New initiatives to advance Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0 including AI Trailblazers 2.0 and Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore

28 February 2024

On 29 January 2024, Enterprise Singapore (“EnterpriseSG”), the Ministry of Communications and Information (“MCI”), Digital Industry Singapore (“DISG”), Smart Nation Group (“SNG”) and Google Cloud announced various joint initiatives to further accelerate AI adoption across government and industry, cultivate a vibrant ecosystem of AI startups, and build a sustainable pipeline of AI talent, in support of Singapore’s second National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0).

Set out below is a summary of the initiatives announced:

  • AI Trailblazers 2.0: MCI, DISG, SNG, and Google Cloud announced plans for AI Trailblazers 2.0, an expanded initiative that aims to help up to 150 more organisations in Singapore rapidly build generative AI (“Gen AI”) solutions to address their real-world challenges. AI Trailblazers 2.0 builds on the success of the first iteration of AI Trailblazers which was launched in July 2023, and which has since addressed over 100 Gen AI use cases from 84 organisations across government and industry. The initiative provided participating organisations with access to Singapore’s first Gen AI Innovation Sandboxes.

AI Trailblazers 2.0 will feature enhanced Innovation Sandboxes that provide participating organisations with access to Google Cloud’s unified AI stack, as well as support from Google Cloud engineers, at no cost for up to 10 weeks.

  • Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore: Google Cloud and EnterpriseSG launched the Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First Singapore to nurture and support globally-oriented innovators that use Gen AI as the core technology to build their products. This first-of-its-kind public-private startup programme aims to cultivate 100 high-potential AI startups over the next three years and scale the reach of their products into new markets. Applications are now open for the first cohort of 20 startups to join the inaugural three-month programme commencing in April 2024.
  • More Google Career Certificate scholarships: To address the growing demand for AI skills, Google is extending an additional 3,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships to local distribution partners with a focus on upskilling mid-career professionals.
  • Advanced industry training programmes: Nanyang Polytechnic will become the first institute of higher learning in Singapore to incorporate advanced industry training programmes from Google Cloud into its core curriculum for more than 1,000 full-time diploma students in its School of Information Technology.

Reference materials

The press release is available on the EnterpriseSG website www.enterprisesg.gov.sg.