Temus 2025 Wrapped: Executive Reflections

The AI question in 2026 shifts from “How much faster?” to “What becomes possible?”

That shift matters because it opens up transformation rather than just optimisation. When we ask what becomes possible, we start reimagining work itself, not just improving what exists today.

For Singapore to establish our position as a core node in the global AI network, we need boldness paired with clarity. As a small market, we won’t win by outspending larger economies. We win by being the junction where value connects and amplifies—and by being the node that others trust. In an era where data sovereignty and responsible AI matter more than ever, trust becomes the currency that unlocks partnerships.

Three forces converge to create this opportunity:

Strategic ecosystems. Partnerships in the AI era build capability, not just buy it. Government partnerships create national infrastructure. Technology partnerships bring cutting-edge tools. Client partnerships turn pilots into lasting transformation. When these work well, benefits flow broadly across society.

Workforce transformation beyond specialists. Singapore’s digital economy grows from diverse sectors—finance, healthcare, logistics—where people bring deep expertise and are ready to reimagine their work. We’re building T-shaped capabilities: existing mastery plus AI literacy to redesign how you operate.

Speed that unlocks new possibilities. Small markets compete on responsiveness. Organisations can now prototype in two weeks, deploy in 12. This brings us back to building the ecosystem and workforce that lets companies move with confidence.

Singapore’s position will be shaped by whether we choose boldness and seize this moment as a trusted partner in the global AI ecosystem, or hold back and let it pass.

Precision health is going to disrupt & transform health globally and, in this regard, 2025 was a landmark year for Singapore.  Singapore completed the sequencing of 100k genomes, launched the NPM Phase III programme towards SG500k, and also made tangible changes in related policy.  At the same time, the rapid advancements of technology in the market, combined with leading engineering capabilities, I believe means we have the potential to achieve unprecedented breakthroughs in Health.

Operationally, I am excited that we are entering into a sustainable and business-impact mindset towards technology, including investments in AI.  The shift to embedding industry, or domain-specific expertise, to ensuring digital and AI investments become transformations is more important than ever, in my view. That shift raises the stakes for rigorous cost-reasonableness assessments or ‘value for money’ considerations, with more rigorous and clearer frameworks for emerging health technologies. These will be essential as we partner with our clients to demonstrate clinical, operational and economic impact.

Longer-term, I believe as a health sector, we can accelerate our investment in our people.  “Workforce transformation” sounds enticing, but the amount of resources and approaches are not yet codified or programmatic as they could be, especially as compared to what I see for our investments in technology and platforms. Yet AI is already reshaping the skills that matter and the leaders of the future — perhaps, should our workforce need less technical prowess, and instead have a broad base workforce that knows what tools to use,  how to orchestrate the tools with processes, whilst applying critical thinking about the ‘what if’s and the impact of our digital initiatives?  I believe the majority of our workforce would welcome leaders that have the conviction and follow through to mandate, fund and sustain true capability building.

I’m looking forward to the continued alignment & convergence of technology, science, policy and people priorities — I believe this will help us advance our progress towards a better, healthier society.

My biggest “aha” in 2025: successful AI isn’t about the coolest technology—it’s about solving the AI triangle of Speed, Sovereignty, and Transformative outcomes simultaneously.

We learned this through Health Kaki. Building a health companion required moving fast, protecting Singapore’s health data sovereignty, and delivering measurable impact – not just adoption metrics but actual health behavior change.

The breakthrough came when we stopped treating these as trade-offs and started treating them as prerequisites. You can’t have one without the others. Speed without sovereignty compromises trust. Transformation without speed misses the moment.

For workforce readiness, we’re practicing what we preach. Our team isn’t just building AI tools – we’re changing hearts and minds about what our client’s roles become. From the Grant Evaluation Accelerator to the Insurance Sales Coach, we’re experiencing firsthand how AI augments rather than replaces human judgment.

The real test: Can we move from broad adoption to deep ROI? That’s our 2026 challenge – going beyond AI assistants to models pre-trained with domain knowledge, fine-tuned for specific client contexts. We’re not just implementing AI. We’re becoming AI-first while staying human-centered.

Our mission for transformation in the Defence sector in 2026 is clear: operationalise what we learned in 2025 and fundamentally transform how we deliver mission-critical systems.

An AI-First strategy begins with Data Readiness. We must prioritise fixing data pipelines over pursuing new algorithms—clean data is the foundation of trustworthy AI. This requires fine-tuning models to recognise defence jargon and local context, moving beyond generic tools. Our GovSelect accreditation to support government in adopting SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) positions us uniquely here, as we work to cultivate the people-centred mindset and agile principles that enable defence personnel (including DSTA, DIS, DSO, RSAF) to integrate AI wisely into complex operational contexts, all within secure environments where data confidentiality is non-negotiable.

Strategically, these same principles means we must stop digitising bureaucracy just to achieve faster bureaucracy. Simplify policy first, then design processes around the user, then implementing the technology. Our focus shifts entirely to the User Journey, making user time saved our primary metric over system uptime. To unlock enterprise speed, we treat agility as a governance challenge, requiring leadership to create policy “safe lanes” for rapid, safe experimentation.

Finally, we must achieve true Velocity and sustain innovation. This means shifting mission-critical systems from monolithic “big bang” deliveries to iterative releases, and output Value in Weeks, Not Years. We want to work with our clients to industrialise the innovation pipeline by creating standardised scaling paths that move successful prototypes into production without bureaucratic stalls. This commitment to speed and Design for Trust, by embedding engineers with operators, is our unified mandate for the year ahead.