SINGAPORE – Citigroup has launched new AI solutions for staff members in eight countries, including Singapore and India, the company announced.

Tim Ryan, who leads technology and business enablement at Citi, unveiled the new tools to be made accessible to some 140,000 employees globally.

The first solution is Citi Assist, which pulls up literature on policies and procedures at Citi. The second is Citi Stylus, which can formulate summaries and analyse the contents of multiple documents simultaneously.

“[Citi Assist] is like having a super-smart co-worker at your fingertips to help navigate commonly used policies and procedures across HR, risk, compliance, and finance,” Ryan noted in a company memo.

Speaking to Reuters, the executive said: “These tools will help to simplify work and increase productivity.”

Both AI solutions are being rolled out this month to employees in Singapore and India, as well as the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Poland and Hungary, before being introduced to other regions.

Citi will evaluate how employees interact with the tools in a bid to refine their use cases, but team members are also encouraged to share new ideas around AI, Ryan said.

The latest AI integration comes on top of wider efforts to enhance data quality and infrastructure at Citi, according to the company’s chief technology officer David Griffiths.

The influence of AI on Singapore’s workforce

Citi’s rollout of AI solutions to its Singapore-based employees is the latest proof of the country’s increasing status as an epicentre of AI tech and talent.

Workers in Singapore are reportedly among the most AI tech-savvy in the world: 3 in every 5 employees, or 60% of the workforce polled by automation specialist UiPath, are said to be using generative AI to augment their tasks.

And the impact on their work has been tangible, the respondents said. Workers have purportedly cut down the time they spend on tasks (62%) – with some saving 10 hours or more per week (42%). Because of AI, workers believe they are able to:

• Focus on more creative tasks (53%)
• Spend more time with family (49%)
• End their workday earlier (45%)

All this change coincides with the fact that employees in Singapore are grappling with higher volumes of work (44%), according to data from PwC.

The study revealed that a greater percentage of workers aim to use AI to improve their efficiency (65%) and concurrently sharpen skills that could help them command higher salaries (60%).

AI investments of employers in Singapore

Despite the example of Citi in Singapore and workers’ optimism for the positive impact of AI at work, only 27% of companies in the country have so far introduced AI solutions to aid their employees’ work, the latest data from HubSpot showed.

This is expected to change in the next 12 months as 97% of employers surveyed by HubSpot shared plans of investing an average of S$32,000 (approx. US$23,900) in AI solutions.

Among employers who have embraced AI as part of everyday work, the majority have reported improved productivity (88%) and efficiency (76%) across their workforce. These enhancements also translate to higher gains for the business, such as:

• Higher revenue (75%)
• Higher customer satisfaction (75%)
• Ability to generate quality leads (60%)
• Overall cost reduction (46%)

Still, some roadblocks to greater AI adoption remain. Nearly half of employers surveyed by HubSpot pointed to the absence of clear success metrics, a shortage of relevant talent and skills, and the lack of visibility into AI use as challenges to wider integration.