Singapore Tops AI Readiness Index in APAC
Salesforce has released the 2023 Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index, which shows Singapore holding the top spot, followed closely by Japan and China.
The third edition of the bi-annual Index measures the AI readiness of businesses and governments, including their impact on socio-economic opportunities. A total of 12 Asia Pacific economies were surveyed.
Ready for AI
According to the study, Singapore garnered an overall AI readiness score of 70.1, followed by Japan (59.8) and China (59.7). Notably, Singapore’s overall score has improved from the AI readiness score of 65.6 in the last report in 2021, where it also ranked first.
Indeed, five of the 12 countries surveyed (Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand) saw their overall AI readiness improve from their 2021 score. This was attributed to various AI-related initiatives launched between 2021 and 2023.
Other interesting findings:
- New Zealand is leading in digital government and open government data, which refers to the free and open publication of government data.
- Australia is among the top scorers in government AI readiness, reflecting its sustained momentum to build on its rich open data sources.
- Singapore leads the Index and has launched many decisive AI-related initiatives, with an aim to empower public – and private-sector organizations to adopt AI responsibly.
To be clear, the study relied on proxy indicators clustered around business readiness and government readiness to derive the scores. 7 indicators were used for the former, and 8 indicators for the latter.
For the private sector, indicators included business sophistication, the number of AI start-ups, and venture capital availability and valuation. For the public sector, indicators range from digital government score, e-participation index, and ICT regulation.
“For countries to succeed in this exciting AI environment, including the adoption of generative AI, their economies require a sufficient level of AI readiness,” said Sassoon Grigorian, vice president of APAC Government Affairs at Salesforce.
“Singapore is leading the charge across the Asia Pacific with a focus on strategic AI deployment and safeguarding the responsible use of AI. Strong institutional, infrastructural, organizational, and ethical foundations around AI will be critical to success now and in our global AI future.
The full Salesforce Asia Pacific AI Readiness Index 2023 can be accessed here (pdf).
Paul Mah is the editor of DSAITrends. A former system administrator, programmer, and IT lecturer, he enjoys writing both code and prose. You can reach him at [email protected].
Image credit: iStockphoto/Delpixart
