Laurence Liew

As Director of AI Innovation at AI Singapore, Laurence Liew leads the national programmes that help organisations adopt and put AI to work.

Under his leadership, the 100 Experiments (100E) programme has delivered more than 350 real-world AI projects across industries from startups to multinational corporations. Notable successes include collaborations with IBM, GIC, Sompo, and Q&M Dental.

Recognising Singapore’s AI talent gap, Laurence established the AI Apprenticeship Programme (AIAP) in 2018. The programme has trained about 600 Singaporean AI engineers, and more than ninety per cent of graduates work in an AI role within three months of completion. The AIAP’s success in developing homegrown AI talent has become a model for other nations.

Through the LearnAI initiative, Laurence has brought AI literacy to more than 350,000 Singaporeans through programmes like AI for Everyone, AI for Industry, and AI for Students.

His influence extends beyond Singapore through the AIAP-X initiative, which licenses AI Singapore’s programmes to other countries. As a co-chair of GPAI’s Innovation and Commercialisation Working Group, he continues to shape global AI policy and implementation.

Prior to AI Singapore, Laurence built and led successful ventures in the technology sector. As General Manager at Revolution Analytics (acquired by Microsoft), he led the company’s Asia Pacific expansion and established Singapore’s Center of Excellence for Analytics.

His work in high-performance computing spans more than two decades. In the late 1990s, he established eLinux Pte Ltd, Singapore’s first Linux company. He next founded Scalable Systems, which became a leading HPC/grid player in Asia Pacific, deploying many of Singapore’s first-generation Linux HPC clusters across universities and research institutions. Scalable Systems was acquired by Platform Computing in 2005.

As General Manager at Platform Computing Singapore (later acquired by IBM), he led the development and deployment of cluster management software powering HPC systems for industry giants like Cray, Dell, HP, and Fujitsu. His expertise in grid computing and distributed systems helped organisations use computing power for complex scientific and engineering applications.

In the early cloud computing era, he served as Regional Director at Cloud.com for Asia South Region, where he helped organisations move from traditional infrastructure to cloud-native architectures. Through 1degreenorth, which he founded and led as CEO, he continued working on high-performance computing and cloud technologies in the region.

Throughout his career he has worked on high-performance computing, cloud technologies, and AI, always with the practical business application in view.

Laurence holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore (NUS), where he built the foundation for his later work in high-performance computing and AI. He further specialised in AI-related fields, earning both a Post Graduate Diploma in Knowledge Engineering (Distinction) and a Master of Technology in Knowledge Engineering from NUS Institute of Systems Science.

NUS School of Continuing and Lifelong Education (SCALE) appointed him Adjunct Associate Professor to establish their Data Analytics practice in 2016. In this role, he helped develop and shape the curriculum for working professionals. At SCALE he built practical, industry-relevant data analytics programmes that equipped professionals for data work in industry.

This mix of academic and industry experience is what he draws on in the AI Singapore programmes he leads, particularly AIAP and LearnAI, which tie theoretical knowledge to practical implementation.

Microsoft recognised Laurence as a Regional Director (RD) in 2018, a pro-bono appointment offered by invitation only. As an RD, he joined a worldwide group of approximately 150 technology leaders who provide Microsoft’s senior leadership team with unbiased, third-party industry insights and feedback on technology trends. The appointment is distinct from Microsoft’s MVP programme, and covers his work in high-performance computing, cloud technologies, and AI implementation.

As the inaugural Chairman of Singapore’s AI Standards Technical Committee (2019), a pro-bono role by invitation from Enterprise Singapore, he led Singapore’s participation in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 (Artificial Intelligence) and helped shape national AI standards and practices.

As pro-bono Advisor to SGTech’s AI+HPC Chapter by invitation, Laurence helps set the direction of Singapore’s AI and High-Performance Computing industry initiatives. SGTech is Singapore’s technology association representing over 1,000 member companies; with them he works on industry development, adoption of AI and HPC technologies, and Singapore’s position as a technology hub in the region.

Laurence was appointed by the Ministry of Education as a pro-bono Board Governor of the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in 2019. In this role, he provides strategic oversight and guidance to ITE, Singapore’s principal provider of vocational and technical education. He has championed AI education at ITE, including the integration of AI Singapore’s AI for Everyone (AI4E) programme into ITE’s curriculum, which has benefited thousands of students.