Microsoft and Digital Industry Singapore (DISG) have announced the Agentic AI Accelerator program, as part of the Singapore government’s Enterprise Compute Initiative (ECI).
The duo said in a statement on last Friday that over the next 12 months, the Agentic AI Accelerator program will offer up to 300 Singapore-based businesses a baseline support of up to S$250,000 ($194,006) of Azure cloud credits, artificial intelligence (AI) training and tools.
In addition, Microsoft will also offer funding of up to S$700,000 ($543,217) in services to help select businesses co-develop their agentic AI roadmap with Microsoft technology partners, subject to approval.
This package complements the Singapore government’s funding support of S$105,000 ($81,483) capped per enterprise for consulting costs on a co-payment basis to create their own AI Center of Excellence with the support of Microsoft and a technology partner.
Through this initiative, Microsoft will empower businesses to become ‘Frontier Firms’ – organizations powered by hybrid teams of humans working with AI agents.
“At Microsoft, we see that Frontier Firms are the future – a new type of organization where teams of humans and AI agents are working together, able to scale faster, move with greater agility, and create value in new ways,” said Cynthia Yeo, Acting Managing Director of Microsoft Singapore.
“As a leader in both generative AI and cutting-edge agentic AI, Microsoft is committed to helping businesses become Frontier Firms by scaling with AI that is intuitive, secure, and integrated into everyday workflows,
“The combination of support now available to local businesses through the government’s ECI and Microsoft’s new Agentic AI Accelerator will drive innovation and position Singapore to lead with AI,” she added.
Supporting ECI and launching its Agentic AI Accelerator builds on Microsoft Singapore’s vision for its AI Pinnacle Program.
This initiative aims transform industries with AI, including co-innovating with leading local organizations from law to healthcare and maritime to aviation.
The Microsoft Research Asia – Singapore lab recently launched with the support of the Economic Development Board will also provide Agentic AI Accelerator participants the opportunity to engage with world-class scientists through deep research collaborations, lectures and training workshops to discover groundbreaking new AI use cases.
“Increasing access to AI tools and services is pivotal to empowering Singapore-based enterprises to gain competitiveness,” said Philbert Gomez, Senior Vice President, Head and Executive Director, Digital Industry Singapore.
“We are pleased to partner with Microsoft who is forefront of AI and cloud innovation, to provide hundreds of Singapore-based enterprises with access to advanced Azure services and cutting-edge AI tools,
“This will support companies in dealing with the pace of change and get ahead to uncover new opportunities from Singapore,” he added.
As a cloud partner in the ECI, Microsoft said it is supporting the government’s vision to accelerate AI adoption by setting up AI Centers of Excellence (CoE) across industries.