7 tech trends in S'pore to look out for

The year 2025 has been a banner one for tech, with artificial intelligence (AI) making the most impact on businesses.

- Krist Boo Senior Business Correspondent

A government survey showed that small and medium-sized enterprises in Singapore have adopted AI at an average of three business uses, and other types of organisations are using it in five. Most companies are tapping the technology for information technology, customer service and finance.Here are seven enterprise tech trends expected to take hold in Singapore in 2026:

CFOS CUT SPENDING ON GENERATIVE AI

After a year of great promises and proven productivity boosts, generative AI bots and assistants have still not lifted bottom lines.

Hence, in 2026, chief financial officers (CFOs) will crimp AI spending, delaying a quarter of AI spending into 2027, said Mr Fred Giron, senior research director of consultancy firm Forrester.

At the firm’s recent 2026 tech trends forecast session, Mr Giron cited four hurdles: a missing link between the technology and business strategies; a lack of investment in AI foundational enablers such as data and platforms; middle management bottlenecks; and organisations having forgotten how to innovate after years of outsourcing.

He said: "All the companies are tracking one very simple metric when they scale AI, which is the number of hours that is saved to the employees. But the issue is that these hours are not impacting the bottom line."

Costs involved in preparing data for scaling AI and that of running live AI agents are also considerations, he said.

Therefore, expect CFOs to defer AI investments in 2026, said Mr Giron.

IN DEMAND: SAFE STORAGE OF DATA AT HOME

In August, Google Cloud announced expanded data-residency guarantees, allowing organisations to keep not just data at rest, but also interactions with its Gemini model within Singapore.

This, the tech firm said, would allow sectors with stricter data rules, such as finance, healthcare and government contractors, to run workloads locally.