IMDA's new industry partnerships to strengthen SMEs’ data foundations and use AI in workflows

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore will soon be able to trial solutions from larger industry players free of charge for a limited period to clean their data foundations and use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in everyday workflows. 

This is enabled through the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA)'s new industry partnerships announced on 13 October in Singapore at the SMEs Go Digital Day. 

The new partnerships with Singtel Stack-EZ, Salesforce and Beyondsoft aimed to offer practical support for SMEs to move from experimenting with AI tools to implementing them to improve business processes.  

The three companies are part of the 17 industry partners supporting Singapore’s Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB), each providing targeted support for each of the four pillars outlined in the blueprint. 

DEB was launched in 2024 by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to accelerate the digital capabilities of at least 50,000 SMEs over five years. 

The state of AI adoption among SMEs 

AI adoption among SMEs has climbed from 14.5 per cent in 2024 to 23.4 per cent in 2025, according to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Economy Report released in early October. 

Its official release also highlighted that 55 per cent of its pre-approved solutions on the SMEs Go Digital platform were AI-enabled, which exceeded the target of 50 per cent announced at the MDDI's budget estimates debate earlier this year. 

Pre-approved solutions are private vendor solutions that have been vetted by IMDA for quality and compliance, and covered for government grant support. 

The rise in AI-enabled solutions used among SMEs was accounted by the addition of AI features into existing pre-approved solutions, as well as industry partnerships like these to build new AI capabilities among SMEs. 

IMDA expects the number for AI-enabled, pre-approved solutions to rise to 70 per cent over the next two years. 

The SME AI Impact Awards ceremony was also organised for the first time at the event to recognise SMEs that have successfully adopted AI.

According to the release, the awards received 290 nominations spanning 21 sectors, from training and education, built environment and environment, media, marketing and creative.

The use cases by SMEs also ranged from using AI to reduce repetitive, manual work, augment employees' work and expand what SMEs could do, as well as enabling more analytical and decision-making work. 

Cleaning the data foundations 

One of the barriers for SMEs to use AI is not so much due to the limited AI tools, but the state of their business data. 

"For many SMEs, useful business information sits across documents, emails and shared drives in formats that may not be readily usable for AI," said IMDA's Assistant Chief Executive for Enterprise Transformation and Innovation Group, Johnson Poh. 

Working with Singtel's International Digital Services, IMDA launched the Singtel Stack-EZ AI Data Enablement Programme that would run for two years to help SMEs to organise, structure and better utilise their data for AI tools. 

For six months, Singtel would offer complimentary access of their AI-powered document management solution, known as SPACES, to 10,000 SMEs that meet their eligibility criteria. 

Beyond extracting information from unstructured information and different document types then organising it into an AI-ready data, SPACE also lets SMEs export this data in formats compatible with the SME's existing business applications like customer relationship management (CRM) and Human Resources (HR) systems. 

Optimising AI for everyday workflows 

Another barrier faced by SMEs is not knowing which business process or workflow to best use AI or automation for. 

IMDA has partnered with Salesforce to launch the Slack AI Launchpad Programme, which offers 1,000 SMEs a complimentary two-month trial to access the Business+ plan for Slack, as well as two hands-on workshops. 

Slack is Salesforce's AI-powered business messaging and project management platform. 

The workshops would help the SMEs to identify relevant AI use cases for their business, and build at least one AI-enabled workflow that address a real business need.  

The Slack application contains a personal AI teammate, which is similar to Microsoft's Copilot, as well as Slackbot skills that allow SMEs to turn repeatable tasks into reusable shortcuts that other team members could use to complete routine tasks. 

The programme would similarly run for two years, like the Singtel's one. 

Tapping into proven AI solutions for specific sectors 

To give SMEs wider access to compliance-ready AI solutions in the China market and help them find the best fit, IMDA has also partnered Beyondsoft to launch the Beyondsoft Tech Bridge Programme. 

These solutions target SMEs in the retail, wholesale and food & beverage (F&B) sectors, tackling functions across customer engagement, sales follow-up, finance and administrative processes, retail analytics and market intelligence. 

The programme expects to expand to include other sectors over time. 

The programme consists of hands-on support to evaluate the suitability of solutions,  onboarding guidance, and complimentary two-month trial access to the solutions. 

BeyondSoft would also host regular showcase events for local SMEs to attend live demonstrations and speak directly with the solution providers. 

For a start, SMEs could access a catalogue of five AI solutions that tackle common SME business needs, including AI Store Manager, AI Sales Assistant, AI Market Insight Platform, AI Business Intelligence Pro, and AI Accounts Payable Assistant. 

The release highlighted that all solutions are localised for the Singapore market with English user interfaces and align with local data residency requirements. 
 

Editor's note (13 Oct): The article was corrected to state that MDDI was behind the creation of DEB, not IMDA.