ASEAN Workers Face Uneven AI Shift, Panel Warns
Singapore plans regional AI governance and common agentic AI testing during its 2027 ASEAN chairmanship, though no concrete framework is yet in place.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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At the 41st ASEAN Roundtable, hosted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute on Thursday, Nov 5, panelist Jasmin Lau said no ASEAN member state has yet worked out how to manage AI's impact on jobs. Singapore, which will chair ASEAN in 2027, plans to pursue regional AI governance and adoption; this is a policy direction and panel discussion, not a deployed regional framework.
Why it matters
ASEAN's 11 member states are sorting unevenly into AI investment winners and laggards, and the panel framed uneven enterprise adoption as a risk of a 'two-speed society' in which larger firms outpace smaller ones. Singapore's chairmanship in 2027 is the vehicle it cites for pushing adoption and economic security across the bloc.
The figures are investment-share characterizations from a panel discussion rather than audited totals, so the split between leading and lagging ASEAN members is qualitative. The source gives no dollar amounts or adoption rates to measure the gap against.
The players
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
A Singapore-based regional research institute that hosted the 41st ASEAN Roundtable, focused on Southeast Asian political and economic studies.
Jasmin Lau
Panelist at the 41st ASEAN Roundtable who stated that no ASEAN member state has yet figured out how to manage AI's impact on jobs.
Singapore Government
Issued the updated National AI Strategy in 2026 and will chair ASEAN in 2027, pushing regional AI governance and common agentic AI testing tools.
The details
Singapore's updated National AI Strategy, issued earlier in 2026, names connectivity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance as priority sectors. The approach treats AI as a tool to solve real-world problems and raise productivity, rather than limiting it to summarising reports or acting as a search engine. Singapore plans common testing tools for agentic AI, meaning software agents that take actions autonomously, as a shared regional measure. The panel noted that small and medium-sized enterprises employ most of Singapore's workers, which makes their uneven adoption of AI a central concern.
Timeline
Earlier in 2026: Singapore updated its National AI Strategy.
Thursday, Nov 5, 2026: Panel discussed AI's impact on jobs at the 41st ASEAN Roundtable.
2027: Singapore assumes the ASEAN chairmanship.
The Tech Race
Singapore's updated National AI Strategy sets connectivity, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and finance as priorities, and its 2027 ASEAN chairmanship is the route it names for spreading that approach across the bloc. The competitive contrast in the source is internal to Southeast Asia, with Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam drawing most AI value-chain investment while the Philippines and Cambodia lag.
Workers in small and medium-sized enterprises, which employ most of Singapore's workforce, are the group most exposed to uneven AI adoption, according to the panel. No deployed tool or policy change for end users is announced in the source.
The takeaway
The panel's central warning is that uneven AI adoption could split ASEAN into a two-speed economy. Watch whether Singapore's 2027 chairmanship produces the common agentic AI testing tools and regional governance measures it has described.
What happens next
Singapore assumes the ASEAN chairmanship in 2027, when it has said it will push wider AI adoption and regional governance work.
Further reading
For broader context on how these policies are taking shape, see the Artificial Intelligence section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by The Business Times.
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