Assessing Singapore’s AI-capable workers

With the launch of Singapore’s National AI Strategy by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in November, the Singapore Government has taken a first step in identifying the necessary talent and skills to establish the nation as a global hub in “developing and deploying scalable, impactful AI solutions”. 

We recently teamed up with the Singapore Smart Nation & Digital Government Office to provide unique insights from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph to see where that talent works, what skills they have, and how regions compare. Here’s what we found:

• Singapore’s AI-capable workforce is proportionally similar to business hubs (New York and Toronto) but lags leading technology hubs of San Francisco and Israel. 

• Underpinned by strong competition for talent from our traditional talent sources of India, the United States, and China, Singapore’s AI and technology jobs are largely in research and analysis related roles, which draws workers with strong technical skills. 

• Locally, more than two-thirds of these AI-capable workers can be found in the ICT, Finance and Education sectors. Diving into the tech scene, we see that tech companies are hiring a range of engineering talent with core foundational skills such as Machine Learning, SQL and Python.

Singapore’s aspiration calls for these AI-capable workers to deliver on the National AI Projects that will be of high value and impact on citizens and businesses. We will continue to collaborate closely with the public sector to connect these workers with economic opportunities.