Singapore’s Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has announced a $15 million investment over three years to incubate and pilot emerging technology projects in the social care sector.The announcement was made at MSF’s Partners Conference, themed “Better Starts with Us — Innovating Together,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli outlined three focus areas: strengthening prevention through more systematic use of data to identify emerging needs and enable timely intervention; deepening partnerships with academia, social service agencies, technology companies, and international partners; and leveraging technology to augment the capabilities of social service professionals.
The minister emphasized that the deployment of emerging technologies across the social care sector will focus on human-centered design, professional oversight, transparent and explainable outputs, and safe, evidence-based approaches.
Besides, the ministry reached memoranda of understanding with Singapore’s technology firms NCS and ST Engineering to co-develop and test technology solutions with social service agencies.
The MOUs with NCS and ST Engineering focus on early-stage technology experimentation requiring further development or validation in real-world social care settings, complementing existing scale-ready projects such as CaseCentral, MSF’s case management system, and Scribe, a transcription-summarization tool.
Sam Liew, CEO of NCS, said the partnership combines MSF’s domain expertise with NCS’s AI and technology capabilities to explore how AI solutions can safely support families and vulnerable individuals, enabling frontline officers to spend less time on administration and more time on meaningful human connections.
Vincent Chong, Group President and CEO of ST Engineering, said the company looks forward to leveraging its expertise in AI, digital solutions, and mission-critical systems to strengthen the social sector’s capabilities in supporting and uplifting communities in Singapore.
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