Salesforce and Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) have launched the Slack AI Launchpad Programme, a two-year initiative to help up to 1,000 Singapore small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) move from artificial intelligence (AI) awareness to actual AI-enabled workflows.

The partnership was announced by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo at IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital Day 2026, in support of the National AI Impact Programme (NAIIP), which aims to help 10,000 Singapore enterprises advance their AI adoption over three years, as well as the Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB).

Free Slack access and hands-on AI workshops

Under the Slack AI Launchpad, participating SMEs will receive a complimentary 60-day trial of Slack Business+ for up to 10 users, along with two hands-on workshops. The workshops will be run in collaboration with Salesforce partners Bryd, May4S and Valuehub, and will guide SMEs from learning Slack fundamentals to building at least one AI-enabled workflow for their business.

Through Slack, SMEs also gain access to Slackbot, a personal AI teammate built into Slack that can help employees find answers, organise work, create content, schedule meetings and take action. Slackbot Skills lets teams turn repeatable tasks into reusable shortcuts that any employee can run instantly, cutting down time spent on recurring work.

Building on Singapore’s AI push for SMEs

SMEs also get access to templates, guides and AI prompt libraries, plus a dedicated Slack community for peer support during the trial period. Registration opens on IMDA’s SMEs Go Digital platform from 13 October 2026.

“SMEs are the backbone of Singapore’s economy, but lean teams often struggle to find the time to scale. Agentic AI represents an extraordinary opportunity for SMEs to augment their workforce and levels the playing field so small businesses can deliver the same fast, personalised customer service as large companies,” said Vernon Cheo, Country General Manager, Singapore, Salesforce.

“The biggest barrier for many SMEs is not access to AI tools, but knowing how to apply them to their day-to-day operations… Through the Slack AI Launchpad Programme, SMEs will receive hands-on guidance to identify relevant use cases and develop AI-enabled workflows that meet their business needs,” said Johnson Poh, Assistant Chief Executive, Enterprise Transformation and Innovation Group, IMDA.

The programme builds on Salesforce and IMDA’s earlier Data + AI Boost SME Programme, which helped more than 6,500 SMEs across all stages of digital maturity harness data and AI over the past two years.