Singapore is tired of Al talk and waiting for a better pitch

For a start, we need to articulate which aspects of Al play to our strengths, where the opportunities lie and how to help the vulnerable.

- Lin Suling

Like many Singaporeans, reading the Economic Strategy Review’s midterm update made me want to lie down.

That sense of fatigue revived a memory of laboriously plodding down the icy Davos promenade in January. An endless row of blindingly bright pavilions by multinational corporations and national investment agencies all trying to invite you in, turned a leisurely evening stroll into a cold, cheerless trudge.

Weariness seeped in from a week-long sustained exposure to optimism over technology. From packing my schedule from morning to night, attending countless panels to speaking with numerous executives at the World Economic Forum on everything from fusion energy to quantum computing, the future started to feel more exhausting by the minute.

After walking for 45 minutes, with no end in sight, I surrendered and grabbed a cab back to the hotel. A traffic jam turned the 1.6km journey back into a two-hour ride. If only I had saved energy to walk a little more.

RISK OF FATIGUE AT THE STARTING LINE

Singapore's companies and working professionals can similarly be forgiven for the collective groan that greeted the ESR's interim dispatch. Being on the cusp of yet another wave of change wrought by artificial intelligence understandably inspires lethargy rather than excitement.

Many are still recovering from the furious hamster wheel action following successive waves of economic transformation heralded by the advent of the internet, the smartphone, a digitalisation drive accelerated by Covid-19, and the green transition.

A large part of the cynicism stems from frustration over the performative Al-fication of working life. Often, tools are layered onto workflows without clear gains, as businesses rush to signal progress to shareholders and investors rather than solve real problems.