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SINGAPORE – An initiative set up here by tech firm Oracle to help enterprises implement artificial intelligence (AI) projects had swift results when it teamed with car-sharing firm GetGo.
The start-up was keen to develop an AI model that identifies damage on its rental cars through pictures sent in by customers. The task would have taken a year or more, but that all changed when its executives began bouncing ideas around with Oracle managers in 2024.
Oracle sent its experts to train and work with the GetGo data and technical teams to set up the operating environment and pick the right model.
Much of the work, which was carried out at Oracle’s first AI Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific, soon produced fruitful results.
GetGo chief executive and co-founder Toh Ting Feng said the AI model combs through as many as 50,000 photos its customers send in each day before and after they have rented one of its 3,000 vehicles.
“The model will then tell us if there is damage to the vehicles,” said Mr Toh, who spoke to The Straits Times at the annual Oracle CloudWorld conference held at Shangri-La Hotel on March 13.
His firm, which employs 160 staff here, was the first project unveiled by the Oracle centre, which is based at Fusionpolis in Singapore.
The Singapore Government has called on global tech firms to set up such facilities to help businesses embrace AI.
Mr Garrett Ilg, Oracle’s executive vice-president of Japan and Asia Pacific, told ST: “Centres of excellence have typically been demo centres – a little bit of hand-waving, a lot of PowerPoint, some screens.
“A lot of technology companies use that to basically create a cool meeting room for customers to come and look at cool stuff on the screens. That is not what we’re doing.”
Oracle will simulate AI solutions within its secure networks that run outside of even the Oracle network. “We actually show them (the businesses) how it works. It is a mimic of real-life environments,” Mr IIg added.
The centre also offers virtual training sessions and certification as part of Oracle’s pledge to train 10,000 students workers in Singapore on cloud and AI technologies by 2027.
Oracle, which had revenue of US$53 billion (S$71 billion) in the 2024 financial year, is one of the world’s largest cloud service providers – also known as hyperscalers – along with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Alibaba.
The firm also used the one-day CloudWorld conference to announce other initiatives, including the availability of its database services on Microsoft Azure data centres, as well as new anti-fraud AI capabilities.
The company founded in 1977 by billionaire Larry Ellison is betting on an explosion in demand for AI with firms trying to implement pilot AI projects after two years of experimenting with the technology that took off in 2022 with the public launch of ChatGPT.
Anyone with a good idea, not necessarily Oracle customers, can approach the firm, said Mr IIg.
“If you’re a little company or an SME (small or medium-size enterprise), and you’re looking at a new solution or bringing a new business to market, we will give you the same level of attention and detail that we would provide to one of our major enterprise customers,” he said.
Manpower Minister and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng told the conference that the Government would like to see big firms pushing frontiers while carrying SMEs along.
The Government will provide support, Dr Tan said, adding: “We give them (SMEs) grants to buy off-the-shelf software, AI black box. And then, as they grow, they can slowly morph into larger grants like our Enterprise Compute Initiative.”
The Government is working with cloud service providers to give local companies cloud compute credits, training programmes and consultancy services for AI solutions.
Mr Sam Liew, deputy chief executive at Singapore tech firm NCS, said: “The creation of centres of excellence is actually to speed up the roll-out of solutions and bring expertise closer to partners like myself, as well as to customers.”
He added: “The whole of Singapore ecosystem needs to come together. We shouldn’t really just look at the fringes, like how you type your e-mail faster, how you summarise things better, but really go into the core of the business and driving AI into the core.”
It is significant that the Government has called for such hubs, said Mr Liew, who is also president of the Singapore Computer Society. He said: “It can only help Singapore, because more people will start developing solutions, starting as a proof-of-concept, and eventually scaling them into production.”
GetGo’s Mr Toh said the outcome of the collaboration between a billion-dollar company like Oracle and his four-year-old outfit still feels a little unreal, but such tie-ups might be what gives Singapore pole position in the global AI race.
“That kind of partnership and speed will really be useful for Singaporean enterprises to keep up, or take the lead, in the use of this technology.”
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