HubSpot: Over 70% of Singapore Businesses Have Not Officially Implemented AI

A new report from HubSpot, the customer platform for scaling businesses, has found that despite an ongoing focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) growth and adoption in Singapore, only 27% of local organisations have officially implemented AI or AI-enhanced tools to support employees with their work.

While organisational-wide adoption of AI may be low, individual use of AI is high, with over half (51%) of business leaders in Singapore reportedly using AI for their own work. This suggests that more employees might also be personally utilising AI tools. However, the lack of visibility of AI use across teams has raised concerns for a majority (82%) of business leaders. Collectively, these factors may hinder the ability of Singapore organisations to fully leverage the potential of AI, according to HubSpot.

Dan Bognar, VP & MD, JPAC at HubSpot, said: “While AI holds considerable potential to positively transform how businesses market to, sell to, and service customers, our research suggests that ongoing gaps between AI strategies and operational realities are impacting how companies use AI. Shifting from independent to company-wide use will require the development of clear guidelines outlining AI usage policies, equipping employees with the relevant AI skill sets, as well as integrating AI solutions with data and tools currently in place. Most importantly, proper measurement frameworks need to be implemented to accurately track AI’s business impact.”

Businesses with Policies, Processes, and Systems to Track AI Usage Will See True ROI 

HubSpot’s findings indicate that business leaders capable of effectively tracking and measuring the impact of AI are much more likely to see tangible business benefits emerge on both company and employee levels. The HubSpot research suggests a range of benefits including increased productivity (88%) and increased efficiency (76%) among employees, with nearly two thirds (61%) also reporting higher levels of employee well-being. From a business standpoint, benefits include increased revenue (75%), improved customer satisfaction (75%), the ability to generate better leads (60%), as well as a reduction of overall costs (46%).

In contrast, those without AI measurement systems tend to see much smaller benefits. They report increased productivity (75%) and efficiency (74%), improved employee well-being (43%), higher revenue (48%), better customer satisfaction (48%), improved lead generation (44%), and reduced costs (31%).

However, measuring the impact of AI continues to be a significant challenge. Close to half of Singapore business leaders surveyed cited a lack of success metrics (49%), relevant talent and skill sets (48%), and visibility of AI use (45%) as the top three obstacles faced when measuring the impact of their AI efforts, which could impact the effectiveness of any measurement tools.

HubSpot: Adoption of AI Will Drive the Growth of AI Talent and Upskilling Efforts

HubSpot also found that almost all (97%) Singapore business leaders are planning to invest in AI tools over the next 12 months, with the average investment amount being approximately SGD $32,000. As AI adoption grows, so will the demand for specialised AI-related roles. A Head of AI role that steers organisational use of AI is increasingly more commonplace, and the wide range of use cases means this role may be filled by business leaders in traditionally non-tech functions such as sales, customer service, and marketing.

HubSpot found that nine in ten (90%) business leaders in Singapore are expecting their organisation to hire more roles to support AI rollout and implementation. This aligns with research from LinkedIn that identifies Singapore as one of the fastest growing markets for AI talent in Asia Pacific in recent years. The Singapore government is also spearheading efforts to cultivate a rich pipeline of AI talent, having announced plans to triple the number of local AI practitioners to 15,000.

While three quarters (75%) of business leaders surveyed by HubSpot are expecting their organisation to employ a Head of AI in the next 12 months, there appears to be a growing recognition of the need to adapt existing workforces for an AI economy. As AI use matures, businesses will begin to identify opportunities for automation, empowering AI to undertake labour intensive tasks while enabling the human workforce to use this new freed capacity to take on more strategic work. This is likely to have a positive impact on job satisfaction and employee well-being. Nearly nine in ten (87%) Singapore business leaders have plans to restructure their workforce as AI features more frequently in the workplace.

“The best results are derived from a combination of AI capabilities and human ingenuity. The AI era should be viewed as an opportunity for organisations to reskill or upskill their workforce, tapping relevant initiatives such as SkillsFuture Singapore to meet increasing demand for AI skills. This is a critical step that empowers employees not only to undertake other strategic tasks, but also to effectively leverage the power of AI to drive better business outcomes,” said Bognar. 

From SEO to LMO: the End of Search as We Know It and Its New Starting Point 

The rise of AI is also impacting the way we search for information online. The rise of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) mean that users can simply ask a question in natural language and receive relevant, actionable information tailored to their needs. This reduces the time and effort required to access information as compared to traditional search engine approaches.

Nearly four in ten (38%) business leaders in Singapore that use AI to search say they have reduced their use of traditional search engines like Google or Bing to obtain their information. Beyond this, HubSpot found that nearly nine in ten (89%) say AI chat models have become their default search function compared to traditional search. This is only set to increase with more than nine in ten (93%) business leaders expecting their use of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity to increase over the next 12 months.

Bognar said: “In the coming years, AI will become so integrated in how we think of technology that it will no longer be referred to as ‘AI-powered’. We are already seeing this happening with search, which is now adapting itself to the evolving needs of users. This shift will impact traditional marketing strategies, with industry practitioners needing to evolve their playbooks to focus on Language Model Optimization instead of SEO to ensure visibility in AI search engines.”

“At HubSpot, we are focused on the practical applications of AI, making it fast to set up, easy to use, and powered by a unified set of data that businesses have. As AI becomes more integrated in the day-to-day running of businesses, we see agentic AI being the driver of the next big shift. To fuel this, we are creating a marketplace of AI agents that every business can leverage regardless of whether they have a Head of AI or not – we call this agent.ai. This will make it easier for businesses of all sizes to meaningfully participate in and reap the benefits of the AI economy, enabling them to maintain their competitive edge,” he concluded.

To read the full HubSpot report and learn more about HubSpot’s AI offering please visit https://hubs.ly/Q02YGcvH0.