🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Teo’s warning is backed by numbers on shrinking entry-level roles

• Recruitment data found entry-level job postings in Singapore fell by more than 25% in the first half of 2025. Entry-level sales roles dropped 61%, while entry-level customer service positions fell 45% 1.
• A survey found four in five Singapore employers cut the number of entry-level hires because of AI 1.
• The Singapore government says AI’s impact remains “uncertain”. It launched support schemes such as the Graduate Industry Traineeships (GRIT) programme, an initiative that places fresh graduates into short-term industry traineeships. The programme aims to help young graduates gain industry-relevant experience and move into permanent roles during wider economic uncertainty 2.

Singapore’s strategy aims to build national AI capabilities beyond the workforce

• Teo’s “user versus builder” dilemma matches Singapore’s push to strengthen public AI research capability, including talent development, under the National AI R&D Plan (Singapore’s government roadmap for AI research and development) 3.
• Singapore funds home-grown models like SEA-LION through the S$70 million National Multimodal Large Language Model Programme (a government effort to build AI models that can handle multiple types of data, such as text and images). The work targets Southeast Asian languages and cultures 4.
• Commercial tie-ups are emerging. Dell Technologies is working with AI Singapore to test, validate, and optimise SEA-LION models across Dell AI PCs (personal computers designed to run AI features locally) plus edge infrastructure (computing systems that process data closer to where it is generated, rather than in a central cloud) 5.
• Entry-level work is changing as employers may put more weight on critical thinking plus skill in prompting AI and judging its outputs, while AI handles routine tasks 6.