[SINGAPORE] Nearly half of employers using artificial intelligence in their human resource functions are deploying the technology for recruitment and selection, a new survey by the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) has found.<\/p>\n
But even as employers increasingly turn to AI for HR tasks, human judgment remains central to decision-making, with 85 per cent of AI-supported use cases still requiring human involvement.<\/p>\n
The findings were released at the SNEF Employers\u2019 Summit 2026 on Friday (Oct 30), alongside a new initiative to help companies adopt AI responsibly and strengthen HR capabilities.<\/p>\n
SNEF president Kuah Boon Wee said that the survey findings would help the federation develop practical support and solutions for employers.<\/p>\n
Some 42 per cent of employers wanted clearer guidance on their obligations and liabilities when using AI in HR, while an equal proportion sought training on responsible AI use.<\/p>\n
\u201cSNEF does not claim to have every answer on AI. I don\u2019t think anybody does,\u201d said Kuah. \u201cBut we can provide advisory services and bring the right partners to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Explore BT50<\/span>\u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n The survey, conducted between June and July this year, polled 1,000 employers, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with 200 or fewer employees and large enterprises with more than 200 employees.<\/p>\n SNEF\u2019s outgoing CEO Hao Shuo<\/a> said ahead of the forum that the survey was prompted by the federation\u2019s interest in how employers are transforming their workforce and adopting new capabilities.<\/p>\n He said generative AI could help HR professionals work more efficiently by reducing administrative tasks, freeing them up for \u201chigher value-added work\u201d such as strategic workforce planning and employee engagement, where \u201cthe human touch is also important\u201d.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO<\/p>\n Poon Hong Yuen, former deputy secretary at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, will join SNEF as CEO-designate on Nov 1 before formally taking over from Hao on Dec 1.<\/p>\n While AI adoption in HR is \u201cbecoming increasingly common across Singapore workplaces\u201d, the survey found that large enterprises were more likely to use the technology, with 81 per cent deploying AI in at least one HR function, compared with 65 per cent of SMEs.<\/p>\n The types of tools used also differed. Large enterprises were more likely to adopt AI-powered HR platforms such as Workday and SAP SuccessFactors, while SMEs tended to rely on general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.<\/p>\n AI use was also concentrated in the earlier stages of the HR lifecycle, with the most common applications being in:<\/p>\n Only 15 per cent deployed AI for higher-impact functions, such as analysing the reasons behind employee relations issues and staff departures.<\/p>\n Of the nearly 3,000 reported instances of AI use in HR, 15 per cent involved AI making decisions without prior human sign-off.<\/p>\n Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of these cases involved routine or high-volume administrative processes, such as resume screening and skills assessments, where AI could improve efficiency.<\/p>\n However, nearly all employers (97 per cent) using AI without prior human review had designated someone with the authority to intervene and change or reverse decisions.<\/p>\n In the remaining 85 per cent of AI-supported HR use cases, human involvement was still required.<\/p>\n In 14 per cent of the nearly 3,000 use cases, the technology was used only to provide information, while another 36 per cent involved AI recommending options for a person to decide on.<\/p>\n For 35 per cent of respondents, AI made decisions that still required a person to approve, reject or override them.<\/p>\n Despite the widespread adoption of AI, the top concerns among employers using the technology were that over-reliance could erode HR capabilities (39 per cent), uncertainty over when to trust AI over professional judgment (36 per cent), and accountability for AI errors (35 per cent).<\/p>\n Mental fatigue from managing AI outputs was the least cited concern, at 20 per cent.<\/p>\n Addressing concerns that AI-powered recruitment tools could disadvantage jobseekers, particularly older workers who may be less familiar with the technology, Hao said both employers and applicants had a role to play in ensuring fair hiring outcomes.<\/p>\n Jobseekers should learn to use AI to improve their resumes and help them \u201cstand out among the crowd\u201d, while employers must ensure that AI tools used to screen applications do not introduce bias, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor employers, I think they remain quite aware that they are liable for any kind of offence made, especially with the Workplace Fairness Act<\/a> coming up,\u201d said Hao.<\/p>\n The survey found that 84 per cent of employers using AI were highly familiar with at least one relevant legal or governance framework, including the Workplace Fairness Act.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the end of day, I think employers, as we can see from the survey, still trust human judgment,\u201d he said, adding that HR professionals would remain the \u201cultimate decision maker\u201d in the hiring process.<\/p>\n To address the challenges identified in the survey, SNEF has introduced an AI-HR pre-scoped solution to help employers adopt AI while strengthening their HR capabilities and redesigning jobs.<\/p>\n The initiative combines four areas of support: human capital advisory, AI tools for HR processes, workforce transformation consultancy and workforce skills analytics.<\/p>\n These include AI-powered chatbots to handle routine employee queries and tools to identify workforce skills gaps and support succession planning.<\/p>\n Under the Workforce Development Grant (Job Redesign+), SNEF will assess employers\u2019 needs and match them with specialist consultants to implement suitable solutions.<\/p>\n Companies can receive funding of up to 70 per cent of qualifying costs for SMEs and 50 per cent for non-SMEs, capped at S$150,000 per project.<\/p>\n Five consultants have been appointed to support the initiative: BDO, Elitez, EON, PwC and Skybots.<\/p>\n Hao said the success of the initiative should not be measured by how many HR tasks are performed by AI, but by whether HR professionals can take on a more strategic role within their organisations.<\/p>\n \u201cIf HR professionals are really becoming the strategic partners of the business leaders in thinking through the long-term business strategy, looking at workforce transformation, if they have a seat in the boardroom, I think that will be the success factor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n More than eight in 10 artificial intelligence-supported processes still need human oversight [SINGAPORE] Nearly half of employers using artificial intelligence in their human resource functions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Where AI is used by HR\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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Safeguards against bias in AI hiring<\/h2>\n
New support for employers adopting AI<\/h2>\n
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