Across Asia, AI is now built into everyday operations. Three years after ChatGPT's launch, most organisations are no longer asking whether to adopt AI but how to get value from it, and those trying to answer that are finding gaps in workforce readiness.
Three signals from Epitome's assessment data
Source: Epitome assessment data. Decision-making and digital literacy are self-ratings.
- Decision-making is a weak point. About 56% of workers rate their own decision-making at a basic level, even as their roles grow more complex and more AI-assisted.
- Digital confidence runs ahead of reasoning. More than 70% report advanced digital literacy, but far fewer show confidence in higher-order reasoning or computational thinking.
- People finish learning tied to their role. Completion on role-specific programmes is around 90%. On generic programmes it is typically in the teens or low twenties.
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Five trends to watch
1. Disengagement becomes a risk
Organisations racing to build AI-ready teams face rising disengagement. Only about one worker in five consistently shows the behaviours associated with AI readiness, such as persistence, curiosity and reflective learning.
2. Gaps in AI management become visible
Despite fast adoption across Singapore in 2025, 65% of organisations remain focused on basic use cases, and 43% name skills shortages as the main barrier to scaling AI.
3. Workers move up the value chain
Workers across the region are moving from outsourcing roles to competing directly for global positions. The Philippines is shifting towards higher-value digital roles, Vietnam is strengthening its engineering base and India is deepening its AI expertise.
4. Employers cut and hire at the same time
Organisations now make workforce decisions on capability: they cut some roles while recruiting selectively for advanced technical and cross-functional skills.
5. Employers plan around senior staff
Asia is ageing faster than Western economies. Organisations are looking at how senior professionals can carry institutional knowledge and mentor others in AI-enabled teams.
Capability is the constraint
In 2026, competitive advantage depends less on how many AI tools an organisation deploys and more on how well it understands and develops its people. Knowing what people can do today, where the gaps are and how roles will change is now a practical requirement.
Organisations that plan technology investment and workforce capability together will be better placed for the next phase of AI-enabled growth in Asia.
About Epitome Global
Epitome Global is a workforce intelligence company founded in Singapore in 2016. It combines psychometric profiling, competency assessment and labour market data to help employers and governments understand, develop and deploy their people. Its platform holds more than 1.3 million career profiles.
