Ng Wee Wei, Senior Managing Director and Southeast Asia Market Unit Lead, Accenture

1. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives? Tell us about your role or organisation.  

As Accenture’s Southeast Asia Market Unit Lead, I help organizations across the region embrace AI-driven transformation. Throughout my career, including roles as Accenture’s Country Managing Director for Singapore and Health and Public Service Lead, I’ve worked with clients to reimagine services, implement complex digital solutions, and navigate the digital landscape. 

One of my proudest achievements was launching Accenture’s first Singapore Innovation Hub. This initiative brings together organizations from various sectors to co-develop smart, sustainable urban solutions, underscoring my commitment to innovation that enhances citizens’ quality of life. 

I’m also passionate about preparing the workforce for an AI-enabled future. My team and I work closely with public agencies to ensure civil servants are equipped to harness AI in their roles. By fostering continuous learning and innovation, we aim to support a more agile, citizen-focused public service that can adapt to citizens’ evolving needs.

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2. Everybody’s talking about AI today – give us your hot take on AI and what it means for the public sector. 

Generative AI is opening new possibilities in public service, enabling more accessible, personalized, and efficient interactions between government agencies and citizens. 

For citizens, generative AI has the potential to make government services easier to access and navigate. For example, advanced chatbots can instantly answer complex questions on housing, healthcare, and taxes, while AI-powered tools like speech-to-text enable social workers to focus on meaningful client interactions by automating administrative tasks. In urban management, AI-driven chatbots could allow citizens to report issues simply by uploading a photo, streamlining reporting and response times. 

3. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year?

We collaborated with a government agency to integrate a platform that consolidates data into a single view, helping users make informed decisions. The platform leverages rules and machine learning to automate processes, enabling real-time, data-driven analysis for daily risk assessments. It also promotes collaboration across departments and integrates seamlessly with various systems. 

By adopting a human-centered design approach, we enhanced the customer experience by combining technology and design to address user pain points. An agile delivery model further enabled the system to adapt to evolving needs. 

We also redesigned the application submission and case processing flow by introducing 'bundled products,' allowing the public to apply for multiple products or people in a single submission. This streamlined approach improved case assessments and boosted productivity by 20-50% through automation of approvals and rejections. Additionally, over 200 officers were upskilled through targeted training, empowering them to take on expanded roles and responsibilities. 

4. What was one unexpected learning from 2024?  

Over the past decade, technology has promised to improve productivity, but many companies haven’t seen the expected results. Despite significant investments in tech, global productivity growth has remained flat, and 40% of large companies have even experienced negative productivity growth. 

Historically, productivity initiatives focused on cutting costs and improving efficiencies. Many CEOs still view productivity mainly in terms of cost. However, productivity is really about balancing the effort put in (input) and the value created (output). With the rise of generative AI and other technologies, companies now need to rethink productivity and find new ways of working. 

Generative AI can act as a multiplier, improving both cost efficiency and organizational effectiveness. By adopting a more holistic approach, companies could see a major boost in productivity. For instance, our research modeling shows that over 10 years, this approach could result in a 2.8x increase in profits for an average company. 

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5. What are your priorities for 2025?

For 2025, my focus is on helping clients build digital foundations that are flexible and future-ready. This means tailoring digital capabilities to industry needs, increasing investment in innovation to drive new business processes, products, and services, and ensuring that a portion of IT budgets goes into reducing technical debt, keeping systems updated and agile for ongoing improvement. 

Accenture research highlights that organizations with a strong digital foundation, a focus on strategic innovation, and a balanced approach to technical debt see significantly better results—60% higher revenue growth and 40% higher profits. With technology, especially generative AI, transforming businesses so quickly, continuous reinvention is crucial. Having a solid digital core enables companies to stay competitive and quickly seize new opportunities.  

6. What advice do you have for public sector innovators?

Public service is responsible for transforming its own work processes and upskilling its workforce, but it must also support and guide businesses and communities through the changes brought by generative AI. By prioritizing upskilling, restructuring work, navigating economic shifts and building trust, public service organizations can pave the way for a future that is inclusive, resilient and prepared for the opportunities and challenges of generative AI. 

7. What inspires you today? 

We are at a pivotal moment in history, on the brink of witnessing the profound changes that generative AI will bring to the way we work, live, and play. What inspires me most is the incredible potential of this technology to reshape industries, revolutionize how we solve problems, and unlock new ways of thinking.  

In the workplace, AI has the ability to automate repetitive tasks, free up human creativity, and foster innovation in ways we've never seen before. In our personal lives, it promises to enhance experiences by offering personalized solutions and smarter, more intuitive tools that improve everything from healthcare to entertainment.  

The real excitement, though, lies in how AI will change the way we interact with the world around us—enabling new forms of collaboration, learning, and connectivity. Being part of this transformation, contributing to it, and seeing its impact unfold is a powerful source of inspiration.