Singapore – Singapore enterprises are among the most active adopters of AI-powered customer communications in the Asia-Pacific region, but many have also experienced setbacks after deployment, according to new research released by Sinch.
The company’s report, The AI Production Paradox, found that 82% of enterprises in Singapore have rolled back or shut down a live AI customer communications agent after deployment. The figure is 8 percentage points higher than the global average. At the same time, Singapore recorded the highest AI deployment rate in APAC, with 72% of enterprises having deployed AI customer communications agents.
The findings are based on an independent survey of 2,527 senior decision-makers across 10 countries and six industries. The study included 586 respondents from APAC markets, including Singapore.
According to the report, APAC has emerged as the most advanced region globally for AI customer communications deployment, with 67% of enterprises operating AI agents in production, compared with the global average. However, the region also reported the highest levels of post-deployment failure, with 83% of enterprises experiencing an AI agent failure, 9 percentage points above the global average.
The report suggests that enterprises have moved beyond the challenge of testing AI systems and are now confronting issues related to performance, reliability, and operational control once deployments go live.
Failures in AI implementations have had operational consequences for businesses. Across APAC, 45% of enterprises identified support team overload as the primary result of AI failure. In Singapore, 44% of respondents cited the same issue. The report noted that these risks can be amplified by the scale of customer communications, with one in three APAC enterprises sending more than 100 million messages per month.
Despite these challenges, investment in AI remains a priority for Singapore organisations. The study found that 40% of Singapore enterprises plan to increase AI spending by more than 25% compared with the previous year. Although this was lower than the levels reported in India (71%) and Australia (67%), Singapore enterprises showed a strong focus on governance-related investments, with 75% prioritising spending on trust, security, and compliance initiatives.
Commenting on the findings, Wendy Johnstone, Executive Vice President, APAC at Sinch, said: “APAC is the most advanced region in the world for AI-powered customer communications, but it is also where the gap between deployment and reliability is widest. Our findings reveal that while Singapore is a market that is leading the region on deployment, local business leaders are also approaching AI very deliberately. They are purposefully channelling resources toward reliability rather than rapid expansion, aligning with sustained government-led efforts to promote reliable and responsible AI deployment. This suggests that enterprises here aren’t investing less because they lack ambition, they’re investing selectively because they understand the stakes. The real risk across APAC isn’t moving slowly, it’s scaling on infrastructure that can’t keep up.”
Governance maturity also remains a challenge
The report also highlighted a gap between AI adoption and governance readiness.
Across APAC, the relationship between governance practices and AI advancement was found to be 48% stronger than the global average. Organisations that had progressed furthest in their AI implementation journeys were more likely to have established governance frameworks before deployment.
However, only 27% of Singapore enterprises reported having fully mature AI guardrails in place, the lowest level among APAC markets surveyed and below the global average of 35%.
Infrastructure cited as key factor in AI success
Beyond governance, the report identified communications infrastructure as a major determinant of AI deployment success.
Among Singapore respondents, 82% rated high-performance communications infrastructure as essential or very important. However, only 7% said their current communications provider fully meets their needs, making Singapore one of the lowest-rated markets in the survey for provider satisfaction.
The issue extends across the region. While 88% of APAC organisations considered high-performing infrastructure essential or very important, 93% reported at least one shortcoming with their current provider. In Singapore, 91% of enterprises said they are evaluating communications providers, compared with the global average of 86%.
The report also found that more than half of enterprises globally are building custom infrastructure to manage communication across multiple channels. Singapore organisations are planning AI deployments across an average of 3.1 channels.
Johnstone said: “When less than a tenth of Singapore enterprises say their communications provider is fully meeting their needs, the issue isn’t with the technology, but with the digital infrastructure that these AI tools and solutions run on. Across APAC, engineering teams are rebuilding safety systems their provider should already offer. That’s the hidden cost holding the region back from effectively scaling AI.”
