Singapore Finance Teams Hit the Scaling Wall: Forrester Study Finds Adoption Outpacing Expansion
Source: The Business Times
Singapore's finance teams have largely crossed the AI adoption threshold — the harder question now is what comes after the pilot. A new Forrester study commissioned by fintech AirWallex, surveying more than 1,200 finance decision-makers across 11 markets including 105 in Singapore, finds the
Singapore's finance teams have largely crossed the AI adoption threshold — the harder question now is what comes after the pilot. A new Forrester study commissioned by fintech AirWallex, surveying more than 1,200 finance decision-makers across 11 markets including 105 in Singapore, finds the bottleneck has shifted from getting started to scaling up.
The numbers tell that story. About 86 per cent of Singapore finance leaders say AI is already used in some finance workflows, slightly ahead of the 84 per cent global figure, and 46 per cent plan to expand adoption over the next 12 months, versus 41 per cent globally. Yet 30 per cent of leaders here say they have no plans to expand — a signal that a meaningful slice of the market is shifting from adoption to squeezing value out of what already exists. Singapore also leads on autonomy: 18 per cent use AI with minimal human input overall, and in bookkeeping, close and reporting, 27 per cent run AI autonomously versus 14 per cent globally.
The barriers explain the split. Skill gaps — limited experience operating AI-enabled finance processes — rank as the biggest obstacle to scaling in both Singapore and globally. Singapore leaders then diverge: difficulty building a business case beyond short-term productivity gains ranks second here, while 64 per cent point to fragmented or inconsistent data as a core barrier. Notably, the ability to monitor, test or validate AI outputs stands out as a key technology challenge for Singapore respondents, above data fragmentation.
There is a working example of what scale looks like at Endowus. Chief financial officer Dominic Ong says AI has let the wealth platform bring in-house finance functions that were previously outsourced while staying a team of four — scanning receipts, suggesting account allocations, double-checking transactions, and running a custom Claude-built tool for end-of-month checks that frees him for higher-level issues.
Why it matters for Singapore: Finance is one of Singapore's core industries, so how fast AI scales here sets the pace for the wider economy — and the gap between the 46 per cent expanding and the 30 per cent standing still mirrors the adoption split by firm size flagged in Parliament this week. The validation and monitoring gaps the survey surfaces will also collide with MAS's incoming AI risk guidelines covering agentic AI, making governance the next competitive constraint for finance teams that want to scale.
