Logo Mark Singapore GovernmentA Singapore Government Agency WebsiteHow to identify 
Government Building
Official website links end with .gov.sg

Government agencies communicate via .gov.sg website
(e.g. go.gov.sg/open). Trusted websites  

Lock
Secure websites use HTTPS

Look for a lock (lock) or https:// as an added precaution.
Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Speech by Mr David Neo, Acting Minister (Culture, Community and Youth) and Senior Minister of State (Education) for Republic Polytechnic Open House 2026

Published on: 08 Jan 2026

NewsSpeeches

Mr Abel Ang, Chairman, Board of Governors, RP,

Ms Jeanne Liew, Principal & CEO, RP,

Guests from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Autodesk, ST Engineering, AI Singapore,

Distinguished guests, faculty, students,

Introduction

1. Good morning, and welcome to Republic Polytechnic (RP). First, I want to say that this speech was not written by AI, but it was also not written by humans only – in this day and age, it should never be about whether it is AI or humans, but about how we use AI to make humans better.

2. Today, we celebrate the launch of RP's AI transformation journey. It embeds AI across RP – from teaching to learning, innovation and research, service delivery and operations.

3. RP's support for Singapore's National AI Strategy 2.0 reflects its commitment to innovation. This is a critical effort that will take a lot of initiative, creativity, commitment, and reimagining across all parts of RP. I am certain this will pay off for our students, staff and industry partners, and we look forward to RP's reimagined journey.

National AI Strategy 2.0

4. Widespread adoption of AI is a national priority, one that is needed to drive transformation in our economy, public services and defense, so that we can be more productive as one people and as a nation. That is why we have in place our National AI Strategy 2.0, to rally stakeholders towards our aspiration of becoming a global pacesetter in AI. We want to harness AI widely for economic impact and public good. Central to this will be to build a skilled AI workforce and skilled AI talent.

5. This is important, as the effects of AI will be felt far and wide. According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 86% of businesses expect AI and information-processing technologies to significantly transform their operations by 2030. This illustrates how AI will disrupt our existing ways of working and living – and how it offers us great opportunities if we can adopt and implement it well.

6. When used effectively and responsibly, AI can augment human capabilities and empower us to work smarter, think faster, and more creatively. This will allow us to expand our economic frontiers to increase our competitiveness and seize new opportunities.

7. We need to start young. Here at MOE, we are preparing our students to be AI-ready with the right mindsets and skills to thrive in future workplaces. Our students will (1) Learn about AI, (2) Learn how to use AI, (3) Learn with AI, and (4) Learn beyond AI.

  1. To help our students learn about AI, we will teach students baseline digital skills, AI-related competencies, including computational thinking, digital wellbeing and ethics.
  2. Beyond baseline AI literacy, students must learn how to use AI in context. This includes being fluent in domain-specific AI tools, especially where AI-assisted workflows are present.
  3. AI also has the potential to transform teaching and learning. Students will learn with AI and leverage it to enhance learning outcomes.
  4. It is also imperative that students learn beyond AI, which is why we are doubling down on helping our students acquire both the soft skills as well as the foundational domain knowledge needed to use AI to the best advantage.

An AI-Ready Workforce

8. Beyond schools, we also need to be an AI-Ready workforce. In a changed world where economic growth is going to be harder to obtain and good jobs harder to create, we want to nurture our people to become a nation of competent and confident AI users.

9. One of the recommendations that the Economic Strategy Review Human Capital Committee is working on are proposals to nurture an AI-ready workforce. We want to maintain Singapore's human capital as our greatest competitive advantage and enable every Singaporean to access good jobs.

10. To do so, we will need IHLs such as RP to play a key role in upskilling our workforce through Continuing Education and Training.

  1. Today, we have over 1,600 SkillsFuture Singapore supported AI-related courses, that support AI competency building for various skill levels and needs.
  2. The Human Capital Committee is exploring how to curate learning pathways from these courses – pathways that will equip our workers with AI skills and empower them to practise and use these AI skills effectively at their workplace.

Collaboration with Industry

11. We will also need our IHLs to continue to work very closely with industry to keep pace with rapid technological changes and harness opportunities from AI. These close industry touchpoints are one important way for our IHLs to ensure that what we teach is not just relevant but is applied in the workspace.

12. I am very glad today that we are commemorating RP's collaboration with NVIDIA, and the Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between RP and industry leaders from AI Singapore, Autodesk, Microsoft and ST Engineering.

13. These partnerships will tighten the linkage between education and industry, and ensure that both our students and workers are ready for their jobs, while employers have enough talent for business growth. Allow me to share more about two of these collaborations.

  1. With Autodesk, RP will partner them for our Engineering students to gain practical experience with AI-driven modelling, simulation, and generative design tools used in the manufacturing sector, through integrating Autodesk's AI-powered platforms within RP's design and engineering curriculum.
  2. Together, RP and Autodesk will organise training programmes, competitions and projects, to prepare our students for these future jobs in smart factories, with automation and product innovation.
  3. RP has also worked with Microsoft to jointly develop the Flexi Pathway Explorer, which uses Microsoft's Azure AI Search and Azure Open AI to personalise student learning pathways within RP.
  4. The explorer helps students navigate across different courses, majors, minors and electives within RP and better understand the implications of these choices. This will help our students gain personalised coaching, align their passion and interests with their choice of courses and downstream careers.

Conclusion

14. In conclusion, a big thank you to all of our industry partners for your efforts, and congratulations once again to RP for the launch of the RP AI Strategy. Together, let us nurture and prepare our next generation to soar to new heights, because it is never about whether AI is better or the human is better, but how we make humans better with AI, as our co-pilot.