GROWING DEMAND FOR AI AND OTHER TECH SKILLS
Last year, all sectors saw higher AI adoption rates compared to the year before, with the information and communications and the professional services sectors leading the advancement, IMDA said.
These two sectors recorded the highest AI adoption rates of 36 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively, while the finance and insurance sector followed with a 23 per cent adoption rate.
AI adoption among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore tripled in one year, with 14.5 per cent of these enterprises adopting AI last year, up from 4.2 per cent in 2023.
This increase was mainly driven by micro and small businesses, the majority of which are adopting off-the-shelf generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Midjourney and Copilot, IMDA added.
The AI adoption rate also jumped among non-SMEs, from 44 per cent to 62.5 per cent.
Firms adopting AI are also seeing tangible gains.
IMDA’s findings showed that last year, SMEs that rolled out AI-enabled solutions under the Productivity Solutions Grant achieved an average cost savings of 52 per cent. The grant helps Singapore companies improve their productivity and automate existing processes through IT solutions and equipment.
Those that adopted AI-powered cybersecurity solutions saw greater savings of 71 per cent.
Separately, the demand for specific tech skills has also shifted.
Between 2019 and 2024, programming languages such as Python and Structured Query Language (SQL) were among the more highly sought-after tech skills, and there was an increase in demand for skills associated with cloud platforms and the scalable digital infrastructure they support, IMDA said.
In 2024, knowledge of Python was a required skill in 24 per cent of all tech job postings, a 9 percentage point increase from 2019, while that for SQL was needed in 20 per cent of tech job postings, up 5 percentage points over the same period.
Conversely, tech skills associated with web development became relatively less prominent.
For instance, the share of tech job postings that required skills in JavaScript declined from 21 per cent in 2019 to 12 per cent in 2024, with similar trends observed for related skills such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
“While still important in web development, these tools are now often embedded within broader development environments that automate much of the manual scripting. As a result, they are less frequently cited as distinct, standalone skills,” IMDA said.
