NTUC LearningHub report finds most Singapore leaders see Agentic AI as vital, but employees and managers lack skills and familiarity.
Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving from concept to deployment, but gaps in familiarity and skills are slowing adoption in Singapore.
A new White Paper Report from NTUC LearningHub reveals that while three in four business leaders (77%) and nearly three in four employees (74%) believe Agentic AI is vital for competitiveness, more than four in five employees (83%) and almost half of leaders (48%) remain unfamiliar with the technology.
The report, which surveyed 150 business leaders and 300 full-time professionals, shows that adoption is already underway. Nearly one in four leaders (23%) say their organisations are exploring Agentic AI, more than a third (34%) are testing it, and 18% have limited deployment in certain departments.
Despite this progress, understanding has not kept pace. Seventy per cent of leaders and 83% of employees admit their workforce is “not very skilled” or “not skilled at all” in working with Agentic AI.
About half of business leaders also confess that their organisations do not fully understand the impact of Agentic AI on day-to-day operations. Low AI literacy (46%), limited internal expertise (42%), and uncertainty around new AI-related roles (41%) were identified as key challenges.
Employees echoed these concerns, with two in three saying their companies keep them informed about emerging technologies only to a limited extent.
Encouragingly, both groups show a willingness to close the gap. More than seven in ten employees (73%) say they are open to training, and three in five leaders (62%) plan to send staff for training in the next two years. Top priorities include technical skills, data handling, and AI literacy.
Crucially, both employees and leaders emphasised that human skills must complement technological expertise. Critical thinking, adaptability, change management, and resilience were ranked among the most important skills needed to apply Agentic AI responsibly.
Commenting on the findings, Mr Amos Tan, Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Core Skills Officer at NTUC LearningHub, said: “While adoption has started taking place, many employees and leaders themselves admit they are unfamiliar with the technology, and unsure of its implications. However, the success in this new era will take more than just technical know-how. Technical skills are essential, but human judgement, adaptability, and ethics remain indispensable.”
Read the report here.
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