The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (AmChamSG) has launched the ‘Singapore Business Launchpad – Perspectives on Growth, Innovation and ASEAN Expansion’ at the 2026 AmChamSG Regional Economic Conference. This initiative marks 60 years of US-Singapore relations and aims to provide businesses with guidance on navigating the Asia-Pacific region.
The launchpad includes the ASEAN Business Outlook Survey (ABOS), conducted in partnership with Accenture and Google. The survey highlights that 87% of large enterprises in ASEAN have AI agents in pilot or production, yet only 7% are prepared to scale. The average readiness score across the region is 42 out of 100, indicating significant organisational challenges rather than technological ones.
Mark Tham, Country Managing Director of Accenture Singapore, noted, “Culture and change management remain the single biggest barrier to unlocking the full value of agentic AI.” The survey also found that 68% of companies rate ASEAN markets outside Singapore as very important, a 22 percentage point increase from 2022.
The findings underscore the strategic importance of ASEAN, with supply chain resilience and diversification from China-concentrated operations now key drivers of investment. Adam Click, Regional Lead at Google, emphasised the potential of AI to drive growth across ASEAN, highlighting initiatives like Google’s Majulah AI to build necessary skills and capabilities.
As ASEAN’s strategic importance rises, the report suggests that businesses must address organisational readiness to fully capitalise on AI’s potential.
