• SUTD CoLab, developed by SUTD with support from strategic partners AvePoint and MaivenPoint, is an “all can innovate with AI” space at the Lifelong Learning Institute, where participants learn new human skills to partner AI by building solutions, including physical AI, and taking promising prototypes towards real-world deployment.
• The initiative complements Singapore’s national push to help 10,000 enterprises adopt AI and 100,000 workers become AI proficient.

Confidence with AI is not something you pick up by reading about it. It’s built. Real value for enterprises comes from redesigning workflows and knowing where to apply AI and where not to – this is design innovation.

The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), with the support of strategic partners AvePoint and MaivenPoint, today launched SUTD CoLab, an “all can innovate with AI” space at the Lifelong Learning Institute, where working professionals, leaders, enterprises and community groups can learn the new human skills needed to partner AI by building solutions to real-world challenges. These skills include framing the right problem, knowing when to trust AI and when to question it, and using it responsibly. The emphasis is on workforce reskilling fit for a fast-changing technology landscape, not just on AI or solutions.

Supported by the Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA), SUTD CoLab is led by SUTD, in collaboration with industry partners AvePoint and MaivenPoint, to help individuals and enterprises build and apply practical AI capabilities. The initiative complements the National AI Impact Programme’s broader efforts to advance enterprise AI adoption and develop an AI-fluent workforce.

Officiating the launch was Guest of Honour Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information.

CoLab also supports inclusive learning for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, including through its partnership with SG Enable, to raise AI fluency and confidence across Singapore. As part of the launch, CoLab ran a pilot workshop with the Enabling Academy, where learners with disabilities used AI tools to build their own resumes, from drafting a personal profile to presenting their experience clearly.

CoLab goes beyond skills training and ideation. Under a Learn, Build, Deploy model, participants learn how AI can be applied to real challenges, build solutions that combine AI with their own domain expertise, and receive last-mile support from AvePoint and MaivenPoint to deploy prototypes and proofs of concept into enterprise systems and their day-to-day operations.

Underpinning CoLab is SUTD Design, the University’s method, proven over 17 years, for nurturing design innovators who can turn ideas into working prototypes. For the past two years, it has also trained innovators to partner AI through a “human-AI-human” pedagogy that sets out which tasks stay with people and which people and AI tackle together. Having worked with more than 2,800 C-suites and senior leaders through executive programmes, helped transform more than 90 small and medium-sized enterprises and trained over 1,200 professionals through initiatives such as the AI Impact Series, SUTD has shown that all can innovate.

CoLab brings this experience to its flagship three-day Design·AI prototyping workshop, delivered through SUTD Academy, the University’s continuing education arm. The workshop covers hands-on use of AI tools, problem-framing, building personal AI agents, rapid prototyping and planning for deployment. Participants spend the first day exploring AI use cases in their own fields, then two days tackling problems from their own work.

“Familiarity with AI alone will not prepare our workforce for the changes ahead. People need opportunities to apply what they learn, experiment and turn ideas into practical solutions. Our message is simple: build with AI, not only know AI,” said SUTD President Professor Phoon Kok Kwang. “CoLab’s success will be measured not by how many people learn about AI, but by how many are empowered to put it to meaningful use.”

Projects on display at the CoLab Exhibition include SUTD physical AI projects such as Dragonfly, an autonomous robot that attracts and traps mosquitoes, and Talk2Print, which uses AI to detect and correct 3D printing errors in real time. Yayasan MENDAKI is showcasing its community-focused MyKampung, a platform where residents can ask for or offer help to neighbours with everyday tasks such as buying groceries or collecting medicine. Certis Group has built six prototypes, among them one that pulls building management information onto one platform so staff can spot and fix problems faster, and another that automatically assigns each service request to the right staff member and keeps everyone updated until it is resolved.

AvePoint and MaivenPoint are also showcasing case studies from the Enterprise Compute Initiative, a short-term programme that supports Singapore-based companies in accelerating their AI adoption. One is EtonHouse International School’s AI-powered teaching-support platform, which analyses lesson recordings to help teachers reflect on their teaching practices, while providing school leaders with data-driven insights for coaching and professional development.

“AI fluency is no longer just an IT initiative; it belongs on every CEO’s operating agenda,” said Dr Tianyi Jiang, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AvePoint. “Buying software is simple; translating it into bottom-line performance requires people who understand the workflow and know how to transform it. Sustainable competitive advantage will belong to organisations that convert AI capabilities into daily operational efficiency, and SUTD CoLab provides the exact framework and environment to build that capability at scale.”