KPMG Singapore launches trusted AI centre to boost enterprise assurance

KPMG Singapore’s new Trusted AI Centre of Excellence signaled where the firm expects the next wave of profitable work to land: not in generic AI enthusiasm, but in assurance, controls and the people who can prove a system is safe to scale.

Launched on May 25 with support from the Singapore Economic Development Board, the centre was unveiled alongside a Trusted AI Assurance offering aimed at giving clients a more evidence-based way to judge whether their AI deployments are ready for enterprise use. The message for consultants, auditors and risk professionals inside KPMG was straightforward: as AI moves from pilots to production, the highest-value work shifts toward governance, model validation, data quality and human oversight.

The launch was officiated by Jasmin Lau, Minister of State at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and the Ministry of Education, alongside Jermaine Loy, managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board, and Lee Sze Yeng, managing partner of KPMG in Singapore. KPMG said the centre is built around a trust-first approach that emphasizes trust by design, strong data trust and human trust, a framing that puts advisory, audit and tax teams closer to the centre of client decision-making.

That matters in Singapore, where the country is trying to position itself as a trusted AI hub. The National AI Council was established in February and is chaired by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, while the government updated its National AI Strategy in May with 10 refreshed priorities. Singapore also says more than 70 companies have established AI centres of excellence in the country, underscoring how quickly enterprise AI capability is turning into a policy and competition issue.

KPMG is linking the launch to its 2025 Global CEO Outlook, which found that 71% of CEOs were investing in AI, 71% were investing in retaining and retraining high-potential talent, and 79% were optimistic about their organizations’ prospects. The survey covered 1,350 CEOs between Aug. 5 and Sept. 10, 2025, and the firm is using those findings to argue that the main bottlenecks are no longer ideas, but governance, readiness and workforce capability.

For KPMG staff, that points to a clearer career path for specialists who can turn AI into something that survives regulator scrutiny and client due diligence. Assurance practitioners, risk advisers, model validators, data specialists and people who understand cross-border credibility are likely to see more demand, more client visibility and more influence in proposal work, control design and regulatory conversations. KPMG also held an AI CoE open day on May 26 to showcase use cases and its Four-Door Framework, a sign that the firm wants to make trusted AI a repeatable business line, not a one-off launch.