Security Innovation Forum

Security threats today rarely respect agency boundaries. Risks emerge from the seams between digital systems, physical spaces, and social networks. From securing mass gatherings to protecting critical infrastructure, this keynote will set the strategic framing for how Singapore's security and defence ecosystem can build a culture of shared vigilance, drawing communities, agencies and frontline officers into a unified, proactive posture for an open and resilient city. 

Agencies are generating more data than ever, yet critical intelligence still gets trapped in departmental silos, risking slower response times and hazardous blind spots. This panel will explore how Home Team and Defence agencies are tearing down structural and technical barriers to share data, align operations, and present a coherent front against complex, cross-domain threats. 

Security agencies are under pressure to make faster, higher-stakes decisions with finite manpower and constrained budgets. And yet, many still rely on fragmented data and manual processes. This session will examine how AI and machine learning are being embedded into real operational workflows to sharpen decision-making, optimise resource deployment, and support commanders and planners across the full spectrum of national security functions.

A coastline anomaly, an unregistered drone, a vessel going dark in the strait. Each demands near-instant awareness across multiple domains simultaneously. This session will showcase how agencies are orchestrating ground-based, aerial, maritime and space-based sensors for a unified common operating picture, and what it takes to turn real-time data streams into actionable intelligence at scale. 

Embodied AI is a generational bet. Joining flesh and blood officers, deployed ground robots, unmanned vessels and automated checkpoint gates will engage in hazmat response, firefighting and search-and-rescue with increasing autonomy. This presentation explores what a $100 million investment in AI model training and robotics development might unlock. 

How much autonomy is safe, and who is accountable when an autonomous system makes a consequential decision? How can robots and unmanned systems be truly stress-tested? This panel looks at the development of AI safety benchmarks for a public safety context, and lessons emerging from the first wave of autonomous deployments. 

It is said that imperfect communication is the source of all tragedy. When a crisis hits (whether a cyberattack, a natural disaster, or a complex security incident) communications infrastructure is the first thing stressed and the last thing that can afford to fail. This panel will explore how agencies are designing and hardening their networks for resilience, ensuring seamless interoperability across Home Team, Defence, and civil responders even in contested or degraded operating environments. 

The ability to verify, credential and manage people and assets quickly and reliably becomes a national capability, not just an administrative function. This session will explore how advances in identity and credentialing are being applied beyond traditional access control, from managing NS and volunteer mobilisation to securing supply chains, safeguarding food and resource systems, and building a foundation of trust across the agencies and communities that underpin national resilience. 

From AI-powered border clearance to one-stop armament issuance systems for the police, home team and defence agencies have moved well beyond digitisation into genuine operational transformation. This panel surfaces the ground-level lessons. What does it actually take to redesign processes, build officer buy-in, and deploy technology that multiplies force rather than creates friction? 

A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must join with the flow of the process. Rapid adoption of AI, autonomous systems and dual-use technologies is outpacing the policy frameworks designed to govern them. This fireside chat will examine how Singapore's defence and security leadership is approaching the governance of emerging technologies, balancing the imperative to innovate with the discipline needed to deploy responsibly, safely, and in alignment with national values.