Smarter, Simpler, Safer: Singapore Offers Stronger Support to Help Local SMEs Go Digital with Confidence

1. According to the Singapore Digital Economy (SGDE) report released by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) yesterday, 95.1% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have adopted at least one of the six digital areas¹ measured and deepened their digital adoption intensity². More local SMEs have also adopted artificial intelligence (AI), tripling in one year from 4.2% in 2023 to 14.5% in 2024, achieving an average cost saving of 52%.

2. These findings come against a backdrop of a rapidly evolving business landscape, where SMEs are grappling with rising costs, customer expectations and competition. The advancement of technologies such as AI presents both challenges and opportunities. To help SMEs stay competitive, IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service serves as a 24/7 one-stop platform to support their digital journey. In 2024, more than 400,000 users accessed CTO-as-a-Service to:

• Browse and compare over 300 of IMDA’s pre-approved, market-proven solutions with grant support. As of 2024, 30% of these solutions are AI-enabled (up from 20% in 2023) to help SMEs boost productivity.
• Access Industry Digital Plans covering 22 industry sectors for a step-by-step guide on sector-specific solutions to address respective sector business challenges.
• Discover SME success stories and curated articles.

A Smarter, Simpler Way for SMEs to Find Digital Solutions

3. The SGDE report also highlights that digitalisation delivers tangible benefits from raising productivity and revenues to unlocking new markets. Building on this momentum, IMDA has revamped the CTO-as-a-Service platform to be more SME business-needs driven with the launch of a new Go Digital Advisor. The tool enables SMEs to identify the right solutions for their most pressing challenges in just three clicks, making it easier for them to address business pain points through digitalisation. (Please refer to Annex A (683.89KB) for the step-by-step guide to access the Go Digital Advisor tool.)

4. For SMEs requiring more support, the Go Digital Advisor goes further in guiding them through a detailed list of business issues across functions such as Sales & Marketing, Customer Service, Operations, Human Resources, Sustainability, and Cybersecurity. It then helps SMEs identify their top three business gaps and recommends pre-approved, market-proven digital solutions, with grant support from IMDA to give SMEs the confidence to adopt and scale.

Strengthen Partnerships across the Ecosystem to Scale Impact and Protect SMEs

5. While the Government has put in place initiatives to drive enterprise digitalisation, strong partnerships with industry stakeholders across the ecosystem help to collectively scale impact and boost the digital capabilities of SMEs.

6. As of May this year, 11 partners – Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, DBS Bank, Google, Microsoft, Prudential Singapore, Salesforce, SGTech, Singapore Business Federation, Singapore Computer Society and ST Engineering – have pledged their commitment through various initiatives to uplift enterprises and workers in support of Singapore’s Digital Enterprise Blueprint (DEB) that was launched in May 2024. To date, more than 20,000 enterprises have benefited from these partnership initiatives and programmes.

7. Today, two new partners join IMDA to launch initiatives that uplift SMEs’ capabilities and cyber resilience, in support of the DEB.

i. To help SMEs safeguard their businesses against cyber threats, Singtel, in partnership with Enterprise Singapore and IMDA, has launched the Singtel Cyber Protect Programme. 14,000 SMEs can enjoy free mobile protect for 12 months to safeguard their business mobile devices from cyber threats. 35,000 SMEs can enjoy free broadband security for 12 months to secure business office networks from cyberattacks. Beyond these services, Singtel will also conduct cybersecurity workshops and produce educational videos to enhance SMEs’ understanding of cyber threats and mitigation strategies. To register interest, SMEs can visit Singtel Cyber Protect Programme or IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service platform to sign up from 1 November 2025.

ii. To help SMEs harness the power of AI to transform and grow their businesses, Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI), in partnership with IMDA, has launched the SCCCI AI Experience for SME Programme. Through SCCCI’s extensive network of 5,000 corporate members and 160 trade associations covering over 40,000 companies, SCCCI will strengthen SMEs’ AI adoption through hands-on workshops with IMDA's pre-approved AI and Generative AI (GenAI) tools. SMEs can also gain confidence in the use of AI tools for their business needs through interactive workshops and guidance from solution providers. Interested SMEs can sign up on SCCCI’s website or IMDA’s CTO-as-a-Service platform from January 2026.

8. These efforts build on existing partnership initiatives, such as ST Engineering’s SME CyberResilience Programme that offers free cyber threat scans to help SMEs protect their operations, and the DBS Spark GenAI Programme that strengthens AI adoption and helps SMEs harness the power of GenAI. Together, these initiatives strengthen the broader industry ecosystem to support SMEs, ensuring no business is left behind in the digital transition.

Inaugural SMEs Go Digital Day 2025

9. These new initiatives were announced today by Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information at the inaugural SMEs Go Digital Day, Singapore’s first SME-focused digitalisation event organised by IMDA that gives SMEs access to more than 200 IMDA’s pre-approved solutions – the largest physical line-up of pre-approved solution providers at a single event.

10. From essential business solutions covering Cybersecurity, Sales & Marketing, HR, Finance & Accounting to sector specific solutions and AI/GenAI solutions, SMEs could visit specific business areas and browse the different pre-approved solution offerings that help solve business challenges in these areas.

11. SMEs that attended the event not only gained access to IMDA’s pre-approved solutions and industry partners, but also learnt first-hand from peers who have successfully solved business challenges and transformed their companies through digitalisation and AI. (Please refer to the Annex B (177.08KB) for SMEs’ success stories.)

12. The DEB partners Microsoft, Google and Salesforce also shared exclusive insights on how AI and GenAI can unlock SME growth, open new revenue streams, improve efficiency, and elevate customer experience – giving SMEs a clear view of the opportunities ahead.

13. The one-day event, held at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, saw more than 5,000 SME owners and industry partners registered.

Resources:

• Annex A - Step-By-Step Guide to Access the Go Digital Advisor (683.89KB)
• Annex B - SMEs’ Digital Transformation Success Stories (177.08KB)