Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Health suggests new way for workers to look at AI
Singapore Senior Minister of State for Manpower and Health Koh Poh Koon has urged employees to think like healthcare workers when dealing with new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in the workplace.
Koh said workers in Singapore need to approach AI like healthcare workers embrace new techniques in their field, The Straits Times reported.
"When we say a new drug comes along, you don't see all the healthcare workers thinking that they will lose their jobs tomorrow," he said as quoted by the news outlet.
"But they embrace it because they know this is the nature of medicine now."
Koh, who spoke at a panel during the Singapore Business Federation's Future Economy Conference on Thursday, made the remarks amid employees' emerging fears that they could be replaced by AI at work.
But recent findings from the Ministry of Manpower have yet to indicate job displacement in workplaces that adopt AI.
MOM's inaugural report on AI adoption showed that only 6.2% of firms reported reduced headcount after adopting AI.
Instead, the report found that AI is primarily transforming tasks rather than replacing roles, with 18.9% of firms redesigning roles and 13.9% creating new AI-related jobs.
Additionally, 70.7% of firms that have adopted AI reported gains in productivity, as well as gains in decision-making (13.3%) and innovation (11.9%).
The Singapore government has been emphasising the need to upskill amid AI adoption happens in workplaces. It recently unveiled plans to upskill 100,000 employees to be "AI bilingual" in a bid to keep employees relevant amid AI transformation at work.
Meanwhile, the government and employers have also rallied behind the NTUC's parliamentary motion of "no jobless growth" amid AI-driven disruption.
The motion acknowledges the transformative potential of AI in workplaces, and the tripartite partners' "collective responsibility" to manage its impact on enterprises and employees.
