SMEs' AI adoption does not always need to be costly: Josephine Teo

Amid worries among smaller firms that artificial intelligence (AI) is too costly to adopt, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo pointed out that not all use cases require expensive high-performance chips, and there are many models of support for companies.

- Lee Li Ying Correspondent

She was speaking at a plenary session at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum held at Capella Singapore on Nov 19. Titled The New Digital Divide: AI’s Haves And Have-Nots, the session discussed the emerging global divide between those with AI capabilities and those without.

Recounting how a neighbourhood restaurant used an Al assistant app to optimise its promotions, Mrs Teo said: “Not every single small and medium enterprise is going to have to need its own access to graphics processing units (GPUs). In this case, it’s just an app that was made available to this little eatery.”

GPUs are costly specialised processing chips that supply much of the computing power needed for advanced Al.

Mrs Teo said Singapore has different methods of helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) manage the costs of adopting Al.