KPMG launches Trusted AI Center of Excellence in Singapore

KPMG’s Trusted AI Assurance offering was developed to address the trust deficit with AI in the business community to boost adoption

KPMG has launched a Trusted Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) in Singapore to provide organizations the opportunity to move beyond AI experimentation and embed AI as a trusted asset. The center, which is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), signals a pivotal shift in the national AI conversation as businesses move from speed to scale of adoption where trust is the foundational bedrock of deploying AI.

According to KPMG’s 2025 Global CEO Outlook, more than seven in ten CEOs now rank AI as a top investment priority. However, the gap between ambition and sustained enterprise impact remains wide. Key concerns include governance, data readiness and workforce capability with Singapore-based businesses facing a further dimension to ensure AI developments and deployments meet regulatory expectations.

Increasing need for sovereign AI capabilities in Singapore and other Southeast Asian nations are seeing businesses reevaluate how they can deploy AI. With data the enabler for AI, businesses are needing more guidance on how they can manage their data locally but still have the capabilities of deploying large scale AI use cases.

“Across every sector, we are seeing the same pattern: organizations that moved fast on AI are now asking harder questions — where is the real value, are our people genuinely ready to work alongside AI, and can we stand behind the decisions our systems make? These are not technical questions. They are leadership questions. And for Singapore businesses with ambitions beyond our shores, there is an added dimension: the trust that matters to customers and regulators in the markets you are entering may be defined differently from what is required here,” said Lee Sze Yeng, Managing Partner at KPMG in Singapore, said:

Through the KPMG Singapore Trusted AI CoE, Lee shared that KPMG is partnering with businesses to rigorously assess where they stand, close the gaps that matter, and build AI that is trusted not just locally but, in the markets, most critical to their growth.

“Trusted AI is not a constraint to ambition. Done well, it is the foundation for it,” Lee added.

“KPMG's Trusted AI Centre of Excellence here in Singapore will enable businesses across diverse sectors – including financial services, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing – to scale use of AI with confidence, supported by robust governance frameworks and assurance capabilities. At the same time, this strengthens Singapore's growing AI ecosystem by building enterprise capabilities and workforce readiness for AI adoption, "Jermaine Loy, Managing Director, EDB said.

Trusted AI Assurance

KPMG’s Trusted AI Assurance offering was developed to address the trust deficit with AI in the business community to boost adoption. According to KPMG, It is not a certification exercise or a compliance checklist but a rigorous, evidence-based independent assessment that gives leadership teams an honest picture of where they stand — and a clear, practical path to where they need to be.

Specifically, the Trusted AI Assurance is calibrated to each organization's sector, operating context, and growth ambitions. The assessment examines two things that are often conflated but must be considered separately. First, its whether an organization has the governance, culture and leadership practices to deploy AI responsibly. The second is whether the AI solutions it has built or acquired are trustworthy, well integrated, and performing as intended.

The Trusted AI Assurance will look across four domains as a checklist. This includes examining needs in AI governance, AI systems, AI regulatory compliance and AI security. KPMG believes the stakes are sharpest for businesses in highly regulated sectors.

The Trusted AI Assurance also maps jurisdictional differences, giving organizations a clear read of where they stand against the specific requirements of markets they are entering.

The Trusted AI CoE is also designed to function as a capability hub to support Singapore’s position as a trusted node in the global community. This includes being an avenue for co-creating knowledge, accelerating innovation and strengthening Singapore’s AI ecosystem across the business community, academia and the public sector.