Letter: How the modern state is reclaiming its role as innovation lead

Dear reader, 

The public sector must move away from perfectionist planning to successfully innovate.  

From high-tech space security to high-touch elderly care, February’s most read articles highlighted some common takeaways for civil servants: Focus on iterative and agile governance, build on government’s role as an ecosystem architect, meet users where they are at. 

1. Focus on iterative and agile governance 

Instead of waiting for the perfect legislation, agencies have been moving towards iterative governance through experimentation.  

Former Minister from the Maldives, Mohammad Shareef, said that Singapore’s agentic artificial intelligence (AI) framework illustrates a “third way” by releasing version 1.0, learning from deployment and iterating its governance model.  

He emphasised that governance must evolve as fast as the technology – in this case, agentic AI. 

With the EU spending years crafting its AI Act and fragmented AI regulations across US states, he believes that the Global South can get ahead in the process of governing emerging tech. 

Instead of waiting for private sector’s implementation and/or for Western regulatory frameworks to mature, prioritise public sector deployment to build internal capacity and continuous adaptation – which is something that most governments lack. 

2. Build on government’s role as ecosystem architect 

To move pilots to more systemic, operational deployment, governments must step up as a matchmaker between stakeholders, as well as consolidate capabilities to drive scale. 

SGInnovate’s Deputy Director of Strategic Projects, Desiree Tung, has described the agency’s role as building a “village” to raise deep-tech startups.  

Where private sector involvement is limited in national priority areas like space cybersecurity, governments have an imperative to bring together policy, funding and technical expertise to signal market confidence and catalyse the sector. 

The Canadian government is also moving from 1,000 AI flowers blooming to clearing the weeds and curating the garden. 

The Government of Canada’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dominic Rochon, has proposed an Office of Digital Transformation to provide centralised tech leadership across a fragmented landscape of independent ministries. 

These top reads highlight how governments are shifting from mere service providers to ecosystem architects. 

3. Meet users where they are at 

The most successful innovations were those that fit seamlessly into existing human routines, and not necessarily the most sophisticated ones.  

National University Health System (NUHS)’ Head of AI Office, Adjunct Professor, Ngian Kee Yuan, shared how his team scaled a chatbot into a population health management tool.  

His team had intentionally chose WhatsApp because "it’s the app everyone has,” instead of building a new app that is unfamiliar for users. 

They prioritised the groundwork to optimise the chatbot’s AI function by focusing on integration into the national Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system.  

Tracking the impact of active ageing centres (AACs) in Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School’s researchers suggested designing activities around seniors’ existing routines and familiar places, rather than forcing them into new, unfamiliar environments. 

Building systems that respect the dignity of citizens was seen as a prerequisite for successful adoption. 

 
Si Ying Thian 
Senior Reporter 
GovInsider