Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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Available in SingaporeSingapore is the one place in the world where this keynote can quote the regulator back to the room. IMDA wrote the apprenticeship problem into a national AI framework in January 2026, in almost the same words.
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A feel for the room before you put me in front of yours.
IMDA's Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI, version 1.0 of 22 January 2026, section 2.4.3, reads: as agents take over entry level tasks, which typically serve as the training ground for new staff, this could lead to loss of basic operational knowledge for the users. Organisations should identify core capabilities of each job and provide sufficient training and work exposure so that users retain foundational skills.
A few pages earlier it warns of the potential loss of trade craft. It names automation bias as the tendency to over-trust a system that has performed reliably in the past. It requires that overseers be trained to identify failure modes. And it requires that the effectiveness of the oversight itself be audited, which almost no organisation anywhere does.
It is also honest about its own limit. The executive summary concedes that continuous human oversight over all agent workflows becomes impractical at scale, which is the concession most governance documents avoid making.
Two qualifications belong with any use of it. It is guidance rather than statute. And it states a risk and a duty to train without setting any threshold for what counts as retaining core skills, or any test of whether the training worked. That gap is where a board session in Singapore usually starts.
Singapore published a Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI on 30 May 2024. Both published versions were read and searched at source. They contain zero occurrences of human oversight, human-in-the-loop, over-reliance, automation bias or deskilling. Human oversight is not among its nine dimensions.
Twenty months later the same issuing body built a pillar around oversight and added deskilling to it. For a Singapore audience that is the most useful single slide in the deck, because it dates the moment the problem became visible to their own regulator.
The Ministry of Manpower reported in June 2026 that 28.5 per cent of firms had adopted AI, rising to 74.1 per cent in information and communications, 57.5 per cent in professional services and 56.4 per cent in financial and insurance services.
The more useful pair sits underneath. Only 6.2 per cent of firms reported AI-related reductions in headcount or hiring, against 18.9 per cent reporting redesign of job functions. The ministry's own conclusion was that AI is having a greater impact on job redesign and work processes than on broad-based job displacement.
Redesign running roughly three times ahead of displacement is a useful corrective to forecasting that treats job losses as the headline. It is also not reassuring on its own, because redesign decides which repetitions survive, and a survey counting headcount cannot tell you which ones went. That is the question at the missed reps.
Boards, executive committees, regional headquarters, financial and professional services, and corporate and association conferences. Delivery is in English. Keynotes run 40 to 90 minutes, with workshop and board-session formats. Rahim travels from London, and where travel is not practical the same session is delivered online. He can travel to the region or deliver virtually across all time zones.
Three keynotes, all versions of one argument. Drift vs Design is the signature talk for boards and executive teams. We Are Superheroes covers the seven human skills that grow more valuable as the tools spread. WTH, What the Human is a live judgement test for boards, run in the room, December to March only. Full descriptions are at keynotes.
Rahim Hirji speaks in Singapore in English on AI, work and human judgement. He is the author of SuperSkills: The Seven Human Skills for the Age of AI (Kogan Page, 2026), which has been covered by The Straits Times, and he founded EtonX, the online learning venture of Eton College. His keynote engages directly with IMDA's agentic AI framework.
IMDA's Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI, version 1.0 of 22 January 2026, states that as agents take over entry level tasks, which typically serve as the training ground for new staff, this could lead to loss of basic operational knowledge for the users, and that organisations should identify core capabilities of each job and provide sufficient training and work exposure so that users retain foundational skills. It is guidance rather than statute, and it sets no threshold for what counts as retaining core skills.
The Ministry of Manpower reported in June 2026 that 28.5 per cent of firms had adopted AI, rising to 74.1 per cent in information and communications. Only 6.2 per cent of firms reported AI-related reductions in headcount or hiring, against 18.9 per cent reporting redesign of job functions.
Three to six months ahead for an in-person date in Singapore. Shorter is often possible for a virtual session, and sometimes in person where the diary is free and the talk already exists in the form you need. Ask earlier rather than later. There is one of him, he carries advisory clients and other commitments alongside the speaking, so not every date can be taken.
Fees are not published, and not withheld to create a negotiation. What they depend on is whether the talk already exists in the form you want or has to be built for your audience, and how much preparation the brief implies. Tell us the room, the date, the audience and what you need them to do differently, and you will get a number quickly. Schools, universities and charities are quoted differently. On travel there is one rule: outside London you book it and you pay it, because your rates are better than his and nobody is out of pocket waiting on a reimbursement. From London Heathrow to Singapore that means a business-class fare, arrival the night before, and normally two nights in a standard room at or near the venue. A London booking carries no travel, accommodation or expenses at all.
When the decision has already been made and the session exists to announce it. When the audience has no authority over their own work, because the talk asks them to decide which repetitions are worth keeping. When the slot runs under twenty-five minutes, because the turn needs setting up. And when the session follows a vendor pitch, since order matters more than programmes usually assume. Where the conditions are wrong we will say so, and sometimes that means reshaping the session. Occasionally it means recommending somebody else.
Written by Rahim Hirji, author of SuperSkills (Kogan Page, 2026), founder of The SuperSkills Intelligence Company. The research is published openly with every source graded. Found an error? Tell me and it is corrected on the page.
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