AI reshapes hiring strategies as employers in Singapore expand cross-border talent search

AI adoption is changing not just what work gets done at organisations in Singapore, but where the people doing it are based, according to new research from Remote.

Every respondent in Singapore in the organisation’s latest survey said AI adoption had altered where their organisation hires – the highest share of any market covered, and just above the 98% recorded globally. The findings draw on 250 organisations in Singapore, part of the 3,250 business and HR leaders across eight countries, including the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.

The clearest change is in hiring geography. More than half of respondents in Singapore (54%) said they had moved roles to new markets as a result of AI adoption, and 46% said they had expanded into new markets specifically to reach AI-skilled talent.

What sets Singapore apart, the research suggests, is that the shift looks less crisis-driven than elsewhere. Half of respondents in Singapore (50%) said their organisation had missed a key business goal in the past year because of a talent shortage – the lowest of any market surveyed, and well below the 72% global average. Remote reads this as a market preparing for future workforce needs rather than reacting to immediate pressure: 47% said they were stepping up local hiring, against 43% globally, while 39% had widened their search into other markets and 33% had expanded abroad to counter shortages.

Appetite for cross-border hiring is strong but constrained. Some 89% of respondents in Singapore said they would hire more internationally if it were as easy and low-risk as hiring at home, above the 79% recorded globally. At the same time, 80% said finding qualified talent locally had become harder than a year ago, and 79% said the same of international talent. Regulation is a recurring sticking point, with 82% agreeing that unclear or conflicting local rules make it harder to hire or employ people where they want.

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The trend looks set to continue. By the end of 2026, 28% of respondents in Singapore expect more than half of their new hires to be based outside their main country of operations, with a further 22% expecting international hires to account for 31% to 50%.

When they do look abroad, employers in Singapore are starting close to home. South-East Asia was the top target region for 2026, cited by 59%, ahead of South Asia and East Asia (28% each), the Middle East (20%), Europe (18%), North America (16%), Oceania (14%), Latin America (12%) and Africa (3%).

Eli Chuah, Senior Solutions Consultant for Asia-Pacific at Remote, said organisations were no longer only asking which tasks could be automated, but “where talent should be located, how teams should be structured, and what infrastructure they need to employ and pay people across borders.” The next phase of AI adoption, she added, would shift from productivity gains toward “workforce design.”