Singapore Gen Z workers draw boundaries, adopt AI

Nearly one in five young workers in Singapore uses AI more than their employer knows. A third run it on their own phones and laptops for work, and only 13% say anyone is keeping track.

Those insights come from What Gen Z Workers Want 2026 – Singapore, research commissioned by Deel, the global HR and payroll platform.

The research aims to help employers understand the priorities, expectations and workplace preferences of the country’s youngest employees – an elusive and shrinking demographic. While residents under 30 made up 18.8% of Singapore’s labour force in 2014, this share had fallen to 14.6% by 2024, according to figures cited in the research. Employers are fishing in a smaller pond, and the people in it have firm views about what they will and won’t give to a job.

“The young workforce is already shrinking. Lower birth rates and longer education mean fewer candidates,” said Karen Ng, regional head of expansion enterprise – North and South Asia at Deel (pictured). “Employers are competing for a smaller pool, many of whom are looking beyond Singapore.”

The findings describe a generation that has decided where work ends and life begins, and has gone looking for tools to make the hours in between count. For HR leaders, they raise practical questions about pay, progression, respect and payroll reliability. Most pressing of all is the question of who is setting the rules for AI at work.

AI use is running ahead of the rulebook

Young Singaporeans have not waited for permission. Some 49% say AI makes them more productive at work, compared with 33% of their peers in Australia, the second market in Deel’s study.

Their worries about the technology may surprise employers who expected fear of redundancy. Just over a quarter (26%) think AI could make their jobs less secure. A slightly larger group (29%) worry about relying on it too heavily.

“The concern is less about being replaced and more about becoming too dependent on it,” Ng said.

Taken with the opening figures on personal devices and unmonitored use, this means company information may be passing through tools and devices the organisation has not approved and cannot see. It also describes a workforce that is getting results, and Ng was wary of employers responding with a crackdown.

“Confident AI users are delivering the productivity gains, and overly restrictive governance could potentially kill exactly what employers want,” she said. “Employers who set clear guardrails enable better adoption and higher productivity. Overly restrictive governance stifles both.”

On that reading, the task facing HR is closer to policy design than discipline. A short, plain-English framework that names approved tools, spells out what data can and can’t go into them, and explains the reasoning gives quiet users a reason to bring their habits into the open. A blanket ban gives them a reason to keep using their own devices.

Leaving work at the office

Singapore’s long-hours culture is running into a generation that intends to finish work on time. When asked about their goals for the next 10 years, 49% named having a job they can leave at the office. Only 29% named leading a team as a manager.

The same pattern shows up in how they describe their effort today. The most common approach, cited by 29%, is doing the job well strictly within set hours. Only 27% say they are giving everything to progress at their current employer.

“Workplace flexibility is a top priority for Singapore Gen Z, and they’re setting firmer boundaries to avoid burnout,” Ng said.

Read alongside the AI findings, those numbers point to workers who are protective of their time and pragmatic about how they fill it. Ng argued that employers should treat the two as connected.

“Success is no longer defined by hustle or climbing the ladder. It’s outcomes achieved, boundaries respected, and time on their own terms,” she said. “Productivity comes from this freedom, not despite it.”

For managers who grew up treating late nights and visible effort as proof of commitment, the shift asks for different yardsticks. Ng’s formula was specific.

“Employers who get this right do three things: set clear expectations, create practical AI frameworks, and measure output, not hours. That’s how you keep Gen Z engaged,” she said.

Pay comes first and security comes fourth

Asked to rank their job priorities, 72% of respondents placed pay that keeps pace with living costs among their top three. Flexibility followed at 51%, then learning and development at 49%. Job security came fourth of six options at 46%, and values ranked last at 40%.

“Gen Z prioritises money and flexibility over job security and values,” Ng said. “Security has slipped behind pay, flexibility and learning, and they’re rewriting what it means to feel secure.”

For many, that rewrite involves a second income. Some 42% of young Singaporeans already do paid work outside their main job, and Deel puts the share who have or are seeking extra income at 77%. Men are more likely to have that second income, at 48% compared with 34% of women. So are young parents, 53% of whom manage extra work, compared with 38% of those without children.

“With the rise of inflation, more young Singaporeans are taking on side hustles,” Ng said.

Money tops the worry list too. Nine in 10 young Singaporeans (92%) carry at least one worry about their jobs, led by financial instability (49%) and burnout (46%), with 37% concerned about having no clear path for career growth. Only 8% say nothing about their job worries them, compared with 15% in Australia.

The payroll process does not always help. Some 71% have hit at least one administrative or pay failure, with paperwork the most common problem. Among those from households earning under SGD3,000 a month, 33% have been paid late, compared with between 17% and 22% in every higher income band. For a cohort that ranks pay first and worries most about money, a late or incorrect payslip is a direct hit to trust, and it falls hardest on the lowest earners.

Trusted to deliver and talked down to

On the surface, relations between young Singaporeans and their employers look healthy. Some 82% agree their employer trusts them without micromanaging, 75% say leaders value their opinion and 68% say their contribution is noticed and rewarded.

A second set of answers sits awkwardly beside the first. Some 71% feel they are expected to be grateful simply for having a job, 47% believe leaders see Gen Z as entitled and lazy, and 43% say their employer has unreasonable expectations.

“Gen Z is ambitious, just not by traditional measures,” Ng said. “They deliver through technology and autonomy, yet workplaces interpret boundaries as laziness. That contradiction is a retention crisis.”

The respect figures fall further for young women, and so does their attachment to their jobs. Only 69% of women feel their opinion is valued, compared with 80% of men, and just 11% of women strongly agree that their contribution is noticed and rewarded, against 20% of men. Half of young women worry about burnout, compared with 43% of men, and 39% feel stuck in a job they don’t want, against 29% of men. Only 19% of women say they are giving everything to progress, compared with 34% of men, and 29% of women say they are ready to leave their jobs, compared with 19% of men.

Read together, those numbers describe young women who worry more, feel less recognised and are closer to the door. An engagement strategy built around the average Gen Z worker is likely to miss them. Clear progression pathways, even-handed recognition and attention to workload are the obvious levers for HR teams looking at gender balance in future leadership.

One in five has an eye on the departure gate

The research also puts a figure on how far loyalty extends. Some 21% of young Singaporeans name working in a different country among their 10-year goals. In Australia, the figure is 16%.

In a labour market where the under-30 share has already dropped by more than four percentage points in a decade, every young worker who leaves is harder to replace. Deel’s research frames the risk as Singapore potentially losing one in five of its youngest workers overseas.

“Young people have global options now. As Singapore’s talent pool shrinks, employers cannot assume loyalty will follow from employment alone,” Ng said. “Organisations must support their independence with clear expectations and practical guardrails. Commitment should be judged by contribution, not hours. That is how organisations retain and nurture their talent.”

The workers most likely to look abroad are being courted by global employers and remote roles that reward the qualities this survey describes: comfort with AI, clear boundaries and a focus on output. Singapore employers that offer competitive and reliable pay, flexibility, visible respect and sensible AI rules are competing on the terms this generation has set.

The study surveyed 1,045 workers aged 18 to 29 and was conducted with YouGov and ThinkerTank. Download the findings here.

This article was produced in partnership with Deel