Review: The Robot Uprising? Nah, Just 15,000 AI Jobs in Singapore!

15,000 AI professionals in Singapore! That is a huge figure provided for by the National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0!

In this episode, we talk to Koo Ping Shung, Co-Founder of Data Science Rex, and also one of the founders of the popular data science community in Singapore — DataScience SG, and explore how it would be possible to hit this target.

On reaching the target number of AI professionals, we break down the statistics — from 10,000 more professionals needed to meet the target via tripling, and what that means every month, after taking away local graduates and foreign talent — likely around 100 new AI professionals trained per month. This would heavily rely on having enough experienced trainers to churn out these numbers, and also industry counterparts to provide sufficient attachment opportunities for learning in this domain. The “triangle of needs” is also explored, where AI professionals, as the thinnest on the top of the triangle, come before other roles like software engineers. Pursuing the goal of 15,000 AI professionals without the rest of the triangle is likely only possible in a small city-state like Singapore, possibly relying on the global workforce to fill in the gaps.

Creating 15,000 jobs is another challenge, where the government strategy of global partnerships, local innovation, and upskilling of companies will be important in the next few years. It will be an exciting time to observe how this would translate from AI professionals in job functions, to actual products and features in both the local and global context.

Let’s end with a golden nugget of knowledge from Koo himself 😉:

“…To select the best course for you, my suggestion for you, take the outline, ask the practitioner whether these are relevant skills to have, and check the trainer’s background…you want to learn from someone experienced”

And finally… “You don’t learn to be rich from a poor guy 😬”

Watch the full episode here: