Singapore rolls out AI agent registry as govt expands use of artificial intelligence in public service

SINGAPORE, June 2 — Singapore is developing a registry of artificial intelligence agents for around 150,000 public officers, as the government moves to expand the use of AI in public service work while tightening safeguards on data security and oversight.

The registry will track the ownership and activity of AI agents, which are capable of making decisions and carrying out tasks at machine speed.

It is part of a broader suite of tools under development by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech), aimed at strengthening governance as public officers increasingly use AI for tasks such as coding, report generation and scheduling.

GovTech chief executive Goh Wei Boon told The Straits Times that the initiative, known as AI Assistant Desk, is designed to provide a secure, personal digital assistant for all public officers.

“We want to have a layer of customisable rules, sanctioned AI tools and a registry to provide better visibility and security, so we can ensure that people use AI agents correctly,” he was quoted as saying. 

AI agents are systems that can independently use computer tools in a similar way to humans, including completing online transactions or conducting risk assessments with minimal or no human intervention.

The capabilities have grown with advances in natural language processing and reasoning, allowing systems to understand and respond dynamically to human instructions.

According to the report, AI Assistant Desk, which is still in development, is currently being tested by some public officers ahead of a wider rollout planned for later in 2026.

Goh said the security framework will remain in place even if third-party AI tools are added or replaced, with controls that can restrict functions such as deleting files or sending emails to external recipients.

The development is part of Singapore’s broader push to strengthen AI adoption across the public sector, with Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo previously saying the Government was already experimenting with AI agents for administrative tasks such as licence applications and social assistance processing.

GovTech said more than half of Singapore’s 150,000 public officers already use its AI chatbot Pair to support productivity, writing and research.

The agency is also developing AI tools for cybersecurity, including automated penetration testing for about 2,000 government systems handling citizen data and transactions.

GovTech said this would allow continuous testing of vulnerabilities, rather than periodic manual checks, improving overall cyber resilience in an increasingly complex threat environment.

المصدر: Malay Mail