At the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference held in Singapore on July 23, 2025, experts and industry leaders gathered to discuss the real effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on workforce productivity. While most acknowledged that AI can help workers complete tasks faster, many questioned whether this necessarily leads to increased overall productivity.
“They do it faster—and then go for coffee”
Ramine Tinati, head of Accenture’s APAC Center for Advanced AI, argued that faster task completion does not always translate into better outcomes. “If you give employees a tool to work faster, they do it faster. But are they more productive? Probably not, because they just go for coffee after finishing,” he noted.
Tinati emphasized that productivity gains require more than just automation—they require rethinking the nature of work itself. “If you reinvent the workflow, those coffee breaks stop being meaningful, because you’re doing something else with that time,” he said.
Automation is not new, but AI raises the stakes
May Yap, Chief Information Officer at manufacturing giant Jabil, shared how her company had integrated automation long before ChatGPT came onto the scene. Jabil’s “Golden Eye” system oversees quality inspection workers who check phones for defects. Given that these workers operate eight hours a day, mistakes are inevitable—something AI helps to reduce by supplementing human inspections.
AI brings new capabilities, not just speed
Chee Wee Ang, Chief AI Officer at Singapore’s Home Team Science and Tech Agency, highlighted how AI has delivered substantial operational improvements—up to 200% in some information extraction processes. More importantly, he noted that AI enables entirely new capabilities, such as responding to emerging types of crime or emergency scenarios. Singapore’s Home Team includes police, emergency services, and immigration departments, among others.
Reskilling is essential as AI transforms roles
With automation rendering some roles obsolete, employee anxiety is on the rise. Many fear they are unknowingly training their AI replacements. Panelists agreed that the most effective response to these changes is reskilling and moving talent into adjacent roles.
“Transformation is scary,” said Yap. “But we are not here to replace people with AI—we want to empower our workforce.” She emphasized that core leadership traits and general problem-solving skills cannot be replaced by machines.
Ang echoed this sentiment, adding that it’s been hard to find talent in Singapore with hands-on AI experience. His agency often hires individuals with adjacent skills and trains them in AI, especially since sensitive government work cannot be done in cloud environments due to security concerns.
Conclusion: A tool, not a solution—unless work is reimagined
Tinati concluded with an optimistic outlook, saying AI can enable workers to move into more meaningful, high-value roles. “Their skills are being elevated—they’re moving into supervisory positions or learning entirely new skill sets that contribute to higher-order development tasks.”
Ultimately, while AI can increase speed, its true value lies in how organizations use it to rethink work itself. The winners won’t be the companies that simply automate—but those that innovate how work gets done.
