Enterprise investment in emerging technologies remains robust with more than half of Singapore businesses currently investing in generative artificial intelligence (Singapore 54%, Southeast Asia 58%).
Also, 62% of survey respondents in Singapore (SEA 63%) are investing in internet of things (IoT) and 40% (SEA 34%) are investing in 5G technology.
This is according to the latest EY report, which is based on a survey of 1,635 businesses across 26 markets globally.
Respondents include 103 in Southeast Asia, covering Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as 63 businesses in Singapore.
Mirroring global trends, decision-making within enterprises is diffusing more widely across the C-suite, with EOs now involved in emerging technology strategy, including choice of suppliers (Singapore 49%, SEA 54%).
The CIO is still the most important decision maker for businesses (Singapore 67%, SEA 72%).
Despite investments in emerging technologies, the research finds that too many businesses are still only in trialing mode.
In Singapore, 77% of respondents (SEA 73%) that are currently investing in generative AI are still at the proof-of-concept stage.
Only 24% (SEA 25%) have progressed to pilot projects in limited business areas. None of the respondents in Singapore and the region have fully integrated AI into critical business and IT workflows across their organizations.
EY said this highlights a significant gap between experimentation and widespread adoption.
Joongshik Wang, leader of EY-Parthenon Asean and Singapore strategy and execution, says that
“While enterprises are keen to invest in emerging technologies, many businesses struggle to bridge the gap between pilot and full-scale implementation,” said Wang.
“This is often due to integration challenges, lack of clear return on investment (ROI) and the need for stronger ecosystem support to drive business value,” he added.
The study emphasises that overcoming these hurdles requires a strategic approach, such as the need for businesses to build in-house generative AI capabilities while ensuring external support through reliable vendor partnerships.
However, businesses are finding it challenging to make informed decisions about which information and communications technology (ICT) providers can best help them on their transformation journey.
In Singapore, 81% of respondents (SEA 77%) say they need a better understanding of the changing supplier ecosystems.
In addition, in the area of new mobile technology capabilities, 38% of businesses in Singapore (SEA 46%) have a high awareness of network application programming interfaces (APIs), while only one in four (Singapore 25%, SEA 31%) are highly aware of network slicing.
A third of Singapore respondents described their ideal emerging technology vendor personas as having the ability to provide measurable business outcomes as opposed to pure cost or technology benefits (Singapore 33%, SEA 36%), and access to a robust partner ecosystem (Singapore 33%, SEA 32%).
The ability to scale and integrate different technologies is also important to close to one in five of those surveyed (Singapore 18%, SEA 20%). These attributes rank ahead of value-based pricing (Singapore 16%, SEA 12%), signaling that businesses are looking well beyond cost advantages when evaluating suppliers.
Enterprise challenges around supplier awareness could ultimately feed into decisions to consolidate their vendor base.
In Singapore, 41% of respondents (SEA 44%) across sectors are planning to reduce the number of ICT vendors they use in the coming 12 months. This is driven by efforts to improve security and compliance, lower overall expenditure on technology suppliers, and reduce technology complexity and integration challenges.
