IMDA backs legal-sector AI training as Singapore courts cut prep time 90%
Source: The Edge Singapore
Legal work is among the most document-heavy and precedent-driven of professions, which makes it a natural early proving ground for generative AI. Singapore's push to weave AI into skilled professional work now extends deep into the legal sector, with two new training programmes designed to carry the...
Legal work is among the most document-heavy and precedent-driven of professions, which makes it a natural early proving ground for generative AI. Singapore's push to weave AI into skilled professional work now extends deep into the legal sector, with two new training programmes designed to carry the profession from general-purpose chatbots to specialised legal AI tools.
The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) and the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA) will each run an AIxLegal course under IMDA's National AI Impact Programme, aiming to build AI fluency across the legal profession over the next three years. SAL's track, for practising lawyers, covers AI in legal research, drafting and case analysis, with additional streams for criminal, family and personal-injury practice, and works with tools including ChatGPT, Copilot, Legora and vLex at S$200 for members. SCCA's track, aimed at in-house and allied legal professionals, splits into generative AI and agentic AI streams focused on contract management, document management and legal research, and is tentatively scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2027.
The programmes build on evidence that AI is already delivering measurable gains in Singapore's courts. At the State Courts, an AI-assisted process helps prepare bundles of court documents, with a lawyer reviewing extracted material before it is formatted for submission; Tribunal Magistrate Terrence Lerh says the workflow has cut preparation time from two to three hours to about 15 minutes. SAL chief executive Yeong Zee Kin framed the priority as equipping lawyers to use legal AI well, understand its limitations and risks, and exercise the professional judgment needed to uphold ethical standards.
At the same Tech3 Forum, IMDA announced it would offer nearly 2,000 job and training opportunities through Company-Led Training partnerships with more than 20 companies, including Accenture, Microsoft, NCS and NTUC LearningHub. Fresh graduates and mid-career professionals will be hired into AI, cybersecurity, data and software roles before receiving instructor-led and on-the-job training. IMDA also named PwC the fourth partner in its Digital Leaders Acceleration Bootcamp, joining BCG, EY-Parthenon and IBM, a programme helping business leaders apply digital technologies including AI.
Why it matters for Singapore: The legal sector is a bellwether for how AI adoption will play out across professional services, where the value sits in judgment rather than routine output. By pairing domain-specific training with demonstrated productivity gains like the courts' bundle-prep workflow, Singapore is signalling that AI fluency must be layered on professional expertise, not replace it. The combined legal training, company-led hiring and leadership bootcamps reflect Minister Josephine Teo's message that Singapore stays relevant when its people can use AI to add value to employers and clients, and that domain knowledge and judgment will carry increasing premium.
