Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced new industry partnerships with Singtel Stack-EZ, Salesforce and Beyondsoft on October 13 at the SMEs Go Digital Day in Singapore, aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) move from experimenting with AI tools to implementing them in business processes. The partnerships let SMEs trial solutions from larger industry players free of charge for a limited period to clean their data foundations and use AI tools in everyday workflows.

The three companies are part of 17 industry partners supporting Singapore's Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB), which each provide targeted support for one of the blueprint's four pillars. DEB was launched in 2024 by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to accelerate the digital capabilities of at least 50,000 SMEs over five years.

According to IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report, released in early October, AI adoption among SMEs rose from 14.5 per cent in 2024 to 23.4 per cent in 2025. The report also said 55 per cent of IMDA's pre-approved solutions on the SMEs Go Digital platform were AI-enabled, exceeding the 50 per cent target announced at the MDDI's budget estimates debate earlier this year. Pre-approved solutions are private vendor solutions vetted by IMDA for quality and compliance and eligible for government grant support. The rise was attributed to AI features added to existing pre-approved solutions and to industry partnerships building new AI capabilities for SMEs. IMDA expects the share of AI-enabled pre-approved solutions to reach 70 per cent over the next two years.

At the event, the SME AI Impact Awards were held for the first time to recognise SMEs that have successfully adopted AI. The awards received 290 nominations spanning 21 sectors, including training and education, built environment and environment, media, and marketing and creative. Use cases ranged from reducing repetitive manual work and augmenting employees' work to enabling more analytical and decision-making tasks.

IMDA says a key barrier is not the lack of AI tools but the state of SMEs' business data, which often sits across documents, emails and shared drives in formats not readily usable for AI. Working with Singtel's International Digital Services, IMDA launched the Singtel Stack-EZ AI Data Enablement Programme, running for two years. For six months, Singtel will offer complimentary access to its AI-powered document management solution, SPACES, to 10,000 eligible SMEs. SPACES extracts information from unstructured documents, organises it into AI-ready data, and exports it in formats compatible with existing customer relationship management (CRM) and Human Resources (HR) systems.

Another barrier is SMEs not knowing which business processes or workflows to apply AI or automation to. IMDA partnered with Salesforce to launch the Slack AI Launchpad Programme, offering 1,000 SMEs a complimentary two-month trial of the Business+ plan for Slack, along with two hands-on workshops. The workshops help SMEs identify relevant AI use cases and build at least one AI-enabled workflow addressing a real business need. Slack includes a personal AI teammate similar to Microsoft's Copilot and Slackbot skills that turn repeatable tasks into reusable shortcuts. This programme also runs for two years.

To give SMEs access to compliance-ready AI solutions from the China market, IMDA partnered with Beyondsoft to launch the Beyondsoft Tech Bridge Programme. The solutions target SMEs in retail, wholesale and food & beverage (F&B), covering customer engagement, sales follow-up, finance and administrative processes, retail analytics and market intelligence, with plans to expand to other sectors over time. The programme offers hands-on evaluation support, onboarding guidance and a complimentary two-month trial, plus regular showcase events where SMEs can see live demonstrations. Initially, SMEs can access five AI solutions: AI Store Manager, AI Sales Assistant, AI Market Insight Platform, AI Business Intelligence Pro and AI Accounts Payable Assistant. All are localised for Singapore with English user interfaces and align with local data residency requirements.

Editor's note (13 Oct): The article was corrected to state that MDDI, not IMDA, was behind the creation of DEB.

Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced new industry partnerships with Singtel Stack-EZ, Salesforce and Beyondsoft on October 13 at the SMEs Go Digital Day in Singapore, aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) move from experimenting with AI tools to implementing them in business processes. The partnerships let SMEs trial solutions from larger industry players free of charge for a limited period to clean their data foundations and use AI tools in everyday workflows.

The three companies are part of 17 industry partners supporting Singapore's Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB), which each provide targeted support for one of the blueprint's four pillars. DEB was launched in 2024 by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to accelerate the digital capabilities of at least 50,000 SMEs over five years.

According to IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report, released in early October, AI adoption among SMEs rose from 14.5 per cent in 2024 to 23.4 per cent in 2025. The report also said 55 per cent of IMDA's pre-approved solutions on the SMEs Go Digital platform were AI-enabled, exceeding the 50 per cent target announced at the MDDI's budget estimates debate earlier this year. Pre-approved solutions are private vendor solutions vetted by IMDA for quality and compliance and eligible for government grant support. The rise was attributed to AI features added to existing pre-approved solutions and to industry partnerships building new AI capabilities for SMEs. IMDA expects the share of AI-enabled pre-approved solutions to reach 70 per cent over the next two years.

At the event, the SME AI Impact Awards were held for the first time to recognise SMEs that have successfully adopted AI. The awards received 290 nominations spanning 21 sectors, including training and education, built environment and environment, media, and marketing and creative. Use cases ranged from reducing repetitive manual work and augmenting employees' work to enabling more analytical and decision-making tasks.

IMDA says a key barrier is not the lack of AI tools but the state of SMEs' business data, which often sits across documents, emails and shared drives in formats not readily usable for AI. Working with Singtel's International Digital Services, IMDA launched the Singtel Stack-EZ AI Data Enablement Programme, running for two years. For six months, Singtel will offer complimentary access to its AI-powered document management solution, SPACES, to 10,000 eligible SMEs. SPACES extracts information from unstructured documents, organises it into AI-ready data, and exports it in formats compatible with existing customer relationship management (CRM) and Human Resources (HR) systems.

Another barrier is SMEs not knowing which business processes or workflows to apply AI or automation to. IMDA partnered with Salesforce to launch the Slack AI Launchpad Programme, offering 1,000 SMEs a complimentary two-month trial of the Business+ plan for Slack, along with two hands-on workshops. The workshops help SMEs identify relevant AI use cases and build at least one AI-enabled workflow addressing a real business need. Slack includes a personal AI teammate similar to Microsoft's Copilot and Slackbot skills that turn repeatable tasks into reusable shortcuts. This programme also runs for two years.

To give SMEs access to compliance-ready AI solutions from the China market, IMDA partnered with Beyondsoft to launch the Beyondsoft Tech Bridge Programme. The solutions target SMEs in retail, wholesale and food & beverage (F&B), covering customer engagement, sales follow-up, finance and administrative processes, retail analytics and market intelligence, with plans to expand to other sectors over time. The programme offers hands-on evaluation support, onboarding guidance and a complimentary two-month trial, plus regular showcase events where SMEs can see live demonstrations. Initially, SMEs can access five AI solutions: AI Store Manager, AI Sales Assistant, AI Market Insight Platform, AI Business Intelligence Pro and AI Accounts Payable Assistant. All are localised for Singapore with English user interfaces and align with local data residency requirements.

Editor's note (13 Oct): The article was corrected to state that MDDI, not IMDA, was behind the creation of DEB.