Tech in Asia Conference returns to support Singapore’s AI mission

Many people have experienced an “Ikea moment” with AI, remarked Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information, during the launch of the State of AI in Southeast Asia report on Febuary 11.

Teo, the guest of honor at the Tech in Asia-organized event, compared AI adoption to people assembling furniture for the first time and finding out that it was easier than they thought.

Yet AI adoption is nascent. “The Ikea moment for enterprises – that’s still not widespread enough,” she said during a fireside chat discussing the report. The paper was a collaboration between McKinsey, the Singapore Economic Development Board, and Tech in Asia, which is a part of SPH Media, Singapore’s largest multichannel news media network.

Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

A day after the launch, we learned how the Singapore government plans to create this “Ikea moment for enterprises.”

In his Budget speech, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also the country’s Minister for Finance, announced the formation of a National AI Council to execute the country’s AI agenda.

The city-state will also embark on a set of missions to speed up adoption of AI in four key economic sectors: advanced manufacturing, connectivity, finance, and healthcare. Singapore must “organize at a national level and move with speed and scale,” he said.

To support this government initiative, Tech in Asia is announcing the return of our flagship conference to Singapore, which is slated for September 2026. Our theme: Enterprise AI.

Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Everything we’ve done has led up to this. In 2024, we organized Sync AI, a summit that brought together 150 high-level executives in the AI space.

Last year, we kicked things up a notch. We held a full day of seminars on AI product development at the Tech in Asia Conference in Jakarta, which recorded over 2,600 registrants. AI was also a hot topic at our Asia Economic Summit, which was supported by The Business Times.

We also bring depth and nuance to our AI coverage, which positions us to run a conference agenda with substance.

We publish a dedicated newsletter on AI, uncover rising AI startups, and keep track of prominent AI talent in Southeast Asia. As practitioners, we’ve rapidly deployed AI into the workflows and systems of Tech in Asia and beyond.

Which brings us to this year. At Tech in Asia Conference 2026, we will gather large corporations, AI firms, practitioners, startups, investors, and the government to discuss one big topic: deploying AI at scale within enterprises.

We want attendees to leave the conference with instruction manuals on AI adoption within their companies and to meet new partners and collaborators. In doing so, we aim to promote the government’s mission to make Singapore a leading center for AI.

We now seek your support. Partner with us to make the conference happen and, joining the likes of AWS, Salesforce, and Sea Group – who have supported our past events.

You can also join our priority waiting list to attend the conference here.

We will see you there.