Staff Reporter
Published:
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Generative AI has reached 70% of the working population as infrastructure investment and business adoption expand.
The digital economy is projected to grow 8% YoY to $39.6b (US$31b) in gross merchandise value in 2026, according to a report by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company.
The market is expected to reach $75.3b (US$59b) by 2035, supported by AI-related semiconductor demand and developments in digital mobility, including autonomous shuttles and licensed cross-border ride-hailing.
Generative AI penetration in Singapore has reached 70% of the working population, equivalent to approximately 3.2 million people.
Bain estimates that AI usage per capita in Singapore is already nearly half the US level and about twice that of Europe.
Enterprise workloads also account for a relatively large share of AI use in the region’s more mature markets. Organizations generate between 45% and 60% of usage in Singapore and Malaysia, compared with a regional market where consumers remain the largest users.
Singapore has attracted most of Southeast Asia’s AI-infrastructure investment into platforms headquartered in the city-state, reinforcing its position as a regional base for data centers and digital infrastructure.
To balance growing computing demand with sustainability requirements, Singapore has allocated an additional 200 megawatts of green energy to support its existing 1.4-gigawatt computing base.
The report also identified Singapore as the regional leader in several consumer digital sectors. Online retail penetration has reached nearly 16%, whilst active-user penetration on digital wealth platforms is almost three times that of the next-ranked Southeast Asian market.
Florian Hoppe, a partner at Bain & Company, said Singapore’s next challenge is to convert high adoption into measurable business outcomes. Companies that redesign workflows and organizations around AI, rather than simply deploying the technology quickly, are likely to gain the greatest advantage.
Across Southeast Asia, the digital economy is projected to grow 17% to $469.8b (US$368b) in 2026 and exceed S$1.28t (US$1t) by 2035.
($1 = $1.28)
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