In 2017, Accenture Research and Frontier Economics published modelling that suggested artificial intelligence could nearly double Singapore’s annual economic growth rate by 2035. The study put the rate at 3.2 percent in a baseline scenario and 5.4 percent in an AI scenario. That gap was worth an extra US$215 billion in gross value added (GVA).
Accenture also said Singapore would need only 13 years to double the size of its economy with AI, against 22 years without it. The research placed Singapore ahead of larger economies such as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Japan in its ability to absorb the technology.
The question the study set out to answer
The researchers wanted to know what happens to growth when AI is treated as a new factor of production, working alongside labour and capital. They modelled 33 economies that together produce more than 80 percent of world economic output. For each one they compared the size of the economy in 2035 under two cases. The baseline case assumed growth continued on current expectations. The AI case assumed the technology had been fully absorbed into the economy.
The measure was GVA, a close approximation of gross domestic product. Accenture argued that AI could help counter slow growth and weak productivity, two problems it linked to ageing workforces and labour shortages in developed economies.
Findings for Singapore and its peers
Singapore showed the biggest uplift in annual growth rate of the economies Accenture highlighted. The study projected that AI would raise labour productivity in Singapore by 41 percent by 2035, the highest among developed economies in the study. Accenture said the gain would come from people spending less time on routine work and more on creative and innovative tasks.
The comparisons for other markets in the release were:
- United States: annual growth rising from 2.6 percent to 4.6 percent, with US$8.3 trillion added in GVA by 2035.
- United Kingdom: growth rising from 2.5 to 3.9 percent, with US$814 billion added.
- Japan: potential to more than triple its annual GVA growth rate.
- Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria: growth rates could double.
Accenture said the “doubling time” of an economy reflects how well a country spreads technological innovation through its wider economic infrastructure. That ability, rather than the technology alone, drove the ranking.
Lee Joon Seong, managing director and ASEAN Accenture Analytics lead, tied the findings to Singapore’s Smart Nation vision. He said AI, cloud, analytics, robotics and other technologies were already changing how humans and machines share work. Mark Purdy, Accenture Research’s chief economist, said the research showed AI could produce large benefits in Singapore and elsewhere.
What Accenture told firms and policymakers
The study ended with four recommendations for firms, consumers and society:
- Prepare the next generation. Education should pair human and machine intelligence and rethink which skills will matter.
- Encourage AI-powered regulation. Laws should become adaptive so that rules keep pace with technological change.
- Advocate a code of ethics for AI. Ethical debate should be backed by concrete standards and best practice.
- Address the redistribution effects. Policymakers should show the tangible benefits of AI and act early to support groups most affected by shifts in jobs and incomes.
The Singapore-specific report
Later in 2017, Accenture followed with a report titled “Artificial Intelligence: Driving Future Growth in Singapore”, again developed with Frontier Economics. It compared growth across 11 industries by 2035 under the same baseline and AI scenarios. It estimated Singapore’s output at close to US$744 billion by 2035 in the AI scenario.
The report named business services, financial services and manufacturing as the sectors that would gain the most. It projected gains of US$46.3 billion, US$45.8 billion and US$29.8 billion for them respectively. Together they came to US$121.9 billion of the additional GVA. The report also set out eight strategies for putting AI into practice, centred on a human-centric approach and bold but responsible adoption. Alison Kennedy, managing director of Accenture Strategy for ASEAN, said analytics-led strategies would bring significant growth opportunities to Singapore.
How Singapore’s economy has moved since
The 2035 projections remain a modelled scenario, and the sources reviewed do not test them directly. Recent official data does show AI-related demand shaping the economy, though mostly through exports and electronics. Singapore’s economy grew 5 percent in 2025, down from 5.3 percent in 2024, according to Statistics Singapore data cited by Trading Economics. Manufacturing, wholesale trade, and finance and insurance drove that growth, with AI-related electronics demand providing a key lift.
In February 2026, as Reuters reported, the Ministry of Trade and Industry raised its 2026 growth forecast to a range of 2 to 4 percent, from 1 to 3 percent. The ministry said it had factored in sustained momentum in the AI investment boom.