Tracking Productivity Growth Rather Than Adoption Rates to Measure Success of AI Strategy

Mr Lee Hong Chuang asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) whether the Ministry will track productivity growth rather than adoption rates to measure success of our AI strategy; (b) whether grant support will be conditional on companies having a governance framework to prevent purchases of AI tools they cannot effectively use; and (c) whether a pre-approval list of AI vendors will be established to help firms identify effective tools.

The Government tracks the productivity impact of our measures at the national level. We will study how to leverage these assessments, together with adoption rates, to assess the effectiveness of our artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.

The Government shares the Member's interest to ensure that AI implementation is effective and leads to good outcomes for companies. This is partially achieved through pre-approving AI-enabled solutions and vendors that have been market-tested and shown to improve productivity. For other customised AI solutions, grant recipients must meet committed milestones before more funds are disbursed. More generally, we require co-payment from recipient companies, so they too have a stake in the project's success.

We will continue to refine grant conditions, whilst avoiding onerous rules that deter genuine efforts to improve.