Introduction
Mr Deputy Speaker Sir, I rise in support of the Motion. I would like to thank my NTUC sister and brothers in this house for coming to support this motion. Knowledge workers like Professionals, Managers, and Executives (PMEs) are highly exposed to Artificial intelligence (AI), unlike earlier waves of automation that mostly impacted the Rank and File. Many of our middle-income PMEs belong to a sandwiched and under-served group. They are expected to perform like the top but are less protected than the bottom and they face increased competition with foreign PMEs. Mid-career PMEs are sandwiched between younger and older dependents and cannot afford to lose their jobs. Yet they can take a longer time to find new jobs when displaced due to their higher income and age, often at the expense of a pay cut.
We perceive PMEs as privileged and adaptable, who have resources and can take individual responsibility to upskill and cope with setbacks. This assumption no longer holds. AI is set to both augment and disrupt job tasks across all PME sectors at all levels. We must recognise AI as a transformative technology that has the potential to create new opportunities and shared prosperity, but also the potential to widen inequality by concentrating wealth and power at the top, especially if guardrails are disregarded for the broad middle in the race to adopt AI.
To this end, I submit that Singapore’s approach to AI must be human-centred while AI-enabled growth must be worker-centred. This means that we commit to what I call the 3 ‘E’s – (i) Equitable Growth; (ii) Enhanced Protections; and (iii) Engaged Workforce.
Equitable Growth
First, Equitable Growth. When we talk about AI-driven jobless growth, this does not necessarily mean mass unemployment. However, it may mean that the gains from AI growth may not not trickle down to the broad middle. Earlier this year, EDB announced that the expected number of jobs to be created fell to 15,700 – the lowest in at least twenty years, despite having attracted more investments than the year before. This indicates that while we may not see jobless growth, we may well see growth with less jobs. Jobseekers could be competing for fewer vacancies, underemployment could rise, and wages could stagnate. Young graduates may find more challenges securing full time employment compared to before.
Globally, we have seen a wave of companies, especially those in the tech sector, announce wide-ranging job cuts citing AI as a cause.
Equitable growth means that gains from AI-enabled growth will be shared with workers, in the form of better wages, welfare, and work prospects. As a start, we need to raise our standards for what constitutes fair and responsible retrenchment, such as by requiring early retrenchment notifications, supporting unions to negotiate for retrenchment benefits, and designing AI grant incentives with conditions requiring employers to demonstrate efforts to meaningfully re-deploy workers whose roles and tasks are taken over by AI.
As Singapore aims to attract the world’s top AI talent to our shores, we must also ensure this builds up our Singaporean Core. I ask that the Government encourage reciprocity through programmes like the Capability Transfer Programme so that knowledge and expertise flow to our local PMEs. At the same time, the Government can also invest in homegrown AI talent by sending them on training or stints to top AI companies overseas through programmes like the Overseas Market Immersion Programme. Bringing in global expertise and developing our own global talent pipeline are two sides of the same coin. Both deepen the capabilities of our local workforce.
Enhanced Protections
Second, Enhanced Protections. Inevitably, some workers will be impacted in the transition to AI. We cannot leave them to sink or survive on their own. They will need career guidance, financial support, and grace to bounce back stronger. I thank the Government for launching the Jobseeker Support Scheme for involuntarily unemployed workers to benefit from transitional support for up to six months while they train or search for the next job. The income threshold for JSS is currently set at $5,000 excluding CPF, which would only cover less than 20 per cent of resident PMEs. I hope that the Government will consider raising the threshold to the gross median resident PME income, currently at $8,400 as of 2025, or consider other suitable schemes of equivalence to address the needs of impacted PMEs. By the same token, the Government can also consider allowing those with HDB housing loans a temporary deferment for up to six months if they are unable to meet the mortgage instalments to ease immediate cashflow needs.
Singapore has taken a considered, framework-based approach to AI governance. We are not behind, we are behind deliberate.Through IMDA's Model AI Governance Framework and CSA’s Addendum to secure Agentic AI systems and voluntary testing toolkits. We have encouraged innovation and responsible adoption. But as AI moves from assisting decisions to making them, including in hiring, promotion and restructuring, we must keep pace. Other advanced economies have already taken the lead to explicitly classify employment-related AI as “high-risk”.
We are fortunate to have passed the Workplace Fairness Act. Its principles – that employment decisions must be fair and merit-based, and that every worker deserves fair access to good jobs – should apply regardless of whether those decisions are made by a human or by an algorithm. But while these principles are technology-agnostic, our current anti-discrimination levers have yet to explicitly address how they interact with AI-mediated decisions. As AI adoption accelerates, employers need clarity on what responsible use looks like, and workers need assurance that existing protections travel with them into an AI-enabled workplace. We should close this gap, not with regulation that stifles innovation, butwith clear, practical tripartite guidelines to ensure a just and fair transition.
Singapore’s strength is with our tripartite approach and we should leverage it. To that end, I ask that the Government consider the following: First, that employers who adopt employment-related AI be guided to conduct risk assessments proportionate to the level of impact and ensure meaningful human oversight. Second, that HR professionals be supported with training and self-assessment tools to use AI responsibly and identify bias. Officers involved in data governance and cybersecurity can also update their skills and knowledge in this evolving era, as small companies adopt AI that's integrated with enterprise data.
And third, that workers be given transparency – they should know where AI is being used in decisions that affect them, what guardrails are in place, and how existing avenues of redress apply. Fourth, that we explore going upstream – working with AI vendors and developers to ensure the underlying software meets baseline principles of fairness and transparency before it reaches our workplaces. The International Labour Organisation has started this journey, and Singapore – with our tripartite DNA – can be a frontrunner in this space.
Engaged Workforce
Third and final “e”, Engaged Workforce. Workers master AI and figure out how to embed AI into their workflows, not the other way round. Ultimately, an organisation cannot be run by no workers and AI alone.
Simply imposing AI from the top will not produce results and can even create resistance and sunk cost. Workers are end-users and experts in their own workflows. They know where AI adds value and where it falls short. If you want AI to work, you have to ask the people who do the work. We already have a proven mechanism for doing exactly this: NTUC's Company Training Committees, or CTC for short. CTCs bring management, unions, and workers together at the company level to co-design transformation plans, pairing technology adoption with job redesign, skills upgrading, and better wages.
Let me share one example which PM shared during the May Day Rally. At Tan Tock Seng Hospital, our Healthcare Services Employees' Union, or HSEU for short, worked with management through the CTC to roll out a Smart Scheduler that could handle multiple shift patterns and cut rostering time from more than 90 minutes to under 15, so that nurse managers could spend more time on other core work instead. Senior Enrolled Nurse Lilian Teng, 69 years old, who has worked at TTSH for 19 years, put it simply: with technology making work less physically demanding, she can continue working effectively for as long as she remains healthy. That is what an engaged workforce looks like.
But company-level efforts alone will not be enough. With the formation of the Tripartite Jobs Council (TJC), the Government, employers, and unions can now coordinate sectoral transformation with workers at the centre, ensuring that AI training, job redesign, and transition support are shaped by those on the ground, not just decided from the top. Critically, the TJC can level up the CTC ecosystem to extend its reach beyond large employers to SMEs that may not have the resources to navigate this transformation alone. CTCs engage workers at the company level. The TJC will do it at the national level. Together, they ensure that AI transition is not something done to our workers, but with them.
In Chinese, sir.
副议长先生，人工智能来了，来得快，来得猛。但我们要问：人工智能化赚的钱到底进了谁的口袋？ 我提三点：
第一，分好蛋糕。人工智能创造财富，但财富不能只归老板。工友帮忙烘蛋糕，也该吃点蛋糕。
第二，撑好伞。丢了工作，不能让人自生自灭。求职援助门槛可扩大，让专业人士、经理与执行员能受惠，有更多的保障。我们要在风雨来临前，先把伞撑好，未雨绸缪。
第三，一起走。人工智能转型不是老板说了算。 正所谓“三个臭皮匠，胜过诸葛亮”。
劳资证三方，工友，工会，雇主，一起商量才能走得远，走得稳，走得快。
分好蛋糕，撑好伞，一起走。这才是属于每一个以国人为核心的人工智能未来。
Conclusion
To conclude, there has been much said about AI as a double-edged sword. This metaphor has been used ad nauseam, but it is not untrue. AI’s impact on the broad middle means that it is a “once-in-a-generation technology” but could also be a once-in-a-generation divider that concentrates gains to those who control AI while displacing the very same workers who helped to design, implement and build it. Equitable Growth, Enhanced Protections, and Engaged Workforce. These are three principles that must guide us in the way forward if we hope to anchor as an enabler our AI transition in fairness, resilience, and opportunities for all, because every worker matters.
Mr Speaker Sir, I support the Motion. Thank you.
