More Singapore workers managing bots as firms ramp up AI use

As companies turn to AI agents to boost productivity, workers are increasingly taking on the role of managing them – raising questions about how jobs and on-the-job learning will change.

EY Singapore’s head of assurance Lee Wei Hock (left) with senior manager in assurance Ong Zhi Chuan (right) during a work discussion. (Image: CNA)

This audio is generated by an AI tool.

SINGAPORE: Workers may increasingly find themselves managing a new kind of colleague – one that can analyse documents, crunch data and complete tasks in minutes, but still needs to be questioned and checked.

As more companies in Singapore experiment with agentic artificial intelligence, employees are starting to take on the role of “AI agent managers”, directing digital agents and reviewing their output.

For Mr Ong Zhi Chuan, a senior manager in assurance at EY, AI agents have already changed the way he works.

With just a few clicks, he can direct AI agents to analyse working papers while he turns his attention to another task.

CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less "That takes about three minutes to run the analysis that my staff has given me, as compared to if I'm to review (the documents) in detail, (it) will probably take two hours,” said Mr Ong. But humans still make the final call. “Our stakeholders, including regulators, still expect human judgement to be a very key part of our audit process,” said EY Singapore’s head of assurance Lee Wei Hock. "The tolerance for error arising from AI hallucination is very thin. In fact, it's almost non-existent,” he added. Mr Lee said humans must continue to bring their professional judgement and scepticism to the work, with accountability remaining “key” to the adoption of AI.

"That takes about three minutes to run the analysis that my staff has given me, as compared to if I'm to review (the documents) in detail, (it) will probably take two hours,” said Mr Ong.

But humans still make the final call.

“Our stakeholders, including regulators, still expect human judgement to be a very key part of our audit process,” said EY Singapore’s head of assurance Lee Wei Hock.

"The tolerance for error arising from AI hallucination is very thin. In fact, it's almost non-existent,” he added.

Mr Lee said humans must continue to bring their professional judgement and scepticism to the work, with accountability remaining “key” to the adoption of AI.

JOBS CHANGING BEFORE JOB TITLES DO

As AI agents become increasingly capable of handling a wider range of tasks, analysts expect more jobs to be redesigned to include directing, questioning and checking AI output.

"AI is changing job content much faster than it's changing job titles,” said Ms Audrey Chan, executive director and head of human resources practice at Kerry Consulting.

The workforce response so far has been to redesign jobs and upskill workers rather than replace roles wholesale, she said.

“Employers are increasingly looking for people who understand their function, who can apply AI to improve productivity and to redesign workflows and processes, as well as make much better use of data.”

She sees this taking place across functions including human resources, finance, legal, risk and marketing.

The adoption of agentic AI in local firms could accelerate further.

A survey by software company SAP across 200 firms in Singapore found that 92 per cent were exploring or already using agentic AI, up from 69 per cent last year.

It also found that AI currently supports an average of 27 per cent of tasks in Singapore businesses, with companies expecting that figure to reach 47 per cent within the next two years.

“AI has crossed a very important threshold, that it is no longer a tool that employees use on the side. Rather, it's becoming more and more embedded into the core processes that run businesses. So that's really been the big shift,” said SAP Singapore’s managing director Eileen Chua.

“This means that the essential workforce skill we need now is what we call AI bilingualism, being able to speak the language of your profession and that of AI,” she added.

A finance professional, for example, does not need to become a data scientist, she said, but should understand how AI can help with tasks such as forecasting, reconciliations or closing, while combining the technology with business context, professional judgement and accountability.

“We see that the opportunity is not to remove people from work, rather to redesign work so that people can really focus on the high value-added tasks such as judgement, creativity, and also being in tune with delivering business outcomes.”

WHAT HAPPENS TO LEARNING ON THE JOB?

But as AI takes on more of the work, another challenge is emerging – the risk of weaker critical judgement and less on-the-job learning, especially for those new to the workforce.

"The greatest risk is not so much about junior employees using AI. It's juniors using AI without learning to think for themselves,” said Ms Chua.

Companies therefore need to preserve the “spirit of apprenticeship” within jobs even as they redesign them around AI, she said.

Junior employees should still form an initial view of a problem themselves, she added, warning that speed should not come at the expense of judgement or critical thinking.

Ms Chua said that organisations that succeed in this era will be those that combine trusted data with well-designed processes while continuing to develop an “AI-bilingual” workforce.

Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox

Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories

Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app

随着企业转向人工智能代理以提高生产力，员工越来越多地承担起管理这些代理的角色——这引发了人们对工作和在职学习将如何变化的疑问。

安永新加坡审计主管李伟福（左）与高级审计经理王志川（右）正在进行工作讨论。（图片来源：CNA）

这段音频由人工智能工具生成。

新加坡：员工可能会越来越发现自己要管理一种新型的同事——这种同事可以在几分钟内分析文件、处理数据并完成任务，但仍然需要被质疑和检查。

随着新加坡越来越多的公司尝试使用智能代理人工智能，员工开始扮演“人工智能代理经理”的角色，指导数字代理并审查其输出。

对于安永会计师事务所审计部门高级经理王志川先生来说，人工智能代理已经改变了他的工作方式。

只需点击几下鼠标，他就可以指示人工智能代理分析工作文件，而他则可以将注意力转移到其他任务上。

CNA游戏猜词游戏：逐行破解单词；流行词游戏：用给定的字母组成单词；迷你数独：小巧的谜题，强大的脑力挑战；迷你填字游戏：小方格，大挑战；单词搜索：尽可能多地找出单词。显示更多 显示更少 “我的员工提供的分析结果运行起来大约需要三分钟，而如果我要详细审查（这些文件），可能需要两个小时，”翁先生说。但最终的决定权仍然掌握在人手中。“我们的利益相关者，包括监管机构，仍然期望人类的判断是我们审计流程中非常关键的一部分，”安永新加坡审计主管李伟福表示。“对人工智能产生的错误容忍度非常低。事实上，几乎不存在，”他补充道。李先生表示，人类必须继续将他们的专业判断和怀疑精神运用到工作中，问责制仍然是人工智能应用的“关键”。

“我的员工给我的分析结果只需要大约三分钟就能完成，而如果我要详细审查（这些文件），可能需要两个小时，”翁先生说。

但最终决定权仍然在人类手中。

安永新加坡审计主管李伟福表示：“包括监管机构在内的利益相关者仍然期望人的判断是我们审计过程中非常关键的一部分。”

“对于人工智能幻觉造成的错误，容忍度非常低。事实上，几乎不存在容忍度，”他补充道。

李先生表示，人类必须继续将他们的专业判断和怀疑精神运用到工作中，问责制仍然是人工智能应用的“关键”。

工作内容先于职位名称发生变化

随着人工智能代理越来越能够处理更广泛的任务，分析人士预计，未来会有更多工作岗位需要重新设计，以包含指导、提问和检查人工智能输出的内容。

“人工智能改变工作内容的速度远比改变职位名称的速度快得多，”嘉里咨询公司执行董事兼人力资源业务主管陈女士表示。

她表示，目前劳动力市场的应对措施是重新设计工作岗位和提升员工技能，而不是彻底替换现有岗位。

“雇主越来越倾向于寻找了解自身职能、能够运用人工智能提高生产力、重新设计工作流程和程序，以及更好地利用数据的人才。”

她认为这种情况正在人力资源、财务、法律、风险和市场营销等各个职能部门发生。

本地企业采用智能体人工智能的趋势可能会进一步加快。

软件公司 SAP 对新加坡 200 家公司进行的一项调查发现，92% 的公司正在探索或已经在使用智能体人工智能，高于去年的 69%。

调查还发现，人工智能目前平均支持新加坡企业 27% 的任务，企业预计这一数字将在未来两年内达到 47%。

“人工智能已经跨越了一个非常重要的门槛，它不再是员工的辅助工具，而是越来越深入地融入到企业运营的核心流程中。这才是真正的重大转变，”SAP新加坡董事总经理蔡爱玲表示。

她补充说：“这意味着我们现在需要的关键劳动力技能是我们所说的AI双语能力，即能够说自己职业的语言和AI的语言。”

她表示，例如，财务专业人士不需要成为数据科学家，但应该了解人工智能如何帮助完成预测、对账或结算等任务，同时将技术与业务背景、专业判断和责任感相结合。

“我们认为，机会不在于让人们离开工作岗位，而在于重新设计工作，使人们能够真正专注于高附加值的任务，例如判断力、创造力，以及与实现业务成果保持一致。”

在职学习会怎样？

但随着人工智能承担越来越多的工作，另一个挑战也随之出现——批判性判断能力下降和在职学习能力降低的风险，尤其是对于那些刚进入职场的新人来说。

蔡女士表示：“最大的风险不在于初级员工使用人工智能，而在于初级员工在使用人工智能时没有学会独立思考。”

她表示，因此，即使企业围绕人工智能重新设计工作岗位，也需要保留工作中的“学徒精神”。

她补充说，初级员工仍然应该自己对问题形成初步看法，并警告说，速度不应以牺牲判断力或批判性思维为代价。

蔡女士表示，在这个时代取得成功的组织，将是那些将可信数据与精心设计的流程相结合，同时继续培养“人工智能双语”员工队伍的组织。

订阅我们的邮件，即可获取精选热点新闻和引人深思的文章。

订阅通知，第一时间获取突发新闻和精彩报道。

加入我们的频道，即可在您常用的聊天应用上获取当日热门文章。