As businesses in Singapore continue to explore AI’s potential, there is an increasing demand for leadership roles such as the Head of AI. However, a recent study by HubSpot highlights significant challenges in effectively measuring the impact of AI, particularly due to the lack of established frameworks, talent, and visibility.
Nearly half of the business leaders surveyed (49%) cited the absence of success metrics as a major obstacle to AI adoption, while 48% pointed to a lack of relevant talent and skill sets, and 45% noted limited visibility of AI use across teams. These barriers impede organizations’ ability to track AI’s effectiveness, ultimately affecting both employee performance and overall business outcomes.
Despite these challenges, AI usage among individual business leaders in Singapore remains high, with 51% using AI tools in their own roles. However, broader organizational adoption is still in its infancy. Only 27% of Singaporean companies have fully implemented AI or AI-enhanced tools to support employees. HubSpot’s VP & MD for JPAC, Dan Bognar, emphasized that the successful integration of AI across organizations requires clear guidelines, AI training for employees, and the implementation of robust measurement frameworks.
The lack of visibility of AI’s application across teams is a concern for 82% of surveyed leaders, potentially hindering AI’s full potential. However, companies that have established proper frameworks report notable benefits. These include increased productivity (88%), improved efficiency (76%), and enhanced employee well-being (61%). From a business standpoint, organizations with AI frameworks also see greater revenue (75%), improved customer satisfaction (75%), better lead generation (60%), and cost reductions (46%).
Looking forward, 97 percent of Singapore business leaders want to invest in AI tools in the next year and reported an average investment of SGD32,000. Simultaneous with the growing trend for AI adoption is a higher requirement for specialized AI roles. Such an evolving role is Head of AI, where many organizations today need to hire their business leadership from sales, customer services, and marketing.
As many as 90% of the business leaders expect more people to be hired at organizations to support AI, the LinkedIn research underlined the Asia Pacific market, making Singapore one of the countries here as growing in AI talent rapidly. Efforts by the government and plans to triple its locals trained locally up to 15,000 in AI skills underline Singapore’s commitment to building robustness around AI ecosystems.
As AI becomes mature, corporations are to redesign their jobs, using it to automate much of the work so that human labor can be engaged in more strategically important tasks. It is to be expected that the employee will be benefited from this restructuring. Bognar concluded, “The AI era presents an opportunity for organizations to reskill or upskill their workforce, driving better business outcomes and empowering employees to harness AI’s power effectively.”
