin, but trails specifically on embedding AI into day-to-day operations, the pillar the report identifies as converting investment into business returns.

“Singapore enterprises have rebuilt important foundations for AI and that progress is showing up in the numbers,” said CK Tan, APJ Innovation Officer, ServiceNow. “But adoption and transformation are not the same thing. Helping individuals work faster has value. Redesigning how work moves across the enterprise is where AI starts to change business outcomes.”

Standard Chartered is cited in the report as an example of enterprises redesigning processes rather than layering AI onto existing ones. The bank reimagined its colleague onboarding journey end to end, mapping each step to determine where human judgement was required and where technology could add value. The transformation is expected to cut onboarding effort for hiring managers by 35% while delivering roughly 20% productivity gains across HR teams.

“Long before we deployed AI, we invested in understanding our people, their relationship with technology, appetite for change, and familiarity with AI both inside and outside the workplace,” said Melinda McKinley, Chief Operating Officer, Strategy and Talent, Standard Chartered. “When you know where friction exists and why, you can apply automation and AI with precision.”

Budgets are rising faster than workflow redesign

Singapore’s AI investment is tracking close to the global average, with budgets up 108% year-on-year against 110% globally, and 15.4% of IT budgets now allocated to AI compared with 15.8% globally. Both figures are projected to reach approximately 20% by 2027, with enterprises here projecting a further 83% increase in AI spend next year.

• 23% of Singapore enterprises have replaced legacy technology systems with modern platforms, against 16% globally
• 28% have formal processes for testing, auditing and managing AI risk, against 20% globally
• 25% are already integrating AI workflows across business functions, against 16% globally
• 58% of local enterprises cite data privacy and security as a top AI challenge

“Singapore is investing at almost the same pace as the global average,” Tan added. “The issue is where the next dollar goes. Singapore is ahead on foundations, but weaker on embedding AI into daily operations. If the next wave of investment goes mainly into tools rather than workflow redesign, the maturity gap will widen instead of close.”

Tan Kit Yong, Chief Regional Enterprise at StarHub, said the conversation has shifted from adoption to execution, with enterprises discovering that AI delivers lasting value only when built on trusted digital infrastructure, unified data platforms and strong governance. Peter Carr, Director and Principal Analyst at Councilio, said Singapore has largely solved the question of AI adoption, and that organisations which pull ahead from here will be those that integrate AI through established investment and portfolio management frameworks.

The report also flagged data privacy and security as a growing concern, with 58% of local enterprises naming it a top AI challenge, pointing to a gap between Singapore’s governance framework and enterprise readiness to operate within it. “The governance framework Singapore has built is genuinely world-leading,” Tan said. “What the data shows is that most enterprises are still working toward what it asks of them.”