NDR 2026: Singapore won’t leave workers to fend for themselves when embracing new tech

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SINGAPORE - Even as Singapore scales up its use of autonomous vehicles to meet the country’s growing transportation needs, the Republic will help taxi and private-hire drivers affected by the self-driving shift to retrain and move into new jobs, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

“That is how we manage the impact of technological change on jobs,” said PM Wong on Aug 23 at the National Day Rally.

“Through every major technological shift, we have embraced change on our own terms, built new capabilities and emerged stronger. We have done it before. And we will do it again,” he said at the event held in the Institute of Technical Education’s Ang Mo Kio headquarters.

He was outlining Singapore’s approach to new technologies - seizing the opportunities they present and managing the disruptions that they bring. And should there be risks to Singaporeans and society, the Government will put safeguards in place.

Singapore will not hold back on new technologies just because they are disruptive, he said. At the same time, the country will not leave affected workers to fend for themselves.

“We support our workers through the transition. We will ensure that every worker shares in the fruits of Singapore’s progress,” he added.

One new technology that Singapore has embraced is self-driving vehicles. Driverless shuttle trials by ComfortDelGro and Grab were launched in the first half of 2026 in Punggol. And from end-2026, self-driving public buses will be tested in Marina Bay, Shenton Way and one-north in Buona Vista.

PM Wong said at the National Day Rally that once the self-driving technology has been proven, the Government intends to scale it up as Singapore needs new solutions to meet growing transportation demands.

For instance, it is becoming harder to recruit bus captains. The country’s taxi drivers are also ageing, with two in three cabbies aged 60 and above. Autonomous vehicles can thus help ease these manpower constraints and keep services reliable.

But he noted that these self-driving vehicles pose a major concern for many taxi and private-hire drivers who depend on driving for a living.

“So, even as we scale up autonomous vehicles, we will do so progressively. We will not let adoption run ahead of our ability to retrain and support affected drivers, and help them move into new jobs,” he said, adding that the country needs to build confidence in the technology, with safety remaining its priority.

In July, the Government announced help for taxi and private-hire drivers to stay competitive in a fast-changing transport sector being transformed by the adoption of self-driving vehicles.

This approach is similar to what Singapore did when ride-hailing apps arrived over 10 years ago. While some cities tried to keep these apps out, Singapore welcomed the innovation instead, said PM Wong. But the country also put in place rules to ensure fair competition and support drivers during the shift.

Now, commuters enjoy greater convenience with the apps, while drivers have more flexibility and new ways to earn a living.

Pointing to other benefits of seizing new technologies, PM Wong said that artificial intelligence (AI) agents - which are AI programs that help people carry out tasks without human guidance - can make a big difference, especially to small businesses.

“AI can give them capabilities that were once available only to much larger firms,” he said, adding that the technology enables small- and medium-sized enterprises to “think bigger, move faster and achieve much more with fewer resources”.

One such company is MagicPainters, a face-painting service which eventually became an events company. The business is largely run by Gisele Woon and her husband, who have been able to focus more time on growing their business by using AI agents to help them handle routine work, such as those for marketing and operations.

New technologies can also be a boon for healthcare, noted PM Wong, such as the Government’s plan to use AI to create exercise plans tailored to individuals so they can be healthier.

AI is also making it more accurate to detect diseases. In breast cancer screening, AI can act as another pair of eyes to help radiologists analyse mammograms and detect cancers faster and more accurately.

But PM Wong cautioned that as technology becomes more powerful, there is a need to guard against risks that are harder to predict.

Technology companies Anthropic, ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Meta, which runs Facebook and WhatsApp, revealed in July and August that their AI models or agents had gone rogue and hacked other organisations during testing.

In OpenAI’s case, its AI agent escaped a controlled environment to hack another organisation to complete its task, even though it was not instructed to carry out the cyberattack.

“Developments like this are unsettling,” said PM Wong. He noted that as AI agents become more capable, they bring enormous possibilities but the consequences can be serious when things go awry.

“Ideally, countries should work together to set common rules and safeguards. Unfortunately, this is getting harder because the major powers want to move faster and gain an advantage over their competitors,” he said.

“But we must keep trying to find common ground. Singapore will do our part. We will bring countries and companies together and build coalitions around practical safeguards.”

Watch PM Wong’s National Day Rally speech here: