How generative AI can replenish Singapore’s most precious asset: time

Singaporean knowledge workers could save up to 14 hours per week between now and 2028 by applying generative AI (GenAI) to their jobs, according to the Impact AI: 2024 Workforce Skills Forecast by ServiceNow and Pearson.

The research focuses on specific tech roles—such as software engineer, developer, and technical consultant—but the results hint at how GenAI could help save time across a broad range of jobs.

For local business leaders, those extra hours represent significant productivity increases that could help them reach sustain ambitious levels of growth. For employees, the time savings open opportunities for professional and personal development.

GenAI refocuses human effort

GenAI shines on repetitive tasks involving big volumes of data, such as staying up to date on technical developments and obtaining project-related information on a regular basis. As a result, Singapore’s workers could spend less time on administrative work and more time on more fulfilling tasks.

Among the traditional tech roles our research examined, GenAI’s time-saving impact was greatest among jobs that involve large amounts of documentation, communication, and analysis, including:

• System administrator (14.0 hours saved per week)
• Implementation consultant (4.9 hours saved per week)
• Change adoption specialist (3.9 hours saved per week)
• Help desk support agent (3.6 hours saved per week)

The time savings enabled by GenAI were even more pronounced for newer and emerging tech roles. The research suggests Singapore’s AI systems engineers could save nearly six hours per week by using GenAI. Those in the least affected role—AI research scientists—stood to save 2.1 hours per week.

Reinvesting into skills portfolios

Employees and employers can also benefit from diverting at least some of their regained time into developing new skills that prepare them for the future. But which ones?

Industry-specific skills are a good place to start. Our research found that in the next five years, Singapore will experience the greatest job growth in telecommunications, media, and technology; financial services; and healthcare. We forecast all three industries will boost hiring for tech roles such as app developer and information systems manager.

To add value in those roles, however, employees need skills that go beyond technology. These include business strategy, process management, and collaboration specific to the industries they work in.

At an organizational level, Singapore’s business leaders can reinvest time savings from GenAI into helping their people build skills portfolios that match the needs of their industries. Individual employees can also strengthen their career prospects by developing tech skills that help them understand and solve industry challenges.

The ideal skills portfolio will include a mix of digital skills (with some emphasis on AI), technical industry knowledge, and soft skills, such as communication and critical thinking.

Putting AI to work

To make sure time spent on new skills isn’t wasted, business leaders can use data and AI to map and develop skills for everyone’s benefit. Employees often have skills that are hidden or not fully tapped. Their goals and interests may be known to managers and peers but are rarely stored in systems of record.

Singaporean enterprises need a platform that can incentivize employees to share their skills and aspirations. Managers can then use AI to map those skills and aspirations to organizational demand. They can also use GenAI, trained on the wealth of industry knowledge stored in the organization’s data, to tutor people in the new skills they want to acquire.

The technology to do this is already available in the ServiceNow platform. However, AI alone can’t motivate workers to acquire new skills. Singaporean enterprises must show their people that skilling creates real career opportunities, such as secondments, stretch assignments, and internal mobility. This will require a mindset shift for many industries.

Perhaps most importantly, Singaporean leaders must recognize that time saved by GenAI need not be allocated to more work.

Pursuits such as building deeper relationships and learning new skills may not create immediate business value, but they can make people feel more fulfilled and, as a result, more productive. Time saved by GenAI is perhaps best spent on being more human, both at work and beyond.

Find out how ServiceNow helps organizations harness the power of AI to improve employee satisfaction.