How Singapore SMEs Are Actually Using AI Search: An On-the-Ground Observation Report

Before discussing AI search specifically, one set of numbers is worth establishing upfront: Singapore is not a peripheral market for AI tools.

Across multiple independent studies, Singapore's AI tool adoption rate ranks near the top globally. The specific figure: 53% of Singapore's working-age population is actively using AI tools — third globally, behind India (59%) and the UAE (58%), and ahead of China (50%) (source: Omnibound AI Search Statistics, April 2026, aggregating data from multiple institutions).

At the enterprise level, IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report 2025, published in October 2025, found:

• 14.5% of Singapore SMEs adopted AI in 2024, up from 4.2% in 2023 — a more than threefold increase in one year
• 62.5% of non-SMEs adopted AI, up from 44% the previous year
• 73.8% of Singapore workers use AI tools at work, with the majority doing so multiple times per week or daily
• SMEs that adopted AI-enabled solutions through the PSG grant reported average cost savings of 52%

This context matters: when we ask whether Singapore SMEs are using AI search, we are asking about a market where AI tool familiarity is already high, not one where the concept needs to be introduced first.

The data in this report comes from three layers:

1. Public reports from IMDA, Microsoft, Gartner, 6sense, Adobe, and other research institutions — the baseline data layer
2. Direct observations from Mayson's work with Singapore SME clients — from the second half of 2025 through mid-2026, through client conversations, website audits, and content strategy consultations across professional services, digital marketing, IT services, education, and F&B
3. GA4 channel data — where clients gave permission, we reviewed their Google Analytics 4 data to observe real changes in AI referral traffic

All "we observed" statements in this report come from actual client work. We deliberately avoid precise percentages where our sample does not support them.

Global data: In March 2026, Averi analysed 680 million AI citation data points and concluded that 73% of B2B buyers now use AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, etc.) as part of their procurement research process. This is not occasional experimentation — it is an active component of the research phase before purchasing decisions.

Singapore observations: Among the Singapore professional services clients we work with — covering IT consulting, accounting, digital marketing, and legal services — a noticeable shift began in the second half of 2025. Increasingly, new enquiries arrived with comments like "I asked ChatGPT and your name came up" or "Perplexity recommended you." This almost never happened in the first half of 2024.

A specific example: a Singapore SME providing enterprise IT support services ran a client source survey in late 2025. Three new clients explicitly identified AI search as how they found the business — the first time that source type had appeared in their records.

What this means: AI search has started generating real, trackable enquiry traffic. Its volume is still smaller than Google search, but its growth rate is fast, and the quality of that traffic appears to be high — visitors arriving via AI have typically already completed a self-selection process and are at the comparison-and-contact stage, not the awareness stage.

Global data: ChatGPT holds approximately 80.49% of the AI assistant market and is the clear leader. By February 2026, ChatGPT had reached 900 million weekly active users, more than doubling from 400 million in February 2025 (OpenAI).

Perplexity is significantly smaller — approximately 45 million active users in the second half of 2025 — but its user profile is unusually concentrated: 80% hold a university degree or above, 30% are senior company leaders, and 65% are high-income white-collar workers (source: WARC user profile data). This demographic maps closely onto Singapore's B2B decision-maker base.

Singapore observations: In our work with Singapore professional services and B2B clients, Perplexity comes up with disproportionate frequency — particularly among the highly educated expatriate and local professional communities. The reason given is typically "the citations make answers more verifiable," rather than any particular preference for the interface. This is a research-oriented use case.

For Singapore SMEs serving professional buyers, the implication is specific: Perplexity's importance likely exceeds what global average data would suggest. The 80%-30% senior leader demographic is precisely the audience that makes procurement decisions for business services in Singapore.

Data: Adobe Digital Insights' January 2026 holiday shopping report found that AI-sourced visitors converted 31% better than non-AI traffic. First Page Sage's research found ChatGPT-referred visitors converted 4.4 times higher than organic search visitors when they did click through.

Why this happens: The logic is not complicated. When someone opens ChatGPT and asks "which agency in Singapore does bilingual website development," then clicks through to a specific firm's website, they have already completed a self-qualification process. They understand they received a specific recommendation and they are there to verify it. This is a fundamentally different psychological state from a user who randomly clicked a Google result.

Singapore observations: In the GA4 data we have reviewed for clients, AI referral traffic (tagged from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, and similar sources) consistently shows 30–60% longer average session duration compared to overall organic search traffic, with notably lower bounce rates. The sample is limited, but the directional pattern is consistent with global data.

This is the most significant structural gap we have observed.

Global data: Only 22% of marketers currently track their AI search visibility. Only 26% plan to develop content specifically targeting AI citations (source: Superlines AI Search Statistics, 2026). This means that even among marketing-aware businesses, the majority are still operating with 2022-era SEO thinking in a 2026 search environment.

Singapore observations: When we ask Singapore SME clients "do you know how your business is described in ChatGPT," more than 80% have never checked. The gap is not a lack of interest — it is a lack of awareness that this is something checkable, optimisable, and already influencing potential clients' decisions.

More specifically: in the GEO audits we conduct with clients, a significant proportion of Singapore professional services SMEs cannot be accurately described by ChatGPT or Perplexity when queried about their service category. Some do not appear at all. Others appear but with inaccurate information — wrong service scope descriptions, outdated addresses sourced from old directory listings, or descriptions that reflect a previous version of the business.

Against a backdrop where approximately 70% of SMEs are still running 2022 SEO playbooks (source: bestmarketing.com.sg, based on their Singapore client base audits), businesses that move early on AI visibility are accumulating an asymmetric competitive advantage — and the window for doing so cheaply is narrowing.

This is a dimension frequently invisible in global reports.

Singapore users engaging with AI search platforms show several locally specific patterns:

1. Bilingual search mixing
Singapore users sometimes query in English, sometimes in Chinese, and sometimes run the same query in both languages to compare answers. A business with English-only website content may have a systematic visibility gap in Chinese-language AI search contexts, despite operating in the same market and serving the same clients.

2. Highly localised service queries
When Singapore users search for service providers via AI, their queries tend to include explicit local qualifiers: "Singapore AI automation company," "PSG grant approved vendor," "bilingual website development Singapore." These queries rely heavily on local data — company addresses, service regions, government programme affiliations — that generic international content does not supply.

3. Government programme signals function as trust anchors
In Singapore's B2B procurement environment, PSG pre-approved vendor status, IMDA-related certifications, and Enterprise Singapore partnerships function as credibility signals that AI systems use when generating local service recommendations. A business that clearly surfaces this information on its website is more likely to be cited in local service queries than one that does not, because AI platforms treat this as a trust verification layer.

Combining the above observations, our assessment is that Singapore SME AI search visibility is currently in an early-mover window.

• AI search adoption in Singapore has already happened, and is accelerating faster than the global average due to Singapore's structural AI-readiness
• Traffic from AI search is high-quality, but has not yet reached the scale that forces most businesses to respond immediately
• Most competitors have not seriously addressed AI search visibility, leaving meaningful low-competition opportunity for early movers
• But this window will not stay open indefinitely — Gartner projects traditional search engine query volume to decline 25% by end of 2026, a pace faster than most businesses have planned for

The practical question for Singapore SMEs has shifted. It is no longer "should I care about AI search?" — the data answers that. It is: "Is my website, my service page content, and my brand information organised in a way that AI systems can understand and cite?"

If you want to understand your current AI search status, this simple self-check requires no tools and takes under five minutes:

1. Open ChatGPT (or Perplexity) and type the queries your potential clients would use, for example:

• "AI automation company Singapore"
• "Singapore bilingual website development agency"
• "PSG grant approved digital marketing Singapore"

Check whether your company name appears, and whether the information is accurate

Note which competitors are cited, and compare their website content structure to yours

The results are typically illuminating — and the gaps they reveal are usually fixable.

Q1: What is Singapore's overall SME AI adoption rate?

According to IMDA's Singapore Digital Economy Report 2025 (published October 2025), 14.5% of Singapore SMEs adopted AI in 2024, up from 4.2% in 2023 — a more than threefold increase in a single year. Among non-SMEs, the adoption rate jumped from 44% to 62.5% over the same period. Additionally, 73.8% of Singapore workers use AI tools at work, with most doing so several times per week or daily.

Q2: Does AI search traffic actually generate enquiries?

Yes, and at higher quality than typical organic search. Global data shows AI-sourced traffic converts at more than 4 times the rate of standard organic search visitors (First Page Sage), and at 31% higher than non-AI traffic (Adobe Digital Insights, January 2026). The reason: users who find a business through AI search have typically already completed self-qualification and are at the comparison-and-contact phase, not the awareness-and-browsing phase.

Q3: Should Singapore businesses prioritise ChatGPT or Perplexity?

Both matter, but for different reasons. ChatGPT has the larger user base (900 million weekly active users globally) and is the primary volume driver. Perplexity's user base is smaller but concentrated among high-income, senior business decision-makers (WARC data) — a profile that closely matches Singapore's B2B buyer demographic. A critical technical point: ChatGPT and Perplexity share only 11% of their cited domains, meaning optimisation for one platform does not automatically transfer to the other.

Q4: How can a Singapore SME start improving its AI search visibility?

Three practical entry points: (1) Ensure service pages contain clear, specific, extractable information — AI systems favour content with concrete numbers, process descriptions, and local details over vague capability statements; (2) Add FAQ structures with FAQPage schema markup — this is the most direct trigger for AI citation; (3) Maintain accurate and consistent information on authoritative local directories and platforms (Google Business Profile, Clutch, industry association directories), as these are primary sources AI systems use to verify business information. For businesses with PSG eligibility, PSG pre-approved vendor status explicitly surfaced on the website functions as a trust signal in local AI queries.

Q5: How significantly is AI search affecting traditional Google SEO for Singapore businesses?

Gartner projects traditional search engine query volume will decline 25% by end of 2026. But the impact is not uniform — informational queries (concept explanations, general guides) are being captured by AI search at a higher rate than transactional queries (finding a vendor, getting a quote). Singapore local service search traffic on Google has remained relatively stable in our client observations, but content targeting general informational terms has shown varied degrees of organic traffic decline. The practical recommendation is to pursue SEO and GEO in parallel rather than treating them as alternatives — the structural investment required for each reinforces the other.

Data current as of May 2026. This report will be updated as significant new Singapore-specific data becomes available. If you would like to understand your company's current AI search visibility in the Singapore market, book a consultation and we can run a live AI visibility review with you.