OpenAI will open its first Applied AI Lab outside the United States in Singapore. The lab is part of a new partnership with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information.
The initiative, called OpenAI for Singapore, was announced at the ATx Summit and has received more than S$300 million in funding.
The lab plans to create more than 200 Singapore-based technical jobs over the next few years. OpenAI said Singapore will also become one of its global hubs for forward-deployed engineers to work with organizations on AI implementation. OpenAI said the institute’s efforts will be in line with Singapore’s AI mission priorities, including public services, finance and digital infrastructure.
Focus on implementation and talent
The company will work with government agencies and local partners on education and workforce programs within the Department of Education and GovTech. OpenAI will also support educators through the Singapore branch of OpenAI Academy, participate in the National AI Impact Program, and conduct the Codex for Teachers hackathon.
The partnership includes plans to work with local partners on an accelerator program for AI-native startups in the form of workshops for micro-entrepreneurs and SMEs, covering how founders and SMEs can leverage AI in their operations and customer service.
Chng Kai Fong, Permanent Secretary for Digital Development and Information, said Singapore’s AI readiness includes growing new sectors, anchoring global frontier companies and equipping workers with relevant skills.
Singapore updates agent AI framework
Singapore has also updated its agential AI governance framework, which was announced by the Infocomm Media Development Authority at the World Economic Forum in January 2026. The framework builds on Singapore’s earlier Model AI Governance Framework for AI, introduced in 2020, and provides guidance to organizations on the responsible deployment of AI agents, including steps to mitigate the risks inherent in agentic AI.
After soliciting industry feedback and case studies, IMDA updated the framework and created a revised version that incorporates input from more than 60 organizations, including AWS, DBS, Google, and Salesforce.
This update adds guidance on risks related to multi-agent systems, third-party agents, automated bias, and human accountability. The framework currently includes more than 10 case studies demonstrating how organizations have applied its recommendations.
Case studies were contributed by Singapore and international organizations including Ant International, City Developments Limited, Cyber Sierra, Dayos, Google, Knovel, OCBC, PwC, Stability Solutions, Tencent, terminal 3, Workday, X0PA, and GovTech Singapore.
Case study shows governance management
One of the case studies focuses on Dayos, an enterprise AI automation company headquartered in Singapore with operations in the United States. Dayos built an AI-powered ticketing agent to handle internal IT requests. Agents can automatically resolve some requests and route requests to humans if necessary.
Dayos used tiered risk levels to determine what actions agents could take. Low-risk, reversible actions, such as password resets, can be automated and audited bi-weekly, while medium-risk actions require human approval before being executed. Riskier actions, such as privilege changes with limited reversibility, were excluded from the agent’s privileges.
Tencent contributed a case study of CodeBuddy, an agent AI coding system developed by Tencent Cloud. CodeBuddy lets you plan, write, and deploy code through natural language instructions and access to the file system, terminal commands, external APIs, and MCP tools.
CodeBuddy uses preset defaults and configurable permissions. Actions such as editing files, running shell commands, making network requests, and using external tools require human approval.
The system explains complex commands in plain language before the user approves them. Suspicious commands still require human approval, even if similar commands are pre-approved.
GovTech Singapore’s case study covers the deployment of agent coding assistants in government. The first phase was limited to GovTech employees, no external tools allowed, and limited to low-risk systems. GovTech has developed a framework for connecting central logging and approved external tools. The agency also tested the system against potential attacks.
(Photo by Mike Enerio)
See also: GPT-5.5 is OpenAI’s most capable agent AI model to date
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