Singapore CFOs pair growth confidence with tighter AI controls

Finance chiefs see strength in electronics and manufacturing but face gaps between AI adoption and active risk planning.

Singapore chief financial officers remain confident about domestic growth as activity in electronics, semiconductors and manufacturing supports optimism.

According to Justin Greenberger, Chief Customer Officer at Optro, net optimism amongst Singapore finance chiefs stands at 26%. Greenberger said local sector performance is giving CFOs reason to stay positive.

“If you look at Singapore and everything that's happening around electronics, semiconductors, and manufacturing, there's a lot to be optimistic about,” he said.

The challenge is preparing organisations to scale artificial intelligence with adequate controls. Only 13% of CFOs are extensive AI users, whilst Optro research found that 58% of leaders believe governance controls are keeping pace with AI adoption and only 18% have active risk mitigation plans.

Greenberger said AI agents can work faster than humans and are exposing weaknesses in areas such as user access, data, accountability, and controls.

“As the market starts to mature with AI taking actions instead of just outcomes and analysis, you're going to start to see a market that really needs to understand and believe in AI governance,” he said.

For CFOs, Greenberger said AI investment should be tied to clear use cases and value. He cited operational manufacturing and inventory as examples where companies should define the expected benefit before deployment.

He also said governance should involve information technology, audit, compliance, and risk teams from the beginning.

“One of the best practices we see is having governance controls audit as a part of the use cases that are deploying,” Greenberger said.

He added that continuous auditing can help organisations understand risks as AI use cases go live.